7 Ways To Redeem The Duke Nukem Franchise

Don’t try too hard with the humour

Just see that video. The devs were trying too hard to make Duke Nukem Forever’s humour in your face and crass, and they succeeded more than they should have. As I said above, DNF’s humour was cringe worthy and oftentimes, perverted, more than Duke games usually are. And that is saying something. With Duke Nukem 5, just stay true to the franchise’s roots, and don’t try too hard.

Stay away from modern day shooter conventions

Duke Nukem Forever definitely did not shy away from making fun of other modern day shooters like Halo, but it followed them in the way they tackled the genre. Duke is supposed to be a super powerful badass, who can carry several weapons at a time. That is how we Duke fanatics remember him. To see him fall prey to the current day genre conventions pained me badly. The two weapon restriction was a huge negative in the game, and it took away from the identity of the series. I hope the next Duke game improves that, and even if it gives us a weapons restriction, it makes it 4 or 5 instead of 2. To hell with realism, this is Duke Nukem after all.

Graphics should be non-ugly

That is a video comparison showing footage from all three versions of the game. And all three looks bad, bad, bad. The graphics were horrible, the textures were rough and there were a ton of pop ins, the frame rate was stuttering all the time, and there were screen tears all the time. Well, seeing as the game has been in development for fourteen years, you can kind of see this happening, but let’s hope the graphics in the next Duke game are not this bad.

Story should… exist

The story of Duke Nukem Forever was this: an alien race invades earth. They kidnap Duke’s girls. Duke gets angry and kills the aliens…. that’s all. That’s pathetic. I know we don’t need an excuse to be Duke, and story doesn’t really matter in a Duke Nukem game, but at least make it so that it isn’t an insult to our intelligence. Give a story that is actually a story next time, not a pathetic excuse for… nothing.

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