PAX 2010 Hands-On: Duke Nukem Forever
by Nick Simberg on 05 September 2010, 3,444 views
The king is back, maybe?
After a dozen years in development limbo (including a declaration of bankruptcy by developer 3D Realms) with nothing more than the occasional screenshot “leak,” it was widely assumed that Duke Nukem Forever was the example to use in any vaporware discussion. Today at PAX 2010, Gearbox shattered everything I knew in my heart to be true by not only announcing that Duke was alive and well, but that we’d be able to play it. Was it worth the wait? Well...
Around the time that 3D Realms was declaring bankruptcy, Gearbox was just finishing up work on Borderlands. There was nothing else on Gearbox’s plate, so they found themselves in the unique position of being able to save Duke Nukem Forever. They decided to hire the entire laid-off staff from the disbanded studio and told them, “No more messing around; let’s get this game done.”
To bring it back, they knew they’d have to do something big. No more fake gameplay videos popping up on YouTube, and no more screenshots as a reward for achieving all 200 achievement points on an XBLA Duke Nukem 3D remake. At PAX 2010, you could wait in line for upwards of five hours to see a brand new trailer and try the game for yourself. One thing’s for sure: Duke is still about three things: girls, guns, and girls. He really likes girls.
After so many years in development, including a publisher switch, the game needs to impress. So far, however... it hasn't grabbed me like I wish it would've. In the first room in the Gearbox booth, we got to see a brand-new, PAX-exclusive trailer (they wouldn't let us take any pictures, but I'm sure it'll hit the web within the next few days). Duke fragged, Duke swore, Duke hit the strip club, and Duke peed an inordinate amount. I bet the developers are pretty excited that, after more than a decade since the last real Duke title, they finally get to drop F-bombs and show nipples in an M-rated game. You couldn't do that back in 1996, you know. Duke's humor hasn't really evolved much in the past decade; he's still a thirty-year-old boy that enjoys typical "guy things" like strip clubs, blowjobs, and explosions.
The high point of the trailer was definitely a 50-foot high alien babe with three boobs. Well, that, or the multiple nut-punch to bring down a twelve-foot alien beast, accompanied by Duke taunting, "Yeahhh, right in the jewels." Besides that, there was plenty of swearing and explosions in typical Duke flavor (and he's still got that terrific Jon St. John voice!). Nothing unexpected, however, besides the simple fact that Duke Nukem Forever was actually playing before my eyes. The biggest game franchise resurrection of all time isn't enough to keep a game fresh, however.
After the trailer, we were led into the next room, where I had a chance to play a PAX-exclusive demo for myself. We were informed that we were the first people outside of the development team to get to try this game anywhere; it was quite an honor. There was a short boss fight against a giant alien that looked like this (pardon the off-screen images; Gearbox hasn't released any screenshots or videos of the game):
It alternated between firing rockets at me at boosting toward me; both could be avoided by simply strafing. He reminded me a lot of the final boss of Serious Sam: The First Encounter. I came equipped with a rocket launcher that somehow held 69 rockets. Nonetheless, it had to be refilled about four times by passing helicopters dropping ammo. Both my lifebar (the "Ego" bar) and the alien's was in the top left, so I could see how far he was from death. When he finally fell, defeated, after a near-continuous rocket barrage, his eyeball rolled out onto the ground. I hit "X" and kicked a field goal a la God of War; I hadn't noticed before that moment that I was battling in a giant football stadium. It was actually a pretty rewarding finale.
Next level: I'm running through a canyon, sniping pig guards from across the map (no cop costumes on these ones, though). The guns are pretty standard: shotgun, sniper rifle, pistol, shrink ray. Headshots hit harder - don't forget! You're also rewarded with some beautifully explosive violence:
It controls well and looks pretty enough, but after seeing Rage yesterday, I felt kind of... unimpressed. I kept looking for something that I haven't seen in another game, and was left wanting. If Forever had released ten years ago, it'd be a game of the year contender, for sure. However, since 3D Realms first announced the game in the late 1990's, the entire Halo series has come out. Two BioShock games. Half-Life 2. The humor seems to be the only thing setting Duke apart from the contenders in the FPS genre, and if you're not in the thirteen-year-old boy demographic, it might strike you as a bit... juvenile.
Last level: third-person driving. Let's get one thing straight: running over a pig-faced enemy and launching him into the air over your hood is incredibly satisfying. I haven't had this much fun aiming for living creatures with my car since Grand Theft Auto III. But then I run out of gas, and it was back to the on-foot shooting sections. It feels like a sci-fi Far Cry 2, and the brown mountains I'm traipsing through don't help; it looks like one, too.
Gearbox said at their panel today that Duke Nukem Forever is in its final polishing stages and prepping for a 2011 release, so it is unlikely that there will be any major changes before the game launches. Maybe I don't "get it." Maybe I'm jaded. Maybe the rest of the game will blow me away. It's possible. But if what I played is the best that twelve years of development can deliver... Duke may have been better off left as vaporware.
Still, "Always bet on Duke." Please, Gearbox, I'm begging you: prove me wrong. Everyone wants this game to succeed. Personality isn't enough to keep the world enchanted, however. There has to be something to set this game apart from the million other FPS games besides a few dirty jokes.
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