The Therapist Gamer

Duke Nukem 3D came out in the late 90's but was ported to the PlayStation Vita in 2014, which is the first version I played.  I'd heard of this game as a teenager but never played it - I'm more of a Doom man.  In recent years I've heard about this game as being The Greatest Game Ever and the reason why the next Duke Nukem game would be The Even Greatest Game Ever.  All in all, I would say that this game was probably pretty great for it's time and is still quite fun today.

 

One thing I appreciate about this game (and Doom I and II) is that it has a variety of weapons and monsters.  Modern shooters seem to have more complex story lines and objectives, but basically a few guns and only one or two enemy types.  Perhaps there is a sweet spot in the middle of these two extremes, but it was a nice change of pace to play Duke Nukem 3D.

 

Certain aspects of the game did not age well, most notably some obscure methods of progressing through the game.  For example, I recall being stuck on one level for what felt like at least an hour until I finally noticed a tiny crack on a wall in a cave behind a restroom.  A Tiny Crack.  I needed to use an explosive, which I didn't have, in order to blow open the wall and get to the end of the level.  Even though this was tedious and annoying, I did appreciate that the game didn't constantly hold my hand like in modern games.  But maybe that's just nostalgia talking.

 

This game is known for it's humor, specifically with Duke being a parody of 80's action heroes.  On the whole, I would agree with this assessment, but acknowledge that some people will not find the humor in this game to their liking.  Having humor laced throughout a game is always welcome.

 

This version of the game had a nice feature (even though it cheapened the experience a bit) where you could "rewind" your gameplay when you died.  In the original version of the game you had to start the entire level over, but this version allows you to go back a few moments before your death and try again.  It was helpful at times and is totally optional, so purists need not crap a brick.