Duke Nukem, the politically incorrect celebrity and ultimate alien ass kicker, defends Earth and its babes from alien invasion. He is a can-do hero who realizes that sometimes innocent people have to die in order to save Earth, so accuracy of gun fire is not a real concern to him. This is the award winning game that helped define the FPS genre and introduced unparalleled interactivity and a talking main character.
Take the fight to the aliens in Hollywood, Los Angeles, a moon base and alien spacecraft. Defeat the aliens, so Duke can get back to some R&R with a stogie, a warm belly and a bottle of Jack.
Atomic Edition is the most complete version of the game that includes fourth bonus episode, new weapon and enemies.
Download Fan-Made Mods!
If the base game isn't enough for you, check out some of the great mods that other gamers have made here!
Age requirements: ESRB Rating: MATURE with Animated Blood and Gore, Animated Violence, Strong Sexual Content.
Minimum system requirements: Windows XP or Windows Vista, 1.8 GHz Processor, 512MB RAM (1 GB recommended), 3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 7 (compatible with DirectX 9 recommended), 2GB HDD, Mouse, Keyboard.
The Game Doesn't Stop When the Episodes Are Over
(by
Blackdrazon)
In the dark, post-apocalyptic age of 1996 came Duke Nukem 3D, a first person shooter by 3D Realms designed to take advantage of Ken Silverman’s Build engine (later used in Redneck Rampage, also on GOG, among other games that we might one day see here, like Blood and Shadow Warrior). Duke built up a lot of goodwill over the years after its release, and now you can get the chance... full review to find out why.
The premise is simple: get to the end of the stage to the giant Self Destruct button and hit it and, if there’s a boss, kill them instead. Standing between you and either of those are a series of puzzles and alien baddies that you’ll have to take out if you want to live, as well as the occasional human girl, who you probably should keep safe or the game will get you for it. Controls are simple, and the game is available both keyboard-only and with mouse aiming available in the menu (given mouse technology at the time, the keyboard was preferred, and so the game auto-aims slightly when it comes to shooting at something above or below you). Controls can be bound to any keys or mouse buttons you want, so refitting the game to a modern WASD control set is simple and easy.
One of the first differences you’ll notice in Duke is that you’re not bound to a path. The game lets you move in all three dimensions and doesn’t penalise you for wanting to explore – there’s even a Jetpack item that will let you fly anywhere you want, even if it means beating parts of the level out of order. There are secret passages, shortcuts, water to swim in and damaged walls to bring down with heavy ordinance. Generally, you’ll want to go about collecting the coloured key cards to unlock specific doors, solving puzzles along the way, but if the opportunity presents itself (and it often does) your ingenuity will be rewarded.
Duke’s arsenal is wide and varied, and once you get used to the now-standard FPS ordinaces of backup melee weapon (which you can use at the same time as your normal guns, look for the “Mighty Foot” key), Pistol, Shotgun, Chaingun and Rocket Launcher, you’ll get to play with remote controlled Pipe Bombs, a Shrink Ray (which you can use to solve puzzles if you find a mirror!), a wall-bouncing Freeze Ray, the rapid-fire rocket launcher called The Devastator and, because this is the Atomic Edition, the Shrink Ray’s alternate fire (hit the Shrink Ray button twice): the Expander Ray. More than enough ways to deal with anything the aliens have to throw at you.
There’s a fair amount to find in the game, with four episodes (the first pack has 6 normal levels and 1 secret, the second and third have 9 and 2 secrets each, and the fourth (from the original expansion set) has 10 and 1 secret), but don’t discount Duke’s unbelievably impressive collection of User Maps that have built up over the years. There are thousands of user maps in existence (Duke4.net has 5000 alone), and if you want to join in, find a copy of the user community’s recreated Build editor “Mapster”, which is easier to use and far more powerful.
In face, while we’re talking about the user community, there’s even more to be found. GOG already has a list of several of the best mods and total conversions, including the High Resolution pack that updates almost every single texture in the game and converts almost everything that was once 2D into a full 3D model, complete with new special effects and sounds, and it’s all free.
If there’s any reason not to buy Duke, it’s would be only if one can’t stand the “2.5D” way of designing First Person Shooters. While Duke and the other Build games were some of the most advanced of the 2.5D shooters, some of the problems (largely graphical) prevalent in the era are still present, so if you don’t like the cube walls, flat objects and flat characters that are always staring at you, you might not find this to your liking.
So to repeat: creative weapons, full freedom of movement and exploration and thousands of maps to extend your experience. And did I mention that there’s multiplayer? For $5.99, you really can’t go wrong with this package deal.
Duke Nukem 3D is one of the most over-the-top fun shooters ever to be released. Sticking to two dimensional bit-map technology, it wasn't a big technological leap for its time. However, it ditched the brown, grimy environments and anonymous hero of Quake, in favor of a huge array of levels, strippers, crazy enemies, meaty weapons and a cigar chomping one-liner spewing hero to... full review spoof all action heroes.
The levels are sprawling and expansive, but never so much that they're confusing. Sometimes, the game-play invariably boils down to simple find the key and progress but the levels are peppered with so much action that it often doesn't matter.
Duke Nukem Forever, the proposed sequel to this game has become the longest running inside joke of the industry. However, to understand why, you have to know that the frustration over the long development time springs from the fact that Duke Nukem 3D was so darn fun to play, and most of those who played it would have loved a worthy sequel. I kept this game until the floppies became obsolete, and corrupt and I'm so excited to see it here on GOG. If you've never played DN:3D before, now is your chance to relive one of the classics that shaped PC gaming. If you have, you don't need my recommendation to play.
Duke Nukem came out in 1996, about in the middle of the flood of sprite based corridor shooters. It was a fair looking game by the standards of the genre, although the quality of the level and character design stood out quite a bit. Dukes one liners were all pretty funny even if they were stolen from older movies like Evil Dead and They Live. The 'raunchy' content (strippers... full review and gratuitous violence) made quite a commotion at the time, but are tame by todays standards (in fact it was overshadowed pretty quickly by intentionally 'shocking' games like the original Grand Theft Auto). It was very popular for awhile, however the arrival of true 3d games like Quake and Half-Life cut it's popularity a bit short.
So, how does it fair today? Well, the gameplay was good at the time; faster paced than Doom, with more interesting weapons and levels. It can't hold a candle to todays games in terms of technical quality, but it has a certain tongue-in-cheek cheesy humor that is hard to replicate in modern games. The levels still play well, and the weapons are more interesting and fun than most that you will find in modern games (which, I've noticed, tend to just give you standard rifle, shotgun, rocket launcher arsenals).
So, I'd say for six bucks and a two minute download, it's probably worth it as long as you are looking to have a fun time with a cheesy action game, not looking for anything serious.
Blackdrazon)
antihippie)