Introduction/Retrospective

Lo, what a long and winding road hath been tread! Duke Nukem Forever was finally released last month, which must be pretty surreal for anyone even remotely involved in the most drawn-out and convoluted development cycle of a game, ever. In case you don’t know, or are unsure on the details, here’s the long and short of the tale (provided by the handy development timeline from the Extras menu in-game):

• Development of “Duke Nukem 4Ever,” another 2D side-scroller, began as soon as Duke Nukem 3D was released to massive success in May 1996
  
  
• The Quake engine was licensed for the game in December 1996, presumably leading to its becoming a first-person shooter instead
  
  
• Duke Nukem Forever was officially announced in April 1997 with a tentative release scheduled for 1998, oh, and it will be using the Quake 2 engine instead
  
  
• Randy Pitchford and Brian Martel left 3D Realms in May 1997 and eventually founded Gearbox Software
  
  
• First screenshots of DNF were released in the November 1997 issue of PC Gamer
  
  
• First reveal trailer for DNF was shown at E3 in May 1998
  
  
• 3D Realms decided to use the Unreal Engine and announced this in June 1998
  
  
• Megadeth covered the theme song for DNF in 1999 (it was not used in the final release)
  
  
• DNF was on another cover of PC Gamer with the subtitle “Miss Me?” in November 1999, new screenshots of the Unreal Engine version were shown
  
  
• Take-Two interactive acquired the publishing rights for the Duke Nukem franchise in December 2000
  
  

• A new trailer for Duke Nukem Forever is shown at E3 in May 2001 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the franchise
  
  
• 3D Realms announced a new physics system for DNF in September 2004
  
  
• Many employees left 3D Realms in August 2006, most of them joined their peers at Gearbox
  
  
• A Duke Nukem Forever video teaser was released in December 2007 with snippets of in-game footage
  
  
• DNF screenshots were included as an easter egg in the re-release of Duke Nukem 3D and discovered in September 2008
  
  
• 3D Realms released their last official screenshot of the game in December 2008
  
  
  
  
• 3D Realms laid off the Duke Nukem Forever development team in May 2009 and entered a legal battle with Take-Two over the publishing agreement for the game
  
  
• Triptych Games was formed by several ex-3D Realms employees in June 2009 and began work to complete the single-player campaign of DNF
  
  
• The game’s script was completed in August 2009, and original Duke Nukem voice actor Jon St. John was hired to reprise his role
  
  
• The DNF campaign was content-complete as of November 2009
  
  

• By the end of 2009, Gearbox Software finalized an agreement to purchase the Duke Nukem franchise, as well as Duke Nukem Forever from 3D Realms
  
  
• Soon thereafter, Gearbox negotiates with 2K Games and Take-Two to publish DNF
  
  
• Triptych relocated to Gearbox’s offices in February 2010 to continue working on the game alongside them and Piranha Games, porting to consoles, adding multiplayer, and polishing
  
  
• The first playable build of Duke Nukem Forever is shown at PAX in September 2010, at which point Gearbox announces they now own the franchise
  
  
• More than 11 years later, PC Gamer has another DNF “Miss Me? Cover in December 2010
  
  
• A new trailer accompanied the announcement of a May 3rd release date in January 2011
  
  
• DNF was delayed one last time in March 2011, for good measure, making the final release date June 14th
  
  
• Duke Nukem Forever went gold in May 2011, heralding cries from the world over that Hell hath officially frozen over
  
  
• A playable demo of the game was released to First Access Club members in early June 2011
  
  
• DNF released on June 10th (internationally) and June 14th (in North America) to mixed reviews -- apparently, it didn’t live up to the hype
  

So, I’m sure those of you that were really looking forward to this have already played it; after all, it’s been more than 15 years in the making. The rest of you have probably already seen and heard a lot of opinions of the game already, but I’m here to present you with one that is as fair and balanced as I could manage. And based on the PC version of course, which is actually not represented in the majority of the mainstream reviews. So read on, friends, and enjoy!