I'll start with the bad news first- This is not a game for PC gamers.
You have regenerating health, (Meaning strawberry jam all over the screen
when you get hit) strange controls, and worst of all, you can only carry
2 weapons at a time with a truly pathetic amount of ammunition. 5 rockets for
the RPG is not enough to warrant carrying it around instead of say, a shotgun,
given how rare the ammo is and how sporadic the lazy-designer's-shortcut
infinite ammo boxes are. The gameplay is disappointing in that regard.
Now I'll go to the good- Duke's style remains. (If you ignore the chance to
fling poo in the tutorial)
Though the shooty parts of the game are a disappointment, the setpieces are
decently designed, and there is much encouragement for exploration in the form
of permanent ego boosts, which increase your maximum health. These take the form
of one-off tasks you can perform, like bench pressing 600 pounds, getting a
dunk in a basketball hoop, drinking all the beer in one level, finding a hidden
adult magazine and flipping through it, and winning a boss fight, which gives
the biggest boost.
The humour is definitely Duke. It starts off slow with the first few levels
seeming clearly designed to suck you in and possibly draw a newer audience, but
once the game gets going, it seems to get a lot more comfortable with itself.
A great many of the jokes and jabs Duke makes are aimed at people who would
have been old enough to play Duke Nukem 3D in the 90s, and so the youngsters may
be scratching their heads wondering what Duke meant by a particular reference.
Even if it's unintentional, since the game IS 12 years old, effectively,
I think it's good they've shown a bit of love for the audience who have waited
for Duke to come back all this time.
If you want a solid game with great gameplay… This isn't it. But if you
want to hear Duke Nukem again, and miss his humour, then I don't think you'll
be disappointed in that regard, as long as you give yourself a chance to warm up
to it.