An expansion for Duke Nukem 3D
Simply Silly Software's sole professional release and the most frequently criticized of the major Duke Nukem 3D expansion packs.
Also in series
Reviews View More
This review contains spoilers
Another great DLC for the main game.
Duke Nukem 3D was one of the first games I ever played, and what a game to start with. As a kid, I was not skilled enough to finish this epic game, but as an adult, I finally finished the game, and all it’s expansions in 2017. It did not disappoint and it was a ride full of joy and nostalgia.
You start in L.A. and see the devastation that has ravaged the city. You fight your way through the alien horde, desperately seeking and rescuing the women that have been abducted. Throughout the four episodes, you fight an Alien Battle lord, infiltrate an alien mothership to discover that the women are being “incubated” by the aliens. But then, you discover they were just a distraction to lure Duke away from earth, while the aliens launch a full invasion of the earth. This is a great example of the simple mind of a man. Lure him away with beer and/or titties and he will follow like a dog.
Anyway, you return to earth, fight the Cycloid Emperor and save the day, or so you think. However, in the next episode, you learn that one of the incubated women from the mother ship is used to “give birth” to the Alien Queen. You get your gun and go to work once again. You venture through “Babe Land”, a parody of Disneyland, Duke Burger, and even Area 51. You kill the Alien Queen but learn that there is another invasion that takes place all around the world. In the last episode, you liberate world capitols like Amsterdam, Paris, London, the pyramids of Giza, Rome and end your ass kicking back in Los Angles. You defeat the Cycloid Incinerator and stop the alien threat once and for all.
In terms of graphics, I still think Duke Nukem 3D looks great. Many items, furniture and walls are destructible, giving this game a realistic look, even back then. The many different areas, regions, unique buildings and settings makes this game stand out in comparison to Doom and Wolfenstein in my opinion.
Sound wise, Duke Nukem 3D is on par with Doom. Gunfire, enemy grunts and explosions all sound great. But of course, the best part of Duke Nukem, is its rocking soundtrack.
You can collect many different items in Duke Nukem 3D. New weapons, portable health kits, speed boosting steroids, holograms and many more. The inclusion of those items give this game an RPG feeling. Most of them are hidden away so exploring the levels thoroughly is a rewarding experience.
The best part of Duke Nukem 3D, is the controversy that it spawned when it came out, something I did not understand as a kid, but which is somewhat hilarious in hindsight. The fact that you dope yourself up with steroids for extra boosts, the fact that Duke is actually a horny playboy/pimp that does not give a crap about people, except hot babes, and the foul jokes that I could finally understand when I grew up learned the English language.
Although the main game was epic enough, I also really enjoyed the expansion Duke: Nuclear Winter.
This Last DLC is my personal favorite, and I play this one almost every year to get myself into the Christmas Spirit. It is all about fighting a brainwashed Santa Claus who is causing trouble on earth. You blast your way through evil snowmen with bazooka’s, all while listening to jolly Christmas music. You eventually whoop the floor with Santa and end the game.
Overall, I enjoyed every minute of this DLC, and it will always remain a happy memory.
Definitely recommend this gem.
Duke Nukem 3D was one of the first games I ever played, and what a game to start with. As a kid, I was not skilled enough to finish this epic game, but as an adult, I finally finished the game, and all it’s expansions in 2017. It did not disappoint and it was a ride full of joy and nostalgia.
You start in L.A. and see the devastation that has ravaged the city. You fight your way through the alien horde, desperately seeking and rescuing the women that have been abducted. Throughout the four episodes, you fight an Alien Battle lord, infiltrate an alien mothership to discover that the women are being “incubated” by the aliens. But then, you discover they were just a distraction to lure Duke away from earth, while the aliens launch a full invasion of the earth. This is a great example of the simple mind of a man. Lure him away with beer and/or titties and he will follow like a dog.
Anyway, you return to earth, fight the Cycloid Emperor and save the day, or so you think. However, in the next episode, you learn that one of the incubated women from the mother ship is used to “give birth” to the Alien Queen. You get your gun and go to work once again. You venture through “Babe Land”, a parody of Disneyland, Duke Burger, and even Area 51. You kill the Alien Queen but learn that there is another invasion that takes place all around the world. In the last episode, you liberate world capitols like Amsterdam, Paris, London, the pyramids of Giza, Rome and end your ass kicking back in Los Angles. You defeat the Cycloid Incinerator and stop the alien threat once and for all.
In terms of graphics, I still think Duke Nukem 3D looks great. Many items, furniture and walls are destructible, giving this game a realistic look, even back then. The many different areas, regions, unique buildings and settings makes this game stand out in comparison to Doom and Wolfenstein in my opinion.
Sound wise, Duke Nukem 3D is on par with Doom. Gunfire, enemy grunts and explosions all sound great. But of course, the best part of Duke Nukem, is its rocking soundtrack.
You can collect many different items in Duke Nukem 3D. New weapons, portable health kits, speed boosting steroids, holograms and many more. The inclusion of those items give this game an RPG feeling. Most of them are hidden away so exploring the levels thoroughly is a rewarding experience.
The best part of Duke Nukem 3D, is the controversy that it spawned when it came out, something I did not understand as a kid, but which is somewhat hilarious in hindsight. The fact that you dope yourself up with steroids for extra boosts, the fact that Duke is actually a horny playboy/pimp that does not give a crap about people, except hot babes, and the foul jokes that I could finally understand when I grew up learned the English language.
Although the main game was epic enough, I also really enjoyed the expansion Duke: Nuclear Winter.
This Last DLC is my personal favorite, and I play this one almost every year to get myself into the Christmas Spirit. It is all about fighting a brainwashed Santa Claus who is causing trouble on earth. You blast your way through evil snowmen with bazooka’s, all while listening to jolly Christmas music. You eventually whoop the floor with Santa and end the game.
Overall, I enjoyed every minute of this DLC, and it will always remain a happy memory.
Definitely recommend this gem.
Played this on Christmas Eve expecting not to beat it with all the times I tried beforehand and didn't but surprisingly I did this time.
It's... fine? But really disappointing given the premise. A Xmas-themed Duke mappack matches the comedic nature and silliness of the IP perfectly, yet all this campaign really comes down to are two reskins of maps from L.A. Meltdown and a bunch of other snow-textured confusing mazes topped off with a boss fight against a glorified deathmatch bot. A concept like this deserved much better then the quality of maps we got, and they misuse enemies and traps REALLY BAD. The amount of tank pigcops and tripmine traps are awful, especially with how the traps only appear visually when you walk a certain distance, meaning you'll be blindly running into death unless you memorize their exact placements beforehand. A part of me still considers Duke it out in DC worse just for the Smithsonian level alone, which I STILL haven't beat, but it's still pretty mid. If you're gonna play any additional Duke content, make it Alien World Order or Carribean. Those are good mappacks. This... not so much.
Oh, and of course, how could I go without mentioning:
"Ohhoho, it's not nice to shoot Santa..."
"Ohhoho, it's not nice to shoot Santa..."
"Ohhoho, it's not nice to shoot Santa..."
It's... fine? But really disappointing given the premise. A Xmas-themed Duke mappack matches the comedic nature and silliness of the IP perfectly, yet all this campaign really comes down to are two reskins of maps from L.A. Meltdown and a bunch of other snow-textured confusing mazes topped off with a boss fight against a glorified deathmatch bot. A concept like this deserved much better then the quality of maps we got, and they misuse enemies and traps REALLY BAD. The amount of tank pigcops and tripmine traps are awful, especially with how the traps only appear visually when you walk a certain distance, meaning you'll be blindly running into death unless you memorize their exact placements beforehand. A part of me still considers Duke it out in DC worse just for the Smithsonian level alone, which I STILL haven't beat, but it's still pretty mid. If you're gonna play any additional Duke content, make it Alien World Order or Carribean. Those are good mappacks. This... not so much.
Oh, and of course, how could I go without mentioning:
"Ohhoho, it's not nice to shoot Santa..."
"Ohhoho, it's not nice to shoot Santa..."
"Ohhoho, it's not nice to shoot Santa..."
How in god's name did I ever think this was good.
Most classic FPS expansions are terrible, and this is no exception
Most classic FPS expansions are terrible, and this is no exception
What the fuck was up with this lmao. The midi versions of christmas classics made it funnier when Duke would say things like "Suck it down...". Seeing E1M1 from Doom was pretty cool though.
Duke is really frightened at the idea of being on the naughty list
This was actually torture to play through, and that's a total shame. I really love Duke Nukem 3D, and although I had some serious issues with Duke It Out In D.C., it undeniably starts strong, but Nuclear Winter is irredeemable garbage.
To start, the expansion is surprisingly more misogynistic as the base game, making the base game look like a feminist statement by comparison, since your whole goal of the game is to kill feminist elves that have brainwashed Santa into becoming a killing machine; obviously, not a good start.
The issues run deeper than the sexist plot setup, though. When it comes to Nuclear Winter's levels, they're all horrid. The first couple levels are just repackaged levels from the first episode of the Duke 3D base game (but in reverse and with stupid mazes to boot), and all of the original levels are boring at their very best.
In terms of any new weapons/skins for them, there's nothing; for a Christmas themed expansion pack, there's no alterations to Duke or the arsenal to play along with the theme. Even though there isn't anything new in terms of weaponry, there's a few new enemies on offer, which are basically reskins of enemies from the base game. You get new snowmen enemies, one of which is a bit original by it being a (mostly) stationary enemy that lobs snowballs at Duke, but the other snowmen varieties are just reskins of Assault Commanders and Battlelord Sentries; really original.
The snowmen variety issue also applies to the feminist elves, which are just different versions of Pig Cops and Enforcers, but have a smaller hitbox, and are often spawned in droves. We all know what makes for fantastic, fair difficulty in a shooter is waves upon waves of hitscan enemies, right?
Nuclear Winter can blow it out its ass; what a total joke of an expansion. I cannot believe this received the 3D Realms seal of approval and was marked as an official expansion to the game, because this is easily the worst shooter I've played in recent memory. "But the controls are the same from Duke 3D, that has to speak for something!" Yeah, but the foundation was already there; the devs of Nuclear Winter already had a solid foundation, but shit all over it; that's worse than just making a flat out shit game from the get-go.
Anyway, rant over, don't play this bullshit of an expansion.
To start, the expansion is surprisingly more misogynistic as the base game, making the base game look like a feminist statement by comparison, since your whole goal of the game is to kill feminist elves that have brainwashed Santa into becoming a killing machine; obviously, not a good start.
The issues run deeper than the sexist plot setup, though. When it comes to Nuclear Winter's levels, they're all horrid. The first couple levels are just repackaged levels from the first episode of the Duke 3D base game (but in reverse and with stupid mazes to boot), and all of the original levels are boring at their very best.
In terms of any new weapons/skins for them, there's nothing; for a Christmas themed expansion pack, there's no alterations to Duke or the arsenal to play along with the theme. Even though there isn't anything new in terms of weaponry, there's a few new enemies on offer, which are basically reskins of enemies from the base game. You get new snowmen enemies, one of which is a bit original by it being a (mostly) stationary enemy that lobs snowballs at Duke, but the other snowmen varieties are just reskins of Assault Commanders and Battlelord Sentries; really original.
The snowmen variety issue also applies to the feminist elves, which are just different versions of Pig Cops and Enforcers, but have a smaller hitbox, and are often spawned in droves. We all know what makes for fantastic, fair difficulty in a shooter is waves upon waves of hitscan enemies, right?
Nuclear Winter can blow it out its ass; what a total joke of an expansion. I cannot believe this received the 3D Realms seal of approval and was marked as an official expansion to the game, because this is easily the worst shooter I've played in recent memory. "But the controls are the same from Duke 3D, that has to speak for something!" Yeah, but the foundation was already there; the devs of Nuclear Winter already had a solid foundation, but shit all over it; that's worse than just making a flat out shit game from the get-go.
Anyway, rant over, don't play this bullshit of an expansion.