If we're all going to be honest, Duke Forever is not a good game. I do believe, though, that the reception surrounding the game has made it look like the worst thing ever, when it clearly isn't. There are plenty of other janky, broken-to-the-core video games out there that are easily worse than Duke Forever, but it's the long legacy of a troubled development cycle, paired with the inevitable disappointment that burned fans enough to give it such low ratings.

I won't be peeling through the entirety of Forever, but for what it's worth, the shooting isn't all too terrible (although the arsenal isn't nearly as great as it was in 3D), some of the levels are pretty fun, and just having Duke back in a more modern game is great. Sadly, these slight positives are met with just as many negatives, with really boring stretches of the game found throughout (the last few levels especially), some casual sexism thrown around like candy during the game that's offensive at best, and horrific at worst, and too many attempts to reinvent the wheel in rather stupid places when other key aspects of the game needed more tuning and overall refinement.

Again, there are worse games out there, but that still doesn't mean Duke Nukem Forever is some sort of hidden gem in the landscape of long-forgotten video games.