Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project (PC) Review
“Come get some!” For millions of players who grew up with the classics, these words echo among the halls of the hallowed, as well as the infamously catchy metal theme that announces to the world Duke Nukem has arrived.
Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project was released almost 10 years ago, and sadly remains the last title to be graced with what can only be described as the new generation’s Duke… at least for now until Duke Nukem: Critical Mass gets to us, but according to Gamestop, that will not be till March next year.
The game itself is a 2D plaformer that will bring memories of Duke Nukem 1 and 2 back the moment you let your hand rest in the old famiar, and forgotten, configuration: arrow keys to move and look, Ctrl and Alt to jump and shoot. You can use Z and X to zoom and hot key pipe bombs, but this hardly does anything to change the old-school feel this game has…. reminding you of everything that made Duke Nukem 1 and 2 good enough to kick things off with 3D in the first place.
That isn’t to say this game is flawless. While the controls feel perfect, they are also fluid enough to be unforgiving. For example, there are things in this game like spikes that touching will kill you (spikes mainly), and touch them you will. What most games would look at as at most scraping the side will send the Duke splattering into guts and gore.
Your goal in each level will be to find a keycard, a babe with a bomb attached to her, and then escape to the end of the level… about as straight forward and old school as you get (with a Duke touch of looking for babes that need saving). The level design itself in this game is a bit of a mixed bag. When the level is awesome, holy sh*t it’s amazing. You’ll be blasting rockets (which in old school form WONT hurt you) at enemies and charging along through a relatively interesting level and remembering just how awesome this was back in the day. It’s even better now with the graphic power of even a few years ago behind it! But there are times when, just like most games of that day, you will find…. the level. You know the one. Where it takes forever to find your way to the exit with everything done. Thankfully these moments are exceedingly rare, and the game is overall a fun blast from the past of gameplay, albiet a short one. (My completion time, no more then 6 hours.)
Graphically, this game is suprisingly good! When you think of 10 years past, you expect clunky, bad bitmapping, and all the fun things of the PSX/EARLY PS2 era. This game has aged exceedingly well. The backgrounds still look nice and fairly well detailed, Duke and all your enemies still gleam with the quality you should expect. The ONLY thing to age badly are the babes…. I blame oversimplified framework and early *ahem* attempts to imitate Dead or Alive *ahem*.
Sounds and music in this game are also pure classic Duke. From the first gunshot to the last words out of the Duke’s mouth, you will be pleased with how everything sounds… minus a few static pops from the old technology. Music is always either just as good or so burried by explosions you dont know or care.
FINAL VERDICT: When this game came out, it was a bargain title, denying the pure fun hidden within it, and just like the classics of old, this one aged extremely well. While the game is short, it is an amazing reminder of just how it was done back in the day, and perhaps why sometimes nostalgia is good. And with services like Good Old Games now beginning to show, there is no reason anyone should miss this often overlooked gem.
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19 Nov 2009, 10:56 am
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