14 DAY TRIAL // The release of Duke Nukem Forever, a day awaited by generations of gamers from all around the world, is approaching, but, until then, members of the Duke Nukem Forever First Access Club can now download an exclusive demo of the game that's been in development since 1997.
Is the demo enough to make you go out and wait in line for Duke Nukem Forever or does it fail to live up to the massive expectations that grew in the years before it was completed? Let us share some impressions with you.
Duke Nukem, despite not appearing in that many games, is a core part of the industry, largely because Duke Nukem Forever took, well, forever to be completed, leading to the closure of its original developer, 3D Realms.
Now, Gearbox Software saw the project to fruition, and the first taste of it is through the demo that was just released onto the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
You start off in a pretty out of the ordinary situation, with players needing to watch Duke go to the bathroom, before meeting up with some incompetent soldiers who are trying, and failing, to contain an alien invasion. Luckily, what their armor and tactical training can't do, Duke, in his trademark apparel and with his witty jokes, can do in spades, so he's sent forward as the last hope of humanity.
You don't get to fight small aliens at the beginning of the demo, as after just a few corridors, you're greeted by a giant alien on a football field, and tasked with killing it. This is the trademark Duke Nukem situation, where you're just one guy forced to handle massively powerful enemies and expected to come out on top, with a mandatory clever joke.
After taking down the alien, and executing a field goal with his eye, this part of the demo ends, in another classic Duke moment, where he makes fun of the game's extremely long development time.
The second part of the demo sees Duke engage in a vehicle section through a canyon, running down enemies and doing massive jumps between chasms. The truck runs out of gas, however, so Duke's required to go out on foot over to an abandoned mine in search of fuel.
This is where you meet some of the classic pig-like enemies, which are easy to take down thanks to the variety of weapons put at your disposal, from shotguns, to rail guns or shrink rays, which minimize your opponents for easy stomping.
The mine section is home to a few puzzles, which are a bit counter intuitive, but, after a bit of fooling around and exploring, you realize the solution to your predicament.
After getting the fuel and getting back to your truck, the demo ends, and another Duke Nukem Forever trailer pops up, highlighting the epic moments that will await players in the full game.
Overall, even if Duke Nukem Forever shows its age in terms of graphics, using the pretty outdated Unreal Engine 2.5, the game is more than worth a shot if you kept believing in it all these years.
Duke Nukem Forever is out on June 10, in Europe, and on June 14, in North America, for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
Until then, check out the first part of the demo below.