Duke Nukem Forever Demo @ PAX2010

Duke Nukem. Heard of him? He is the titular character of the video game Duke Nukem which will finally get a sequel, Duke Nukem Forever which has been in development for over a decade. I've never played it, but am excited for the new installment.

If you thought Expendables was testosterone filled, you haven't seen Duke Nukem.

The demo went something like this :

Duke, being a man of action, quickly runs through the tunnels of this football stadium where the demo starts and out onto the field. Standing on the 50-yard line is a giant one-eyed alien monster called the Cycloid. Fortunately, Duke has just picked up a rocket launcher called the Devastator. Using this handy little weapon, you run all over the rain-soaked field dodging the boss's attacks while occasionally firing rockets at his single, solitary eye. After a couple of minutes, the beast is felled, and Duke celebrates by ripping out his eye and kicking a field goal with it.

One of the beasties you encounter

After this, the game's first level, the demo quickly jumps to the 15th level. This one begins in some arid canyons with Duke cruising along in his signature monster truck. This sequence seemed like a bit of a palate cleanser, as there wasn't a whole lot of challenge--just cruise along, look cool, and splatter the occasional pig alien too stupid to get out of your way. But you run out of gas before arriving at a small canyon village and have to do on-foot battle against a bunch of ugly aliens.

To help even the odds, the game scatters a few useful guns around the little town. There's the railgun, which comes in handy for remote sniping; the shrink ray, which turns your enemies into tiny things that are almost too adorable to kill; and a turret gun for dealing with a landing enemy spaceship. Unfortunately, the demo was over before the spaceship was dealt with. But I can assume there were aliens, guns, and one-liners to be found after a successful completion. Call it a hunch.

 Duke Nukem Forever is pretty darn fun for a game with such a tumultuous development. The comic timing was impressive, the guns felt satisfying, and the graphics were quite pleasing to look at. Of course, this is a Duke Nukem game through and through, so there are some inherent elements to it that will instantly turn some people off. Whether the rest of the game can follow suit is something I'm eager to see.