I really don't think that people are trashing on it because expectations were high; if anything expectations were low after the previews were revealed. Gearbox didn't exactly pump the hype machine either, running a very low-key advertising campaign that never explicitly stated that the game was, well, really any good.
Complaints about the poor level design, bad graphics, AI interactions, and so on are pretty legitimate. If the man on the cover was called anything but "Duke" this would be a bargain bin game.
No, because I look at comments and other reviews and it shows that this game has high expectations. Yahztee said that if it wasn't the single greatest contribution to mankind, he and other reviewers are going to saw its bollocks off. It's tongue in cheek, but the other comments show that people were expecting a "perfect" game. The advertising campaign was big. Are you kidding me? I saw ads on every single website, and saw promotional posters in every gaming store. The only thing lacking was a TV spot. The advertisements were big, and people were allowed to play it several times before release.
Level design YMMV. I liked 'em. It was fun exploring them. Bad graphics is legit, although it is a 2008 engine. AI doesn't seem to be much different from other games, although the nature of the enemies means a lot of 'em will rush at you. This is not a bargin bin game by any means. Even if it didn't have Duke, it would STILL be a good game. After all, in a world where everything in FP Ss are Serious Business, it's nice to have a game that doesn't take itself 100% seriously. So, YMMV. What you consider bad I consider good.
Playing Duke Nukem Forever is pretty much like playing as Brick in Borderlands, except with much poorer controls. Controlling Duke feels clunky, and the melee is really broken. It's fine when Duke is unarmed and you use his fists, but a melee attack with a weapon equipped is slow and has poor range.
I thought the graphics were shitty and I don't even care that much about graphics. Plus the humor was hit or miss. There were some fairly funny moments, but others were facepalm-worthy. I mean, I'm fighting some aliens pigs, and then one of those twins says "Oh, he is even better than Chuck Norris!" Seriously? Chuck Norris jokes? That stopped being funny ages ago, and the delivery only made it worse.
Plus Duke jumps almost as bad as Jack from Bio Shock, but Jack has an excuse because Bio Shock is supposed to be fairly realistic, and you can only carry two weapons at once, which feels totally out of place in Duke Nukem, but it doesn't even matter that much because that aren't even that many weapons to begin with, which is also complete bullshit.
I actually had more fun playing disk hockey than killing aliens. Speaking of the mini-games, they feel completely tacked on, and don't even mesh well with the gameplay. The game is split in two sections: kill aliens on very linear level, and then play mini-games to boost your Ego bar. Why can't you gain bonuses by completing combat objectives rather than by playing idiotic mini-games?
I respect your decision to like the game, but I disagree with you when you say that the reason people dislike it is because of extremely high expectations.
People just don't like the game because it's a piece of shit.
How are the controls clunky? I controlled the game just fine, and I have the Xbox 360 version (which seems to be getting all the hate even from people who like the game. I read the forums.)
There are still people who make Chuck Norris jokes. Besides, this game was in development for years, and things were added in along the way. There was a joke about Christian Bale, and that was a while ago as well. Didn't stop that from being funny. The graphics aren't shitty. Looks decent. It's not Crysis, but I thought it looked better than Black Ops.
There are more weapons in this game than in Duke Nukem 3D. The two gun limit is one of the "modern" aspects of this game. The jump isn't any lower than it was in Duke Nukem 3D. The jump height is the exact same as other shooters, including shooters from years ago that don't take itself very seriously.
How are the mini games tacked on? They existed as part of the environment in the previous game, and then were expanded upon here. The mini games were more tacked on in Doom 3, but nobody complained about those. The mini games helped increase the gameplay value because they were fun by themselves. The levels are linear, but it was still explorable. The linearity of the levels is very YMMV. The professional reviewers were complaining about how they couldn't find their way around the levels. Combat objectives is pretty much the whole game. You'd get too many bonuses for completing combat objectives (Besides, defeating bosses get you a bonus). The way the boosts work in game forces you to explore the environment looking for things to do, like pissing in a toilet, admiring yourself, playing a mini game etc.
It is high expectations. You may not have had a high expectation, but most of the hate stems from the fact that it is a long development cycle, and they wanted perfection. If it was released with a normal schedule with normal hype, there wouldn't be this Hype Backlash.
It's your opinion that it's a piece of shit. It doesn't make it fact. You can be part of the too-good-to-give-into-the-hype crowd and declare it crap. While you sit there complaining about games you don't like, I'll be playing Duke and having a blast.
The only reason that there are still people who make Chuck Norris jokes is because they haven't been culled yet.
Then a lot of people haven't been culled. I still encounter Chuck Norris jokes to this day on virtually every video on You Tube. Face it, Chuck Norris is here to stay. ;)
And just because Chuck Norris jokes exist doesn't mean they're funny. Chuck Norris jokes are only funny if they're original, or if you've never heard one before. In Duke Nukem, it was a reference. That's it. It's not funny if you've heard of Chuck Norris's memetic badassery (because it's unbelievably unoriginal), and it's not funny if you haven't (because you won't get it).
Come to think of it, a lot of Duke Nukem Forever's humor had this problem.
How come when I saw the amount of comments, I saw this stupid back-and-forth "Nuh uh! Yeah huh!" coming?
Barring that stupidity, I'm pretty sure only some of Duke's hate does come from expectations. I myself played it without ever caring for the hype, and I found myself completely bored with the game. Nothing really stood out to me, and I gave this game a lot of chances to do that. There is plenty of criticism out there, but saying it's all invalid because some people believe it's tainted by it's own hype is pretty ignorant.
The humor is like South Park? I never remember South Park having a level where several naked women are graphically raped by aliens and the protagonist cracks jokes about it. Or an episode where they randomly shouted out "Chuck Norris!". Or an episode where they just basically showed the Christian Bale freakout. That's not South Park; that's Seltzer and Friedberg.
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Damn, my review seems pretty controversial, doesn't it...
@GIG yes, there are legit criticisms. I'm not saying any of them is invalid. But the thing is, I didn't find many of the problems that other tropers were complaining about except the graphics, which I was actually expecting. Hence I use YMMV a lot, because clearly, my mileage varied a LOT with others.
@CPF Mfan and what? South Park didn't have any crude humor? There are stuff worse than naked women getting raped by aliens, and South Park still manages to make it funny. And South Park never takes a while episode to make fun of anything. Even episodes that have the thing they're parodying in the title still has other things as well. Seltzer and Friedberg just added a bunch of jokes that make no sense whatsoever in a movie that has no plot. Duke Nukem Forever isn't that.
Still, I'm surprised my review managed to gather this many comments. Is it so surprising that I actually liked this game and you guys have to point that out and say how I'm wrong?
EDIT: Just went onto VG Chartz and apparently Duke Nukem Forever seems to be rather Critic Proof. It's selling quite well despite the gaming press (and users) screaming about how much it sucks. Of course, that could mean many things.
<MOD HAT> Review feedback is not intended to replace the forums. Take the extended discussion there. And keep it civil: posting feedback to take a shot at other reviewers isn't gonna fly. </HAT>
@Reviewer: Dude, you are the most level-headed gamer on this site. I agree with your review wholeheartedly. Except maybe the graphics, which I found pretty neat. But then again, I am hardly one of the enlightened power gamers whose lifelong mission is overclocking their GP Us until they burn up... so who am I to return a verdict? :D
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A Great Game Destroyed by Impossible Expectations
I'll start my review by saying that I loved this game (unlike some of the other people on This Very Wiki and other gaming sites). The game itself doesn't deserve the hate that it's getting. Sure, it's not perfect, but that doesn't mean it's bad. However, it's due to the fact that it's not perfect that it's getting all these reviews. Most people seem to be thinking that the developers were working on the game for 14 straight years. They ended up thinking that 3D Realms/Gearbox MUST'VE been adding a ton of incredible things to make this absolutely perfect. But that's not the case. It was NOT being worked on for 14 straight years. The developement took so long because Executive Meddling kept getting the game scrapped over and over again. Duke Nukem Forever has gone through several graphic engines, numerous rewrites, and was canceled and Un Canceled several times. This means that the final build of the game has only been worked on for a few years.
If you pretended this game had a development schedule of only a few years, it's certainly a very good game. The trademark humor and political incorrectness is there (Hell, even more so than Duke Nukem 3D). Sure, many will find it offensive, but that's like saying South Park is offensive. The game is also very interactive. There are working pinball machines, working pool tables, working air hockey tables, working white boards etc. These little interactive bits help make the game much more immersive and fun. The game's campaign is also long. I probably took about 18 hours to beat it the first time through, although that's because I took a long time just exploring and interacting with the various things in the world. Even if you just blow through it, the game is still longer than your typical Call Of Duty game. The only true problem the game has is the graphics. Due to the fact that the graphics engine was developed in 2008, the game isn't exactly the best looking game of 2011.Duke Nukem Forever is NOT a perfect game. It's not the single greatest contribution to mankind nor will it cure at least one type of cancer. It's meant to be a fun game and a breath of fresh air in this glut of uber serious shooters. If you can overlook the fact that this game isn't perfect, and just enjoy the game for what it is, then this certainly is one of the more enjoyable shooters ever made. Hail to the King, Baby!