When I excitedly rented this way back in the day, I expected another awesome Duke Nukem entry. Instead, I was left disappointed with an inferior sequel to Time to Kill. In fact, I consider this a harbinger of the titular heroes' downfall in Duke Nukem Forever.
Duke travels ten years into the future to a post-apocalyptic world where aliens have conquered Earth, exterminated all the men, and enslaved the women. Now, with help from the Unified Babe Resistance, Duke must liberate the enslaved women, defeat the alien scum led by a Pig Cop/Gorilla hybrid named Silverback, and help with repopulating planet Earth.
The game follows the same third-person shooter formula as Time to Kill. The setting and level designs felt more simple this time around. While there is time-travel involved, it's very mild compared to the previous titles. You only travel to the future, but not the past. No Wild West, Ancient Rome, or Victorian England arcs here, nor any time matching weaponry, so the game feels dull and unoriginal.
You'll travel across 14 different levels and engage in typical Duke Nukem activities: exploring, killing aliens, rescuing babes, and solving puzzles. The arsenal here is huge, including his gold-plated Desert Eagle, combat shotgun, gatling laser, twin shoulder-mounted rocket launcher, shrink gun, you name it. You'll utilize classic gadgets, such as night vision goggles, a jetpack, a first aid kit, etc. The enemies you encounter are a mixed bag of new and original, such as Pig Cops, Rat men, space Gorillas, and others.
The graphics were only mildly upgraded from Time to Kill. The character and enemy models were grainy looking and cheaply textured, including Duke himself and the framerate was clunky at times. The controls were rigid and poorly suited for the large amount of jumping and platforming you have to do throughout the game, and the swimming sections were the worst.
Combat was generally enjoyable, given the sheer amount of weaponry at your disposal. Enemy AI was simple and since Duke has auto-aim, they're fairly easy to kill. The bosses were tougher though.
The sound effects (enemies, weapons, etc) were good but didn't seem much improved from those from the previous games. In fact, some were simply recycled from Time To Kill. The music even stops for in-game voice clips to play clearly.
At least Jon St. John continues giving a solid performance as Duke Nukem, even if his sense of humor is childish or outdated by modern standards. In fact, the dialogue and voice acting are the most enjoyable parts of the game.
Despite its drawbacks, this was still a playable game for Duke Nukem fans and definitely better than Forever.
