Duke Nukem 3D (Xbox 360) Trial Impressions

It's classic Duke Nukem 3D, alright. I enjoyed playing through the trial version this past Wednesday, however since it truly was the exact same thing as the PC version I still own, I didn't find myself compelled to purchase it right away. Duke Nukem 3D is a long single player game by today's standards, after all, and I'm finding myself shorter on time these days.

When I first fired up the trial version, I found myself simply watching the several demos played during the game's main menu, which really brought back a great feeling of nostalgia. However when I started playing, I did find that the lack of any widescreen, higher resolution graphics, remastered audio, etc. hurt the game a bit. It's not that Duke Nukem 3D was a bad game at all, it was excellent back in 1996, but there was nothing really extra to make me say "Wow, I want to buy this again!"

One thing I really want to praise 3D Realms for in their port of this game, even in just the trial version, is the complete ability to re-map the controller! I didn't like the default set-up at all, but thankfully, unlike most thick-headed console developers, you can actually rebind all the controls, which really made it accessible.

The trial contains the first two levels of the game's first episode, and it's completely faithful to the original. All the item and weapon placements are the same as they were in 1996, and in fact, really, there's nothing all that new to write home about that wasn't around in the game's original release oh-so-long ago.

I tinkered with the game's "Time Line," in which you can rewind on death and such, and it was pretty cool, but not a deal-breaker since you can easily save at any point ( Hear late modern day developers) which really prevents a lot of frustration anyway.

So basically, it's 800 Microsoft Points for a great classic that can net you some nice Achievements. Since I still own the PC version, however, and can fire up that version anytime I want via DOSBox, I really got to thinking if it was worth the cost, and at this point I answered myself no. Achievements are certainly fun, but they're not worth 800 Microsoft Points for.

So at this point, I'll pass on Duke Nukem 3D, and if I feel like a trip down memory lane, my good ol' PC version will do me just fine.