Duke Nukem Forever

Duke Nukem Forever is an interesting specimen...
For those of you familiar with the infamous backstory surrounding this game, I'll give it to you quick: Yes, it failed miserably to live up to the hype. No, it's not really any more than an average or even mediocre shooter from the late 00s/early 10s era. But, taken on its own merits, as a Duke Nukem game for Duke Nukem fans, it's still quite an enjoyable experience, for the one-liners and jokes alone. Keep your expectations for groundbreaking combat or level design low, take it for what it is, and you can definitely have some fun with Duke.
Now, if you're wondering exactly what expectations you should be having, I'll clue you in. Duke Nukem began as a 2D sidescrolling platformer in the days of DOS, but the titular Schwarzeneggar/Stallone/McBain action hero truly came into the limelight with 3D Realms' Duke Nukem 3D, a first-person shooter in the style of Doom. Duke3D however, was several steps above Doom in many respects: you could jump, crouch, have levels with floors on top of floors (or below); the levels were known for better resembling real places and were awesome to explore; and Duke had a personality, spouting humorous one-liners in combat and getting all the hot babes to "Shake it, Baby!"
But you probably already know all of that. Well, Duke Nukem Forever would have been Duke 3D's successor. An FPS game in the same league of Half-Life. The first iteration, displayed at E3 1998, showcased early concept gameplay in the Quake II engine. It looked phenomenal. However, soon after, Unreal came out, blowing everyone away with its new engine. So, the team at 3D Realms decided to scrap their current work, and start all over, using the Unreal Engine. From roughly 1999 through 2001, they created a new and improved version of Duke Forever, which was 80-90% complete, depending on the source you ask. This version would have rivaled Deus Ex, with RPG elements allowing you to do different quests, and a more grounded, immersive storyline. This is the version famously showcased at E3 2001.
Unfortunately, just as the 2001 build neared completion, the lead dev caught his eye on the technology powering Doom 3, and he wanted to add specular lighting and bumpmapping. This however would require yet again redoing the entire game from scratch once more. Unfortunately, the Doom 3-style Duke Forever would not be the last either, as the devs redid the game one more time, around 2006 or so. Eventually all of this development with no end product in sight simply burned through 3D Realm's financial assets, and the publishers wanted their money back. 3D Realms were forced to sell the rights to Duke Nukem to Gearbox, who simply finished up the 2006 version as it was, and finally released it in 2011. After spending over a decade chasing the latest advancements in technology, Duke Nukem Forever ultimately released as a dated product, with the various years of work showing their age.
It is that final version that got released and which I am reviewing today.
In many ways, the game is actually inferior to the original Duke 3D, with linear levels, a regenerating health system akin to Halo, and a 2 gun limit (which can be changed to 4 gun limit on PC). Whereas hitting up a strip club or playing virtual pool inside of the game engine was revolutionary in 1996, these same ideas redone 15 years later can feel like bad attempts at fan service at times. The game also has a few of those boring turret sequences that are never fun, and annoying Boss battles where you will probably die a lot.
Now, despite the fact that it's not a great shooter nor lives up to the vision of the earlier builds, it is still a fun game! You visit a lot of really cool areas, from a Wild West Ghost Town, ripped from a 60s Spaghetti Western, to traversing an alien tentacle-infested Hoover Dam, to a Las Vegas casino, a Late Night talk show, and more. Duke has more personality in this one than in Duke 3D, since the team gave voice actor John St. John more freedom in how he delivered the lines. The one-liners and jokes are really funny and creative, and you'll be snickering away like Beavis and Butthead at the delightfully sophomoric humor.
The game also has quite a fair bit of puzzles while traversing the levels, and these are a welcome addition to the gameplay, since the shooter combat is adequate but little more. Often you'll be shrunk down to mini-size "I'm not a toy, kid! I'm an action figure!" in order to find a way around, and these create some interesting levels to go through.
Ultimately, I enjoyed Duke Nukem Forever. For an experience much closer to the original project, I highly recommend trying the Duke Nukem Forever 2013 mod for Duke 3D. But the official Gearbox version here on Steam is definitely worth a play for any Duke Nukem fan, regardless; just remember to temper your expectations going in.

You can piss in this game

If youre looking for a game so bad that its hilarious.... Right here

After 10 years I came back to this game to slap some juicy alien titties once again.
I actually enjoyed Duke Nukem Forever back in 2011, and I still think it's hilarious and a decent game overall. Of course it couldn't live up to the expectations, but I learned it a long time ago not to sit on the hype trains so I had realistic expectations and wasn't disappointed at all.
It has the classic Duke Nukem feel to it, and I'm still waiting for a new DN game since it has been released. :D

My Balls, Your Face.
-Duke Nukem

AVERAGE DUKE NUKEM ENJOYER
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Is this game bad? it is. For sure. The gameplay is poorly done. But I mean. It's Duke Nukem at his finest. I haven't ever laughed so much playing a videogame. 11/10