by Can Tran

Created on: December 18, 2008

The game of "Duke Nukem 3D" sure does bring back a lot of memories. I had first become familiar with the franchise of Duke Nukem back when I was about ten years old. Before Duke Nukem was converted into a first-person shooter, it was an 8-bit side-scrolling action shooter in 2D form that scrolled horizontally. It was on the PC, before the operating system switched from DOS to Microsoft Windows. As a kid, I thought Duke Nukem to be a very fun game. It would be something that could be ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).

A few years later, I see the advertisements for Duke Nukem 3D. I had almost forgotten about Duke Nukem. Lord and behold, there is Duke Nukem 3D, which has been converted into a 3D first-person shooter. It was about the time I was somewhat getting into the first-person shooter games like "Doom." Before playing Duke Nukem 3D, I was playing "Doom II." My best friend and I were playing a lot of Doom II. It was at the point in which the popularity of first-person shooter games was in its juvenile stages.

When I looked at the graphics, screenshots, and game play, I knew that Duke Nukem 3D would be a formidable shooting game. The levels of Duke Nukem were not as claustrophobic as the levels of Doom II.
That was definitely one bonus with me.
While the freedom was not completely one-hundred percent, it was still a good start. If I needed to reach somewhere, I could use my jetpack and fly upwards. It would make it easier for me to evade enemies.

The enemies were quite original as well. They were humanoid aliens that were packing serious heat. Luckily, I could take their weapons and ammo after killing them.
I also learned a nifty trick. If I have the freeze gun and I use them on armed enemies, they will drop their weapons. When they unfreeze, they will be holding a new weapon. It was one way I could pick up extra ammunition. That was a complete plus with me. Most of the weapons were similar to those I saw in Doom II.
However, Duke Nukem 3D had a bunch of interesting weapons that got my undivided attention.

There was the concept of "creativity" with your weapons. One such weapon was a pipe-bomb in which I could lay somewhere. I can lure enemies into the track and set off the detonator.

The next goody was the laser-trip mine. It is the type of mine you place on a wall and there is a laser line. You step on the line, the explosive goes boom. There was a point in which I got creative and placed a bunch of laser-trip mines on the walls and let the enemies come after me.
They trip over the lines and they blow up into pieces. It was great fun. I had preferred playing Duke Nukem 3D over Doom II. That was how good the game is.

There are scenes in which there are strippers. You can give the strippers cash and they do a "show" for you. That was great fun. In interesting part of the plot is that the aliens are kidnapping all of Earth's women.
Duke Nukem's not going to have any of that. When he is wasting enemies, Nukem has his interesting lines of rhetoric and trash talk.
Overall, Duke Nukem was a very fun game.
When I think of the game, it brings back very fun memories. If you are into old-school first-person shooters, you will definitely love playing Duke Nukem 3D. It was also one of the early shooters to have co-op and competitive multiplayer options.

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