When you first boot up the demo for Duke Nukem Forever (which is now available for members of his elite First Access club, over at Gearbox’s website), you’re automatically thrown into the pit of nostalgia, with Duke piping up his line before the game eventually settles into its first stage. It then shows you standing in front of a urinal, holding down the right trigger to take a leak. No, we’re not kidding. From there, you’ll hit X to finish up and work your way into a briefing room, where soldiers are trying to figure out a strategy for a large, cybernetic behemoth. They basically argue amongst themselves before running out, where they meet their pending doom. It’s up to Duke to grab a Devastator, make his way to the stage, and teach this bastard some lessons. And this is just the first three minutes of the Duke Nukem Forever demo. Gearbox went all out to try and recapture the craziness of the Duke Nukem series, and with this game so far in limbo, it had become its own punchline. But now here it is, a mere week and a half from release (it’s set to arrive in the US on June 14), and we’ve got a taste of what to expect from the game.
Now, you’ll engage in the battle with this metallic ogre, which is almost exactly similar to how the original Duke Nukem 3-D ended, on a football field with lots of carnage. Once you do eventually bring him down (while keeping your life bar, dubbed Ego, in check), you’ll be able to kick his eyeball through the uprights, in pure football scoring fashion. And then… You scale back and realize that Duke was actually playing a video game called Duke Nukem Forever. Yes, a video game-in-video game joke. He’s actually gripping a controller while a pair of beautiful school girls are, erm, gripping something else. It’s then he pipes up how he’s been waiting for 12 years for his game to be good, and then it fades out. That’s not the end of the demo, though. That’s simply the beginning. From there, you’ll work your way into a canyon, where alien ships are flying overhead and plenty of those bastardous pig soldiers from the original game are making the rounds, with guns in hand. You’ll start off racing around in a monster truck, ripping through canyons, dodging incoming fire from ships and getting past builders that come rolling down the hills.
You’ll be able to use the B button to control your braking around tight turns, and hit the A button to get a turbo boost. (Just don’t hold it too long, though. You’ll blow your engine.) From there, Duke will have to go on foot (he runs out of gas), and here’s where the first-person shooting gameplay kicks in. He’ll have to work his way through the canyon, over a pig-infested bridge and eventually into a cave, where he’ll push mine carts and shoot little bug-like creatures before getting back to his ride. Now, the driving segment of Duke Nukem Forever is lots of fun, and almost reminded us of other great dirt racing games. Obviously, there’s an action factor here, and being able to run over smaller enemies is a plus (though there weren’t any to speak of in the demo). Power braking works just fine, but it’s too easy to go out of control with the turbo boost – especially with a space marauder riding on your ass. As for the first-person shooting gameplay, it’s adequate. Not to say it’s a disappointment, but the handling just seems a very slight bit off. Maybe it’s the fact that the auto-aim has a “will it or won’t it” kind of mentality, especially with the powerful railgun.
This feature preview concludes on the next page, please click Page 2 below to see our final impressions of the Duke Nukem Forever demo.
