A bridge between the abstract action labyrinths of Doom and the future more cohesive places of the genre like Half Life, Duke Nukem 3D just occasionally reaches anything interesting on either side or on their union. With a much less combat focused than usual approach (enemies having 101 shooter design, most interesting situations relying on traps and thus in item usage and environment awareness to get around them) the game leans toward more of a navigational puzzle. Which is not something that different from the pure labyrinth that was Wolfenstein 3D to begin with, with the difference that the Duke is searching for a less gamey sense of place.

At first, the trick doesn’t work that bad since the attention to detail (in decorative interactions particularly) does give the illusion of a more sophisticated approach to what even a level is. However, this same illusion turns on itself when the exploration is forced and, when actively asked to pay attention to the map, the gamey sense is stronger than the most obvious lazy Doom arena, at least those were coherent inside their own logic. The real places start being small, forgettable samples among a greater, not that good navigational chaos.

Moreover, it seems that there is a conflict of wanting to avoid plaguing everything with action, worrying that it would detriment the contemplative approach to understand the level on a logical level, when a year later Blood would demonstrate that taking more cohesive, less abstract places as inspiration while maintaining the usual level of adrenaline everywhere resulted, even though similar to a theme park, in an unmistakably felt sense of a cohesive place.