Duke Nukem Forever is one of the gaming industry’s biggest elephants in the room. Stuck in development for over 12 years, it’s been a long and bumpy road for Duke. But an event at a Las Vegas strip club, hosted by 2K Games and developer Gearbox, made us gaming journalists finally come to terms with the fact that Duke Nukem Forever will finally see release in a few short months. This realization happened somewhere between actually touching the game and seeing Gearbox President, Randy Pitchford, grind up and down on a stripper pole (some things you just can’t unsee).
I have to hand it to Gearbox for not letting this dinosaur of a game fade away. Duke Nukem Forever could have very easily disappeared after original developer 3D Realms was downsized in May 2009. But Gearbox took the project in as their baby, aiming to finish development and deliver a product that honored the Duke Nukem name, not only for 3D Realms, but also for the fans that have been patient with this title.
Maybe that’s the best way to approach Duke Nukem Forever: it’s a game made for the established fans – carrying over the same sense of humor and gameplay that was the series’ greatest draw back in the 1990s like a badge of honor. At least, that’s the impression I get after playing a 90-minute build of the title at this Las Vegas event. Duke Nukem Forever feels like the relic it is.
So we’ve got this far into this hands-on and I haven’t even touched on the gameplay of Duke Nukem Forever. Maybe I’ve been afraid to bring it up. To put it bluntly, Duke Nukem Forever plays like a game that started its development in 1997. It’s a very straightforward first-person shooter. Enemies drop down from dropships, or bust through doors, and you circle strafe around them while shooting until they’re dead. No cover. No gimmicks. Duke Nukem Forever is very much in the same vain as classic FPS titles like Quake, Doom, and yes, even Duke Nukem.
However, Duke Nukem Forever suffers from some rough framerate issues (at least in the build I played), rendering combat almost unplayable at parts. If more than three enemies popped up on the screen at the same time the framerate would take a massive dive — making it not only hard to target enemies and move, but also to look at the screen because of the excessive tearing and stuttering. Granted, Gearbox still has roughly three months till Duke Nukem Forever ships, so there’s a good chance this issue will be ironed out by launch. But if not, this framerate issue could be what finally kills Duke Nukem.
