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[RedSwirl]

The story being told in Duke Nukem Forever is obviously absurd and the game is crap, but I honestly couldn't help but appreciate how DNF proceeds to tell its story and the lengths to which it goes to contextualize Duke himself.

DNF is a straight-up dumb shooter that's supposed to be light on story, but first half hour of the game is entirely devoted to establishing the setting with no gunplay at all. You're just walking through Duke's mansion, talking to fans, writing stuff, etc. Through this and another segment in the middle, the game actually tries to establish what Duke's life is like when he's not shooting aliens, and it does this entirely with interactive gameplay. Even little things like you being able to dynamically draw in on board and NPCs always responding positively to whatever you draw helps deepen the setting in its insanity.

I feel like if another game had done this with an actual well-written character in a setting that wasn't completely absurd, the result would be a much more grounded player character and a more grounded setting.

On a side note, structurally speaking, the 2001 trailer for DNF back when it was running on the Unreal 1 engine, is actually one of my favorite video game trailers. It looks like a legit action movie trailer with lots of nice cuts showing off the action, but is comprised entirely of in-game footage. I like the lengths it went to in order to show people the actual game.

 

[AxelLund]

I liked the gameplay the most. I dont get why it got so much hate.

 

[Harpuia]

Well...Papers, Please kinda contextualizes the main character as an unfortunate cog in the bureaucracy of his oppressive country. You actually handle paper work and can so choose to allow in people or not if you so desire. I guess you could say it allows you to define how loyal you are to your country, or if you're willing to put you and your family at risk to silently rebel.


EDIT: reading comprehension! I thought you were saying why no one else has done it. still, papers please is an EXCELLENT other example of contextualisation through game play.

 

[FluxWaveZ]

Never thought of it that way. I suppose the way it conveyed the character of Duke and the game's setting was alright, given what you said.

 

[How About No]

I like that they had Duke I and Duke II stuff in the Museum of Duke or whatever it was.

 

[shakin_haitian]

I liked the gameplay the most. I dont get why it got so much hate.

 

[TaroYamada]

I agree. The whole game is basically Half-Life with Freeman swapped out for Duke, and the NPCs act accordingly. It's actually pretty good satire of the way everybody pats your back at every opportunity in Half-Life. It's too bad about the shootbang aspects of it being so shit, and much of the humor being about 5-10 years out of date on release. Had it come out in 2004 and spawned a sequel or two since, it could have turned into a good franchise again.

I actually semi-liked some gameplay, I found enjoyment in running over pig cops with the monster truck but the fetch quests for gasoline were pretty rough. I also loved the shotgun, it was a good shotgun.

 

[AxelLund]

I didnt feel that way but ok.

 

[ThreePiMatt]

I always appreciate well-done non-combat moments in FPS games. Duke Nukem Forever certainly had its issues with the shooting mechanics and humor, but legitimately enjoyed wandering around playing with whatever interactive objects were in the world. Hell, I really enjoyed the level in the strip club.

Too many shooters trying to dial it up to 11 and keep it there. I like downtime, I like to have a change of pace once in a while. Contrary to the feelings of a lot of gamers, I welcome a platforming segment in an FPS (been playing Rise of the Triad and the people complaining about E2A2 are crazy, loved that level).

 

[BriareosGAF]

I agree. The whole game is basically Half-Life with Freeman swapped out for Duke, and the NPCs act accordingly. It's actually pretty good satire of the way everybody pats your back at every opportunity in Half-Life. It's too bad about the shootbang aspects of it being so shit, and much of the humor being about 5-10 years out of date on release. Had it come out in 2004 and spawned a sequel or two since, it could have turned into a good franchise again.

Given that George Broussard generally regards HL2 as the best-effort version of narrative exposition in first-person shooters, this isn't terribly surprising. I wonder how cheap you can find a copy of this these days digitally...

 

[Apocryphon]

The Duke Nukem Forever 2013 Mod for Duke 3D is what DNF should have been like.

 

[truestatic]

It was a good shotgun!

Was the expansion any good? I was hoping it would be DNF done right. Then I forgot it existed until I typed this post.

I 100%'d the base game and the expansion and I can honestly say that the only thing I remember about The Doctor Who Cloned Me was a sequence in which you

Spoiler

infiltrate a training facility filled with non-English speaking clones of yourself.

Pretty forgettable.

The last boss in the original, on the other hand, was absolutely outstanding.

 

[JaseC]

Was the expansion any good? I was hoping it would be DNF done right. Then I forgot it existed until I typed this post.

I didn't enjoy it as much as I did the main campaign due to the lack of enemy variety and visually-distinct locations, but it's not a long affair so I'd say it's worth smashing through. I was actually faintly disappointed when it became clear the game would see no further SP DLC as something less rushed and with more meat on its bones would have been welcomed by me.

 

[Fleshfeast]

You're right. Too many games these days use long, drawn out cutscenes to tell the story, or even bakstory of a character. Though I prefer to get little bits of info here an there, spread out enough that if you miss something it's not a big deal. This also keeps you from having long stretches of action bookended by long stretches of no action.


As for DNF as a whole. I actually played it straight through in only 2 sittings. I usually don't do that. I actually have trouble finishing games because I get distracted or bored. I played straight through DNF though. I still didn't care for the super linear levels, and I HATED the 2 weapon system, moreso than in other games that use it.

 

[HawksWinStanley]

You can throw a turd around. The game is underrated.

 

[PaulloDEC]

On a side note, structurally speaking, the 2001 trailer for DNF back when it was running on the Unreal 1 engine, is actually one of my favorite video game trailers. It looks like a legit action movie trailer with lots of nice cuts showing off the action, but is comprised entirely of in-game footage. I like the lengths it went to in order to show people the actual game.

One of the greatest videogame trailers of all time, if not THE greatest. The game they showed in that trailer looked like a game I'd still love to play today.

 

[Mupod]

Those 'non-game' parts were my favorite part of the game outside of maybe Duke Burger.

 

[Sanic]

Agree with OP, though a lot of games do things that are similar in concept to this (I guess maybe The Last of Us most recently),

 

[Card Boy]

Fixed

 

[Tajasaurus]

Yeah, I think to a certain degree you are right. It's just a shame they kind of didn't lean more into that absurdity. Going through and everyone saying 'Duke, you're the man!' and loving him would have been a cool set-up to Duke fucking up saving the world from the invasion and have a mirror version of those elements with everyone saying that Duke sucked, with Duke confusedly trying to retort with his same classic one liners.

I think there is still a great Duke game out there somewhere, I just hope we eventually get to see it.

 

[kaiju]

I thought the DNF devs redeemed themselves a bit with the DLC expansion, "The Doctor Who Cloned Me", which is easily 100x better than the original campaign of DNF. It also felt closer to an old school Duke Nukem experience, the levels are unique and interesting, and the multiplayer maps were pretty solid. It also sported some actual humor this time around...the kind that you actually laugh at. I'd say buy DNF for a buck and then just download the DLC and play that instead.

"The Doctor Who Cloned Me" Trailer
http://youtu.be/6pXnRdcrrCQ

 

[dimb]

Just because it's all done in game doesn't really stop it from being hyper linear. The player has no real agency other than moving around the world, which mostly just translates to choosing to skip past lame pictures on the wall. The beats themselves are still shoved down the player's throat with varying degrees of interactivity, be it button presses or crayon scribblings, neither of which have any impact on how things play out other than progressing the story.

The problem with this type of storytelling is that it doesn't truly integrate into the gameplay loop of the title. Even if players enjoy this sort of experience it is something ripped away from them that developers seem to have a difficult time reintegrating into the campaign past the introduction (i.e. Bioshock Infinite).

I also question the relevance of most introductions, particularly in the case of something like DNF. It's not a character driven story, so who cares about what his life is like when he isn't shooting aliens?

 

[ChronoX]

I liked the gameplay the most. I dont get why it got so much hate.

The game was fine for the most part. I enjoyed it. It gets a lot of hate because most people think it's not as good as Duke Nukem 3D or didn't live up to expectations.

 

[Aaron]

I thought the game was just garbage in every respect, including the shooting.

 

[Creaking]

I liked the gameplay the most. I dont get why it got so much hate.

Probably, as ChronoX said, because it was nowhere near as good as Duke Nukem 3D's gameplay (not to mention level design.)

 

[Coldsun]

I found the game to be quite enjoyable if you took it at face value. However, I would also think that the DLC was definitely much better paced and wish the same amount of polish could of been given to the main game as well.

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

Honestly, Duke isn't as bad as everyone made it out to be. I know it took 12 years or whatever, but I think it was a solid game.

 

[Marvel]

I would have enjoyed it a lot more if the aiming and shooting was better. My inner child found that game kinda fun.

 

[eXistor]

Duke Nukem Forever feels like they looked at Half Life 1 and decided to try the same. If the game was actually released back then, the reception would be much kinder, but it was vastly outdated when it did release.

 

[NotLiquid]

The set pieces were really interesting in DNF. I started off pretty bored and discouraged but I grew rather excited going through it, especially considering the sheer amount of variety and how well it's strung together (well, except for the strip club segment). The kind of game where it feels like you're stumbling and smashing through a bunch of crazy environments and lead up to a massive confrontation even though your starting location was a pretty grounded one is my favorite kind of progression.

 

[robin2]

One of the greatest videogame trailers of all time, if not THE greatest. The game they showed in that trailer looked like a game I'd still love to play today.

Yes that trailer was and is still phenomenal. Provided it wasn't scam, they should finish up that game and release it as DD budget title. Though with all the duke-3d realms (and gearbox too) vicissitudes I would still be wary before buying.

 

[Queen of Hunting]

it has one of the best shotguns in recent shooter games, and i genuinely enjoyed playing the game and have actually played through the game multiple times because it actually is enitrely different to every other shitty cod clone

 

[Fraeon]

I powered myself through DNF and it has little redeeming factors to it. It's actually pretty disgusting.

It's not just that it's like a generic FPS from 2005. It's more that even the developers seemed to have taken Duke Nukem seriously as a character and all the jokes just fall flat because of it.

 

[Dang0]

All the halflife games did well in providing context, without having to resort to cutscenes or taking control of the camera too much. Bioshock Infinite did this nicely too, setting up Columbia before the shooting starts.

 

[MEsoJD]

DNF really wasn't that bad.... Especially considering the game was in development hell.

 

[k_trout]

I liked the gameplay the most. I dont get why it got so much hate.

same here
it started a little slow but was entertaining overall
i actually finished it lol

 

[evilromero]

I enjoyed the hell out of this game.

 

[shakin_haitian]

I didnt feel that way but ok.

I wonder why. I'm not saying simple story games are bad games, but Duke Nukem wasn't suppose to a story heavy game.

 

[Kinyou]

Maybe it's just me but I never enjoyed collecting keycards

 

[GuardianE]

I played through the game and felt it was pretty mediocre. I appreciate what they tried to do in the intro parts, but it felt clumsy, like most things in the game, really.

Duke's one liner

Spoiler

while killing the twins

still bothers me.

 

[FLEABttn]

Maybe it's just me but I never enjoyed collecting keycards

It's not just you. I generally find that picture to be more of an overreaction to Call of Duty (specifically) than to be a real and actualized desire to go back to Doom and its clones. You don't have to go full circle to get back to a good single player FPS game and I think asking for finding keys in mazes isn't the most helpful way to go about it.

 

[Sedinus]

I 100%'d the base game and the expansion and I can honestly say that the only thing I remember about The Doctor Who Cloned Me was a sequence in which you

Spoiler

infiltrate a training facility filled with non-English speaking clones of yourself.

Pretty forgettable.

The expansion was infinitely better than the original game. You get a gun from the very start, aren't forced to sit through ~30 minutes of cutscenes, plus the environments are much more varied. Jesus, the DLC takes you to an underground military facility and the frickin' MOON.

The last boss in the original, on the other hand, was absolutely outstanding.

It was almost literally the same goddamn fight as in the opening level. I found it seriously disappointing.

 

[Creaking]

Jesus, the DLC takes you to an underground military facility and the frickin' MOON.

Duke Nukem 3D had a whole episode on the frickin' Moon. It was wonderful...

Fine, I'll go.

 

[JustinBB7]

I agree. The whole game is basically Half-Life with Freeman swapped out for Duke, and the NPCs act accordingly. It's actually pretty good satire of the way everybody pats your back at every opportunity in Half-Life. It's too bad about the shootbang aspects of it being so shit, and much of the humor being about 5-10 years out of date on release. Had it come out in 2004 and spawned a sequel or two since, it could have turned into a good franchise again.

It reminded me of half-life as well. I thought it was pretty decent game. Got way too much hate.

 

[joshcryer]

GAF was surprisingly neutral or positive on Duke Nukem. It was the overall review space at large that said it was shit. I think the reviewers decided the plebs would hate it so they hated on it, but those that actually played it felt it was medicore to an extent but also not terrible or unplayable or complete shit.

I do know I played through it once and haven't had any desire whatsoever to play it again. It's a once through and done type of game.

 

[clockpunk]

I loved (and still do - stuck it on again the other week, coincidently) Duke Nukem: Forever.

Yes, there were some things I wish had been done differently (non-automatic healing, use of the mighty boot as the melee attack, a greater use of Duke Vision, a little more time spent in different Vega locales, to name but a few), but on the whole, many things were done well. Specifically: the Ego raising mechanic, the downtime segments mentioned in the OP that really capitalise on Nukem himself, the weapon variety, and fantastic Unreal Torunament-esque multiplayer all made it stand out from other FPS titles, for me. Even the gradual unlocking of content for your personal Pad via levelling up in MP was done well - in what other game can you grab a beer, a doughnut, a cigar, and sit on a throne overlooking a (admittedly hazy) Las Vegas?

I just wish the latter of those (multiplayer) had been expanded a litte - more maps would have been greatly appreciated (hell, I always hoped we might see a remake of the Classic Duke Burger level).