To finish up my recent string of nostalgic DOS games, here’s Duke Nukem II. It holds up pretty well although enemies and other threats popping into view and immediately attacking and hurting Duke got old quick. The camera is zoomed in closely in Duke Nukem II giving the game-view a very narrow scope that is made worse with how close to the edge of the camera Duke can get when he’s moving forward.
Despite that hefty flaw, the action and gamefeel in general felt pretty good. This game still utilizes very segmented (tile-based) movement like a lot of other DOS platformers but that never was a detriment while playing. It’s strengths are in its snappy, arcadey action and level design.
Now the first episode (which I played a lot as a kid on its shareware release, so nostalgia might be clouding my judgment) has very tight and exciting level designs. Episode 2 going forward; many levels are not as imaginative. A lot of the first episode levels have more complexity whereas the later parts of the game: the levels are more monotonous. Not necessarily bad, but not great either.
The last three episodes introduce new things. Some are cool, like the little ship that Duke gets in episode 2. Some are bad, like the instant death traps (especially the breakable air locks in episode 4). There isn’t a lot of new music past episode 1 and the stuff that’s introduced isn’t great but luckily the soundtrack from episode 1 gets sprinkled around and I gotta say this might be Prince’s best AdLib music. The sounds are all great, too. Duke’s scream when he dies startled me as a kid and even now I find it pretty unnerving.
I think the camera problems and less-than-stellar level designs of its later parts prevents Duke Nukem II from being a PC platformer classic, but it’s fairly solid.
Despite that hefty flaw, the action and gamefeel in general felt pretty good. This game still utilizes very segmented (tile-based) movement like a lot of other DOS platformers but that never was a detriment while playing. It’s strengths are in its snappy, arcadey action and level design.
Now the first episode (which I played a lot as a kid on its shareware release, so nostalgia might be clouding my judgment) has very tight and exciting level designs. Episode 2 going forward; many levels are not as imaginative. A lot of the first episode levels have more complexity whereas the later parts of the game: the levels are more monotonous. Not necessarily bad, but not great either.
The last three episodes introduce new things. Some are cool, like the little ship that Duke gets in episode 2. Some are bad, like the instant death traps (especially the breakable air locks in episode 4). There isn’t a lot of new music past episode 1 and the stuff that’s introduced isn’t great but luckily the soundtrack from episode 1 gets sprinkled around and I gotta say this might be Prince’s best AdLib music. The sounds are all great, too. Duke’s scream when he dies startled me as a kid and even now I find it pretty unnerving.
I think the camera problems and less-than-stellar level designs of its later parts prevents Duke Nukem II from being a PC platformer classic, but it’s fairly solid.