Duke Nukem 3D

"Duke is back, and better than ever!"

= History =

If you've never played Duke Nukem 3d… What the crap? Stop reading right now and go download it. It may look like a cacky old FPS game that you have had to have played in the day to really appreciate it, but it's totally NOT. Its one of the better looking fps games of it's time. It's a blast to play, arguably better than the original Doom (hah!). It's full of secrets, tough badies, memorable levels and if that doesn't do it for you, the humour definitely will. It's a crowd pleasing package.

= Old game new? =

So onto the XBLA version. What's new? Well the first thing one might notice is the boarder art. GROSS. You can turn this off in the options thankfully so you don't have to put up with it. Instead of having to work out cheat codes or command line stuff, when you start a new game you can pick whatever episode (ALL four episodes!) and level you want from the get go, BUT you have to have got to that level through regular means first. So that means no warping to the final boss to get a quick achievement. In the options you've got your usual settings, controls, sound volume yadda yadda, but there's a few new visual effects. You can change the screen smoothness to get rid of the pixely look, or turn it off completely and go real retro. There's also a motion blur setting, which really distracts the hell out of me but is a nice touch. When you get in pain everything blurs like crazy. Nice touch though.

Now onto the gameplay. The levels have not changed one bit it seems, although I wasn't as addicted to duke as I was to Doom so I may have missed some slight changes. I'd forgotten how hard it was to navigate some of the levels, trying to find a door you've missed. The map is back but it doesn't seem to help at all when I get lost. It controls surprisingly well for an old game. They really put effort into looking around (it used to suck and autoaim had to save your ass). I'm terrible at FPS games using controllers but I can actually deal with Duke. Overall, gameplay is just as badass as it was in 1996.

Extra content includes the one reason I bought the game: Online play. You can finally have duke matches without going through HELL to set them up (PC version). Even today with it's updated ports, it's a nightmare to set up a dukematch game. On Xbox like all online games, it's as easy as heck. It has the “usual” joining options. Quick match, custom match or create match. Creating a game lets you choose game options and the like, custom match let's you join a game with your prefered settings and quick match just throws you into a random game. I only tried a few Duke Matches but they were lag free and jawsome. Now if only people would pick good maps to play on…

Another feature includes the oh so dreaded “rewind” feature, which isn't as bad as it sounds. When you die you have the option to “rewind” the game. The game records the WHOLE progress of the level so you can go back to whatever point you want and retry. The game automatically sets the bar back about a minute, which is handy if you want to rush back into action and take revenge. It's a bit like quick saving, but automatic. If you think “Eh this is getting too hard” you can rewind back a bit further and try to retain some health. It's not an amazing feature but it works and it can be handy. No complaints from me other than sometimes I get the controls mixed up for this little gadget.

Finally there's the achievements. The first four are pretty straight forward. Just complete each episode offline or online and there you go. Most of then are pretty simple actually. Tipping a dancer gets you 10g easily, and you can do that on level 2! You also get one for steppin in a turd, which I got lucky cause the first enforcer I fought crapped while I was avoiding him. Killing 40 enemies with the shrinker is easier than it looks, just hog the shrinker for a while and you'll get it before you leave episode 2. You get another one for beating the first level under three minutes which is cake. Try beating the 3d realms times though! The hardest non multiplayer one is probably “Oomph, Uugh, Where is it?” which requires you to find a total of 70 secrets in the entire game. Luckily in the options there's a menu that keeps track of the achievements you got, and how close you are to getting them. Finally there's 3 achievements for getting kills online. You get one for 100, 250 and 500 kills in total. Not too bad but it's probably the last ones you'll get unless you hate secret finding. Also there's a neat art gallery where you can view concept art. To unlock new pictures you have to get “G” which makes the achievements worth something. I like games that do that.

= What're you waitin' for, Christmas? =

As you can see Duke is still kicking ass to this day. I've enjoyed it more than the XBLA port of Doom so far. It's not exactly jam packed with new features but the online play alone makes it worth a purchase. If you haven't played Duke in a while now, or never got to try it online, now is the time to download it. For 800 points this a bargain, and an excellent game to add to your arcade collection.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/29/08

Game Release: Duke Nukem 3D (US, 09/24/08)