PAX 2010: Duke Nukem Forever Exists and I Played It

It's a dirty job but somebody has to do it. After a 12 year development cycle and countless roadblocks and Internet memes, Gearbox Software, the team behind last years Borderlands have picked up Duke Nukem Forever and are determined to carry it across the finish line. While the rumors have been floating around for awhile now, we were shocked to find the booth on the show floor yesterday morning. With Gearbox president Randy Pitchford, obviously excited about the project, the quality of the game is certainly in question. What will this mean for Gearbox? Is Duke Nukem still relevant at all? Does this kind of sexist humor resonate with anybody anymore?

Randy Pitchford began the presentation with some explanation and excitement about his teams involvement with the project. The F-Bomb was used... a lot... and perhaps most importantly Gearbox seems like the perfect team, personality wise, to bring this game to store shelves. Even if the game tanks in sales, it will most certainly say a lot about the team at Gearbox and I feel that it will be a worthy addition to their gameography. In all honesty though, if the line of people waiting to play this game is any indication, I think this game will sell like crazy, not because of it's quality but because people will buy it just to say they own a game that took 12 years to produce.

But enough about that...

In a matter of 10 minutes I witnessed 7 naked breasts, 2 blowjobs, 1 giant middle finger, player controlled urination, and countless profanity. While the type of humor common in Duke Nukem is certainly not going to resonate with a lot of people, the charm of the original games is certainly intact. Like Mortal Kombat, it looks as though the developers weren't trying to reinvent the wheel but instead opted for the retro approach; adding a "fresh" coat of paint to the same old concept. If you are dying to kill some pig cops and verbally abuse some strippers, this game will deliver. However, I would caution people to understand what this game actually is before getting too excited.

This is not the prettiest game out there, even after 12 years. The game is clearly running on an old engine and there are no real graphic effects that are going to make this game stand apart visually. Stylistically, the game remains the same as the classic Duke Nukem. Character models look kind of awkward and the animations are not anything to write home about. What this game does do well is deliver the classic gameplay that fans of the series will appreciate. The guns are a lot of fun and if there are plenty of more of them to get ahold of in the final version of the game, then I will gladly overlook the game's dated visuals and archaic game design. There is definitely a glimmer of child like excitement that I got when I used the shrink ray on an enemy and then blew him apart with my shot gun.

The demo was broken down into 3 parts. The first segmented began with some urination followed by a boss fight with a large pig creature in a football stadium that ended with Duke kicking a field goal with his giant eyeball. Once again, the humor delivered but the boss fight can be described as predictable and shallow. I simply aimed my gun and pulled the trigger until the final QTE was triggered. After a short and uninspiring driving sequence (Dear Gearbox: please fix this or remove it), the game ended with a classic Duke Nukem run and gun sequence. I picked up 4 to 5 different guns and had some fun slaughtering pig cops. It it's classic Duke Nukem fan fare.

In the end, I came away from the demo feeling like a child again. Gearbox has taken on a massive undertaking and is genuinely excited to be a part of such an infamous project. While the final product may be well past its "time to shine", I think Gearbox is the right studio to produce this game. Between their great sense of humor and their knack for producing solid shooting mechanics, Duke Nukem is finally on track for an ACTUAL release in 2011.

**Gearbox President, Randy Pitchford, confirmed that the game is already in the polishing phases. With several more months left to polish this game prior to release, the game could really look a lot cleaner when it finally hits next year.

**To Neiro (of Destructoid.com): Credit for LOL cat idea