Neuromancer said:
Ordinarily I'd agree with you but I think this game is it's own special case. Quite frankly people should just be amazed it ever came out at all.
I don't think that gives it a free pass though. You either factor in it's long, troubled development cycle, the outcome of which is a bad game and a not a good successor to the Duke legacy and you give it a low score OR you review it as it's own game, distancing yourself from the legacy and hype, in which case it's a bad game at a full price point sharing shelf space with other games that are more worthy of your cash.
My point is, how people approach the review doesn't matter. If they think it's bad, they think it's bad. Had I been reviewing it having completed the PC version, I'd give it a solid 4. I imagine the 3 and 2 scores are probably for console, which seems about right from what I've heard.
I believe the divide with this game will stem from what people liked about Duke3D. I liked the gameplay and that's all but gone in Forever. What that leaves is the Duke character which hasn't changed from Duke3D, except now there's more pointless vulgarity in an attempt to bridge the 15 year gap, or at least that's my guess.The humour is lame to me now, so both aspects of the game fell flat. It's a long, dull and boring shooter that doesn't play all that well and with little inspiration anywhere.
However, I have no doubt that Duke being Duke is enough for some people. In that case, have a blast and enjoy. Just don't bash the reviews or people hating. We have solid reason for doing so.