A lot of people are going to hate this, whether it be the angry protective parents who mistakenly bought it for their ten years old son, or the huge following of first person shooters like Medal of Honour, who reckon the PC is for serious games and home for serious gamers. Now forget anything any "Mature" gamer tells you about this game and go ahead and try it. Don’t try to be put off by its 2D-ness

Many of you may remember back in the good old days of gaming, back when 3D Realms were Apogee, Duke was a 2D platformer and not a single teenaged mind was corrupted by a violent computer game. Well you better have a pretty good memory, and you better like Duke Nukem because without them you may not enjoy this game as much as the developers would have liked.
Once again Duke has to save the world from the scum of the universe (this time mutant farm animals and kung fu cats), but this time the threat is GLOPP, a strange green snot-like chemical that mutates anything it touches (besides Duke himself) into a bigger more powerful version of it’s former self. "I go where I please, and I please where I go!"

Okay so the first few levels may be a bit boring, nothing but running and shooting hundreds of similar (very similar) looking mutant pig cops on the rooftops of skyscrapers in New York. The levels do become more exciting and they keep the feeling of both Duke 3D and it’s predecessors, which is nice. The levels don’t really make good use of Manhattan landmarks, but they do remind you of the place, and the levels are rendered well.
The graphics could have done with a little tweaking, the character models seem a little too chunky, but the animation is great and the way the characters are reminiscent of a Saturday morning cartoon, right down to the way the pig cops fall to the ground after being shot. The levels themselves are nicely done and highly detailed and the lighting effects are good, but not what anyone could call stunning. The graphics are still very slick, though.

The game is presented well, the menu is easy enough to use and is very much like the ones found in old Apogee games like Wolfentstein 3D, and in later games like Doom. Also at the end of each level you are given a score screen, counting your percentage of secrets and your amount of kills, just like the classic shareware games. The intro music isn’t too great, just a sort of remix of the Duke Nukem 3D intro music. When you start a new game you are treated to a stylish cut scene of Duke saving the mayor from two pig cops before running away to fight more of the fiends.

The sound is quite nice. Almost every time you pick up an object a humorous one liner follows it from Duke himself. Unfortunately everything else is noticeably bland with the music just being sub-par midi and the gunshots and explosions just being the same old stuff that you have heard in almost every other game.

Overall Duke Nukem is a well-rounded game, it isn’t too long, it is easy to just pick up and play and the graphics help to even out the fact that it isn’t technically brilliant in any way. Possibly one of the best games of the summer, but if you are the sort of gamer who thinks all PC games should be serious you should probably avoid.

Gameplay

Graphics

Sound

Overall