Have you been hearing all the reviews for Duke Nukem Forever? I have. Everyone's giving it mediocre to bad reviews. In some senses, this isn't a bad thing: they're not praising it unduly just because it's the Duke. But by the same token, some of the explanations for why people are disgusted with Duke Nukem Forever truly flabbergast me. Its as if some people forgot what it was that made us love Duke Nukem in the first place...and as if many others expected them to change Duke for when he reappeared.
To get back to the title's point, it is very popular to hate Duke Nukem Forever right now. Is this undeserved? I'm going to go with yes and no. For the most part, Duke Nukem Forever is a mediocre shooter at best. There are some parts that make the game extremely fun, and others that just try your patience. It looks fantastic, but there are points in the game where this fantasticness fades to bad textures and pop-in. It has all the signs of a rushed game, but for what it is it's good in that regard. The problem comes with the fact that the game suffers from some truly bad and mind-boggling design decisions. The one that gets brought up the most is the fact that Duke can only carry two weapons, instead of his previous arsenal of something akin to ten. This isn't even a console limitation: this is a design limitation, and while I personally didn't mind it too much, it is a sticking point for a lot of people.
The major "problem" of the game is the one that draws the most hate: Duke himself. I've seen the comments on youtube or Blip.TV: "this isn't a true Duke game!" Well, I have to disagree. Everything about Duke Nukem is done right. Jon St. John returns to be the Duke himself, and still gets right into the roll. Every line is delivered as convincingly as possible, while still maintaining that "I could care less" attitude. But people complain and scream with rage against things like the alien-infested naked women, or the cheap toilet humor, lame gags and sex jokes. My question is: what's wrong with these people? These are the same people claiming it's not a Duke Nukem game, yet they're screaming and raging about all the things that make the game a Duke Nukem game.
I could go on for a million years about all the points in favor and against Duke Nukem Forever, but I feel it necessary to limit it to this: it is popular to hate Duke Nukem Forever because of what Duke Nukem Forever is. It is "the game that would never be". 15 years of development time meant that DNF could never hope to be what everyone expected. We got what we got: a game that tried to be a new Duke Nukem 3D. For people like me, that's enough: I wouldn't recommend spending $50 on it, but I still think it's a game you should check out if Duke Nukem 3D made you happy inside. Everyone will hate this game whether it is exactly what you wanted out of a Duke game or not. They will hate it because it's not Duke Nukem 3D, they will hate it because it's not a perfect follow-up to 3D. They will hate it because that's all they know how to do. They hate it because it let them down.
But it's still a Duke game. If you don't believe me, just check out the wall-tits.
"My question is: what's wrong with these people? These are the same people claiming it's not a Duke Nukem game, yet they're screaming and raging about all the things that make the game a Duke Nukem game."
ReplyDeleteA baffling question indeed. People in this country won't say a damn thing when someone is getting decapitated, maimed, stabbed, etc. in a video game, but as soon as some poop jokes or nudity is thrown in there, suddenly everyone turns into a PC thug.
It's like everyone is somehow a descendant of a test tube baby grown from the DNA of a hyper-liberal and ultra-conservative that combines all of their worst, most hypocritical qualities into one pretentious package. Violence: okay; sex and poop: not okay. Don't you just love mainstream American society?