Retrospective: Duke Nukem 3D Comments by Will Porter

Such a great game. Such a shame (for never getting a sequel...)

Yeah it's a pity Duke Nukem Forever was never talked about eh?

Shake 'em Baby!

So. Do you guys know something we don't?

Is the plutonium pack part of the XBLA download?

'The freeze ray, meanwhile, to my fevered mind (and if you can think of a game that debunks this, debunk away) remains the only time that the freeze/smash grunt-murdering dynamic has ever been particularly fun.'

Painkiller says hi?

Damn, beaten to it. But yeah, Painkiller's freezegun/shotgun reigns supreme.

It's nice to see Duke's interactivity recognised in this day and age, given that most games don't bother as much. Sure you could argue there was not much point allowing the player to push pool balls around the table by pressing the spacebar, but it was a nice touch. The levels had so much variety with was great: a prison, a movie studio, duke burger, area 51, a theme park, sushi restaurant, etc. Might have to dig out duke and some of the other build engine games again (blood, shadow warrior, redneck rampage :) )

Still have an old Level editing guide in a drawer somewhere, with all its knowledge of sector effectors and function textures :)

"Stickybomb like you!"

Could you actually do something on Shadow Warrior? Because that was awesome.

Yeah it's a pity Duke Nukem Forever was never talked about eh?

*whispers* I think that was a pun *whispers*

Freezing a spider splicer inches away from your face and frantically hacking at it with your wrench so it shatters before it thaws and attacks you is pretty cool; probably influenced by DN3D to an extent.

Also anyone else who's played this recently think it's pretty damn hard at times? I often got lost because I missed something, or killed because a squad of pig-cops spawned right behind me. Still awesome, and I will always remember playing it for the first time.

Duke was a great game, but there was better, far superior and funnier game that used the same engine ( The build engine)
That game was BLOOD ( and it's two add on packs.)

You want creative weapons? A pitchfork, a flare gun ( that set enemies on fire and sent them screaming down the corridor) , The aerosol can/lighter combo. The most powerful shotgun in any game. The plasma Launcher whose secondary fire was as likely to bounce back and get you as it was a room full off baddies. The voodoo doll that let you stab people to death from a distance.

The baddies. Zombies that bumbled around murmuring "Brains". Or the insane Cabalists wrapped in monk robes who screamed craziness like " Mother musn't fear books" & " Bollox". The fat chef zombie with the puke attack.

Your " hero" Caleb...satans right hand man for centuries, only to be cast down by satan when he grew tired of him.

The classic one liners from every horror film ever released

The amazing level designs, and to cap it all, it's all loosely wrapped up in a semi cthulu mythos. BLOOD. It's mission packs and its sequel, Blood 2- The chosen. Still some of the finest PC retro gaming moments you could ever have.

And what about " Shadow Warrior" ? Who wants some wang ?......

'This may be leftie Guardian-reading Eurogamer'

Someone has ben watching too much Who Do You Think You Are? with David Tennant :P

Completely agree with the article though - good read.

DukeNukem 3D > The Guardian

BLOOD was great for a few reasons.

1) It had loads of references to horror movies, which brought a smile to the face.

2) The co-op multiplayer mode, versus the single player campagin, was fresh and new.

3) Ive never heard a game announce "ANAL JUSTICE" since.

An amusing, well written article, thanks.

The freeze ray, meanwhile, to my fevered mind (and if you can think of a game that debunks this, debunk away) remains the only time that the freeze/smash grunt-murdering dynamic has ever been particularly fun.

You should play Painkiller.

Hail to the King, Baby

Having to chose between blood and duke, I'd go for duke. It was funny and amusing, while blood, while quite good (mind you, I finished both duke and blood) was too much of a horror movie. And I'm not a horror movie fan. Hail to the king, babe! :)

You're an inspiration for birth control.

By the way, Duke Nukem Forever is the new Chinese Democracy.

(As in Guns N' Roses, not the slow and previously thought wholly incompatible fusion of Marxist Leninism and Western liberal democratic values. Need to make those punchlines snappier.)

I like Blood's humor better, but Duke is the better game. Although the one-liner battle between them would be a close one.

"Your face, your ass. What's the difference?"

I played this sucker again 1 year ago and it struck me as how good the gameplay still stands today. Actually putting some current gen shooters to shame. It's amazing how little the devs learned from Duke3D's huge success and why it was a success:
The multiple ways to complete area's, freedom of movement, destructible area's and parts, great maps, interactivity with objects, battling many different enemies simultaneously, lots and lots of hidden stuff, humor (gasp!?), many cool weapons and a lot of blood.

Seems 99% of all the games nowadays just picked up on the weapons and a lot of blood part..

Duke Nukem death match was great as well. Some great moments with trip bombs and the shrink-ray gun.

Blood was a great game, but no way was it better than Duke3D.

Awesome article.

'...I'm still man enough to stand here and admit that I find boobs rather fetching on a lady. If that lady is ensconced in alien slime and begging to be killed, then so be it - I will be a gentleman and kick her in the face until she's dead as requested.'

Found this hilarious.

Shadow warrior for me was te best build engine game. All the levels were inventive and imaginative unlike games like Duke were the levels slowly got worse. Also the weapons were great, the humour was genuinely funny and not stolen from every b-movie going and multiplayer was excellent.

Blood rocked epsecially over the LAN we set up at an old work place! I must try that game again.

DN3D is/was/will always be wicked love it to bits, although not really touched the 360 version I got for some reason, might give it some love tonight. Come get some....

This has inspired me to buy the 360 version. I just wish they'd release Build on 360, too... I made some cracking levels with that. Tried to get into Half-Life level editing, but just couldn't get the hand of three dimensions...

Incidentally, I think they've hit the nail on the head with the "real world" stuff. I reckon that's why the HL games are so good: they use real-world tropes/locations/aesthetics then add abject horror/zombies. Even the first one, though set in a research base, had canteens, toilets, offices, etc, that make it feel "real".

Used to enjoy playing this as a kid. Now, though, I can't stand it. Maybe I'm growing up to be quite a miserable bastard but I can't stand Duke's one-liners now. Can't stand him.

+1 to painkiller's freeze/shotgun combo. what a game. what a game.

duke 3d is good too. many a fond memory playing deathmatch on the american football pitch arena thing, jetpacking onto the blimp for maximum damage.

I used to own Shadow Warrior but never got anywhere with it.
I literally died repeatedly seconds after starting the first level in the boat.

Maybe there were cheat codes but this was in the days before the Internet, you know.

[weeps at his own lameness]