3. No Explaining To Younger Gamers: It’s amazing how having to explain a cultural icon from your youth to someone a mere decade younger can make you feel the weight of every year on your shoulders. Duke Nukem’s original adventure dates back to 1991, the days of ripped-up jeans and shareware games. Since then he’s had three more outings, with most of his ‘games’ after that being ports of Duke Nukem 3d. So for most of the kids out there he’s a relic of the past, a muscle-bound hieroglyph whose origins and nature are puzzling.
2. He’s Not That Great A Character: Let’s face it, Duke Nukem is a dinosaur, a leftover relic from the days when good writing was only for puzzle games and some RPGs. These days there are far more compelling heroes with real stories behind them. It’s easy to see the influence of Duke Nukem in characters like Nathan Drake and Master Chief, but Duke was simply a cardboard cut-out action hero stereotype, all one liners, biceps and sunglasses. Most action games are striving to make players connect in some manner with their hero/antihero by establishing more motivations than simple desire to kick ass and chew gum. Good gameplay is still the most crucial element of a quality shooter, but nowadays we want a story with our action. Maybe just a side order, but it’s still necessary.
1. No Waiting For The Sequel: Let’s face it, had this game made it onto the shelves it’d likely have moved enough copies to warrant a sequel. But how long would that take? Development for DNF started before the year two thousand and it took more than ten years before they gave up. Given that as a general matter of course game development is taking longer and longer as more features and better graphics become standard it’s impossible to guess how long it’d be before a second chapter in the post-millennial adventures of Duke Nukem came to fruition.
