Duke Nukem II (PC, 1993)(Rigel Engine)
Graphics-7 Sound-7.5 Control-7.5 Challenge-7 Story-5
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-7 Fun-6.5 Originality-5
Overall Score-6.5
+
Some interesting level gimmicks (altering the level layout in some levels (and a few minor puzzles where you should avoid shooting an obstacle to get to an item though it's fairly easy to shoot it by accident), sometimes there are scripted events that alter the layout (feels kinda similar to marble garden in Sonic 3), upwards air streams from fans - Turrican?, can use the flamethrower to jump higher (recoil), some breakable walls - DN1, conveyor belt loop in 3-7 - similar to Wonder Boy in Monster Land)
In-game manual
Difficulty options (easy-hard)
Can shoot living turkeys to instantly cook them giving you 1 more health when picking them up - based on DN1 but better realized
Bombs also hit enemies
Temporary invincibility power up (rare though and you can't carry it with you for later use)
Some hidden items and you sometimes use an ability to get to items (temporary invincibility, recoil jumping)
Can look up/down
Secret bonus points (per level: destroy all cameras+turrets+bombs - meh, don't take a hit - near impossible on normal, find every weapon, shoot the crystal balls instead of grabbing them) - they should've kept some of these and made getting them worthwhile with permanent armor or ammo capacity rewards (or the letter collecting could've led to such rewards if you grabbed them in the right order)
Pretty good intro (some animation and VA) and decent cutscenes between episodes (artwork stills and text)
Can get a level hint by getting to and bringing a crystal ball to a hint device - generally not needed though and one hint is literally "kick some butt duke! you deserve it!"
A couple vehicle segments (airship - cool but kinda mindless)
Bosses are decent-pretty good in terms of their behavior overall but also overly spongy (no weapons handed out during the first two bosses' levels/arenas) - you'll want to save a weapon in the 7th level of an episode for the boss and sometimes you can't even do that.
Rigel Engine: Widescreen (helps gameplay quite a bit as the scrolling was also pretty loose in the original), Smooth scrolling & movement option, Additional audio options (separate sfx and music sliders, adlib/SB/adlib+SB sfx, opl core), In-game control config, Quick Save/load anywhere however it's lost after quitting the game
+/-
Partially non-linear (pick between four episodes from the get go, can pick up some weapons or letters in any order in some levels)
Can save anywhere via the pause menu however the game places you at the beginning of a level when loading and collecting progress isn't kept (mid-level checkpoints don't help here)
Killathon element to a few levels (destroy all radar dishes)
Sometimes maze-like levels
The enemy & camera radar is not that useful since it only shows what is already on screnen (would've been useful if it had more range since some enemies attack immediately as they come on screen or quickly dive in from above, destroying cameras is for points only)
Mid-level checkpoints - progress is kept but health is no restored above the point it was at when you activated the checkpoint
Good compositions but overall mediocre use of the OPL2 chip
Random somersaulting? No gameplay effect
Temporary auto-fire only for most weapons (not the "flamethrower" which is really a wide long range fire shot and not for the ship but it's rarely used)
Limited ammo besides for the default gun
No melee attacks
Most items are for points (there are no lives or shops though so they have no gameplay use). You can get a point bonus by shooting a soda to launch it and then grab it but you then get no health (a health *bonus* would've been more useful)
Touch damage from enemies
Can't move while crouching
Plenty of '90s 'tude
Some graphics are basically ripped from Turrican and Savage
No level timers
Fewer platforming puzzles with breakable blocks than in DN1?
Can't jump down through platforms you can jump up through - rarely used for platforming puzzles
-
Some control/interface issues (can't aim lock/strafe and can't move while aiming upwards, can't aim diagonally+can't shoot while climbing a ladder+can't shoot upwards while climbing a railing+can't aim upwards or downwards while jumping (unless using the flamethrower weapon) - this combined with no sub weapons to hit enemies below you leads to poor flow at times (there's a wide shot weapon but it's pretty rare), kinda floaty jumps/slow falling speed, can't simply step off a ladder - have to jump, no weapon inventory+picking up a new weapon replaces the previous ammo-based one (the current one carries over to the next level at least), somewhat lose vertical camera - have to keep adjusting it manually (also can't adjust it while jumping or climbing), no confirmation that you've destroyed all radar dishes in a level besides going back to the display that tells you)
Too hard to quickly tell the difference between trapped and untrapped red containers (if it's a bomb you will pass behind the box while walking past it - dumb)+you can accidentally destroy health items by shooting them or a bomb hitting them (also pretty easy to destroy a blue globe by mistake) - breaks flow
No jump boots or grappling hook here
Can get permanently stuck at the top of level 3-2 if you go above the level at the top of it+on the far right of level 3-5
Some trial & error (the lvl 1-3 bomber enemies, some enemies don't show up on the radar, some cheap enemy placements, some grey and red boxes are suddenly empty in lvl 1-5, a few leaps of faith - can't look down at some points in 2-1, episode 3 starts with an enemy shooting at you, the air locks in lvl 4-5 - one hit and you're sucked out into space)
Kinda distracting debris at times and the backgrounds have overly high saturation and contrast
Some spongy enemies and ammo is kinda rare+there's no weapon inventory
Power ups sometimes randomly fall from the sky in a way that makes you backtrack to get to them - breaks flow
Sometimes overly vertical level design - leads to backtracking if you miss a jump
Levels sometimes don't flow as well as they should due to enemies or containers being placed just outside of your firing angle+the lack of diagonal or sometimes vertical aiming (level 2-4 gets pretty tedious because of this+too many spongy enemies)
Some backtracking due to the lack of a shortcut after getting to a key and generally there's no new hazards or enemies met while backtracking. When it comes to the level exit you can usually predict where it'll be so you can avoid going to it and having to backtrack from there as well
Gets pretty repetitive after the first two episodes or so (no new weapons, few new enemies and level backgrounds)
Kinda slow episode 4 overall
Easy third boss
Kinda garish in-game colors
Kinda muffled sampled sfx
Notes:
*Rigel Engine mod/re-implementation: https://github.com/lethal-guitar/RigelEngine
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-7 Fun-6.5 Originality-5
Overall Score-6.5
+
Some interesting level gimmicks (altering the level layout in some levels (and a few minor puzzles where you should avoid shooting an obstacle to get to an item though it's fairly easy to shoot it by accident), sometimes there are scripted events that alter the layout (feels kinda similar to marble garden in Sonic 3), upwards air streams from fans - Turrican?, can use the flamethrower to jump higher (recoil), some breakable walls - DN1, conveyor belt loop in 3-7 - similar to Wonder Boy in Monster Land)
In-game manual
Difficulty options (easy-hard)
Can shoot living turkeys to instantly cook them giving you 1 more health when picking them up - based on DN1 but better realized
Bombs also hit enemies
Temporary invincibility power up (rare though and you can't carry it with you for later use)
Some hidden items and you sometimes use an ability to get to items (temporary invincibility, recoil jumping)
Can look up/down
Secret bonus points (per level: destroy all cameras+turrets+bombs - meh, don't take a hit - near impossible on normal, find every weapon, shoot the crystal balls instead of grabbing them) - they should've kept some of these and made getting them worthwhile with permanent armor or ammo capacity rewards (or the letter collecting could've led to such rewards if you grabbed them in the right order)
Pretty good intro (some animation and VA) and decent cutscenes between episodes (artwork stills and text)
Can get a level hint by getting to and bringing a crystal ball to a hint device - generally not needed though and one hint is literally "kick some butt duke! you deserve it!"
A couple vehicle segments (airship - cool but kinda mindless)
Bosses are decent-pretty good in terms of their behavior overall but also overly spongy (no weapons handed out during the first two bosses' levels/arenas) - you'll want to save a weapon in the 7th level of an episode for the boss and sometimes you can't even do that.
Rigel Engine: Widescreen (helps gameplay quite a bit as the scrolling was also pretty loose in the original), Smooth scrolling & movement option, Additional audio options (separate sfx and music sliders, adlib/SB/adlib+SB sfx, opl core), In-game control config, Quick Save/load anywhere however it's lost after quitting the game
+/-
Partially non-linear (pick between four episodes from the get go, can pick up some weapons or letters in any order in some levels)
Can save anywhere via the pause menu however the game places you at the beginning of a level when loading and collecting progress isn't kept (mid-level checkpoints don't help here)
Killathon element to a few levels (destroy all radar dishes)
Sometimes maze-like levels
The enemy & camera radar is not that useful since it only shows what is already on screnen (would've been useful if it had more range since some enemies attack immediately as they come on screen or quickly dive in from above, destroying cameras is for points only)
Mid-level checkpoints - progress is kept but health is no restored above the point it was at when you activated the checkpoint
Good compositions but overall mediocre use of the OPL2 chip
Random somersaulting? No gameplay effect
Temporary auto-fire only for most weapons (not the "flamethrower" which is really a wide long range fire shot and not for the ship but it's rarely used)
Limited ammo besides for the default gun
No melee attacks
Most items are for points (there are no lives or shops though so they have no gameplay use). You can get a point bonus by shooting a soda to launch it and then grab it but you then get no health (a health *bonus* would've been more useful)
Touch damage from enemies
Can't move while crouching
Plenty of '90s 'tude
Some graphics are basically ripped from Turrican and Savage
No level timers
Fewer platforming puzzles with breakable blocks than in DN1?
Can't jump down through platforms you can jump up through - rarely used for platforming puzzles
-
Some control/interface issues (can't aim lock/strafe and can't move while aiming upwards, can't aim diagonally+can't shoot while climbing a ladder+can't shoot upwards while climbing a railing+can't aim upwards or downwards while jumping (unless using the flamethrower weapon) - this combined with no sub weapons to hit enemies below you leads to poor flow at times (there's a wide shot weapon but it's pretty rare), kinda floaty jumps/slow falling speed, can't simply step off a ladder - have to jump, no weapon inventory+picking up a new weapon replaces the previous ammo-based one (the current one carries over to the next level at least), somewhat lose vertical camera - have to keep adjusting it manually (also can't adjust it while jumping or climbing), no confirmation that you've destroyed all radar dishes in a level besides going back to the display that tells you)
Too hard to quickly tell the difference between trapped and untrapped red containers (if it's a bomb you will pass behind the box while walking past it - dumb)+you can accidentally destroy health items by shooting them or a bomb hitting them (also pretty easy to destroy a blue globe by mistake) - breaks flow
No jump boots or grappling hook here
Can get permanently stuck at the top of level 3-2 if you go above the level at the top of it+on the far right of level 3-5
Some trial & error (the lvl 1-3 bomber enemies, some enemies don't show up on the radar, some cheap enemy placements, some grey and red boxes are suddenly empty in lvl 1-5, a few leaps of faith - can't look down at some points in 2-1, episode 3 starts with an enemy shooting at you, the air locks in lvl 4-5 - one hit and you're sucked out into space)
Kinda distracting debris at times and the backgrounds have overly high saturation and contrast
Some spongy enemies and ammo is kinda rare+there's no weapon inventory
Power ups sometimes randomly fall from the sky in a way that makes you backtrack to get to them - breaks flow
Sometimes overly vertical level design - leads to backtracking if you miss a jump
Levels sometimes don't flow as well as they should due to enemies or containers being placed just outside of your firing angle+the lack of diagonal or sometimes vertical aiming (level 2-4 gets pretty tedious because of this+too many spongy enemies)
Some backtracking due to the lack of a shortcut after getting to a key and generally there's no new hazards or enemies met while backtracking. When it comes to the level exit you can usually predict where it'll be so you can avoid going to it and having to backtrack from there as well
Gets pretty repetitive after the first two episodes or so (no new weapons, few new enemies and level backgrounds)
Kinda slow episode 4 overall
Easy third boss
Kinda garish in-game colors
Kinda muffled sampled sfx
Notes:
*Rigel Engine mod/re-implementation: https://github.com/lethal-guitar/RigelEngine