Pros: Excellent Graphics, Great Sound Effects, Low Price
Cons: Side Scroller Format, Single Save Slot
The Bottom Line: Overall a decent game but I would not give it a super high score. (6.5) If you hate side scrollers run for the hills, this game is not for you.
af21115's Full Review: Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project for Windows
For those of you who may have been living on another planet since the early 1990's and don't know who is this Duke Nukem. Duke Nukem is like a Marine on steroids. He's a lean, mean one man fighting machine with a bad attitude.
Duke Nukem was introduced in the early 1990's as a very simple side scroller game that looked exactly like Donkey Kong and Mario Brothers. Graphics were crude, and all you basically did was move left or right and jump to avoid things, shoot enimies, and capture goodies, like health and weapons. The third release of Duke Nukem was in the form of Duke Nukem 3D. This new format was as noted in the title a 3D graphics game, and was what is known as a First Person Shooter or FPS. A FPS game is one where you play as if you are looking thru the eyes of Duke himself. This format for all intents and purposes killed the side scroller format, and became king of the gaming world. Duke Nukem 3D became the best selling and most popular PC game in history. Thousands of gamers became Duke Nukem, and proceeded to battle Alien Invaders. As with any well designed game the graphics were excellent for the time, and the variety of enimies, Lizard Troopers, Lizard Guards, Octa Brains, Liz Commanders, Pig Cops, and of course 3 different BOSS's was great. There was also a well stocked arsenal for Duke filled with a Pistol, Shotgun, Machine or Chain Gun, RGP (My Fav!), Shrinker, Pipe Bombs, Laser Trip Bombs, and The Almighty Boot. Subsequent releases added to the basic 3D game by adding more graphic artwork tiles, adding a new enimie, upgrading weapons, and of course additional levels. These upgrades were titled Duke Nukem Plutonium Pack, and Duke Nukem Atomic Edition. One killer feature which made the Duke game KING was the creators used a very good and simple to use engine called BUILD. This was very wisely included in the Goodies folder on the CD, and allowed the gamer to make their own game level called a "User Map". Since the introduction of Duke Nukem 3D, litterally tens of thousands of "User Maps" have been created and distributed. This author has about 5,000 "User Maps" in his collection, and those are only the ones he liked. A main controlling file in the program is the CON file, this was available in the games directory, and quite easily "Hacked". This also expanded Duke Nukem's popularity as advanced users could modify the game functionality, making such things as Pig Cops shoot RPG's instead of their Shotguns etc. Cool! Artwork could be imported and used, and there were two modes of play. Normal, which is where you play against the monsters as they are called, or Death match where you play against other players via a gaming site connected by modem. All cool stuff, and you get the basic idea of what Duke is all about and what it has to offer.
That's where we had progressed to by early 2002. Duke fans have been eagerly awaiting a totally revamped Duke Nukem Forever, which has met with a ton of delays. The creators, to make a better game, switched engines and BUILD was retired. Half way through programming, they decided to change engines yet again, and it was back to square one basically. They promise an exceptional 101% game "When Its Done." In the interim Duke Nukem Manhattan Project was released in May 2002. Suggested Retail price is $24.99. Here is the review on this little package.
First and formost BE WARNED, this game is a SIDE SCROLLER game. IE: Its just like the old Duke Nukem 1 and Donkey Kong. If you HATE side scrollers, pass on this game and get Max Payne, or wait for DNF to be released. Although this is a side scroller, and that takes many gamers back to those poor graphics "cheapy" feeling games of the late 80's early 90's, Duke Nukem MP has outstanding graphics. The artwork is really outstanding and the scenes fit together flawlessly. Duke has never looked more "buff", and those babes OH.... those babes! SaWeet! At first I felt the game was boring. I will admit, I am one of those who does not like side scrollers. My main peeve is that you can only go left or right and jump. Duke Nukem PM is a bit different, and the creators really maxed out the format. Yes, most of the game is played going left and/or right and jumping. BUT... there are lots of spots where a little green triangle will flash momentarily on the screen. This is where Duke can move Up or Down, just press the UP or DOWN arrow key. Typically the game takes over control of Duke at this point, and releases control of him when you reach the new area. So basically its not just one flat scrolling panel, there is some variety there. Duke at times will also turn and move at pre-determined angles. Controls are very very simple, so simple in fact that you can forget the JoyStick, just use the keyboard. Basically your arrow keys move Duke left/right, aim up or crouch, and the left ALT fires and left CTL jumps. Number pad keys select save/load and weapons. Weapons, need'em. Duke has some familiar numbers and a few new ones too. Back are the old Pistol, Pipe Bomb, and Shotgun. New weapons include a GLOPP Gun which when fired at a Mutated enimie will Un-Mutate them, and Duke can then crush them with The Almighty Boot which also returns. Also new are a Plazma Gun, an upgraded RPG of sorts that actually shoots pipe bombs instead of grenades, and my new favorite, the assult rifle. In Duke Nukem MP you have "a whole new breed of scum" as Duke puts it. The only familiar enimie is the Pig Cop, and he's been mutated a little so he is bigger and looks better, but he's still an easy kill. Gone are the old Lizard based Aliens. In are Bugs and GLOPP (Radioactive Slime). Most of the enimies are "mutated" by the GLOPP. You have an Alligator, who looks a lot like a pimp in those zoot suits, a giant Rat that tosses Pipe Bombs and his buddy the giant Roach who shoots GLOPP. There is also a FemBot, robots, and what looks like some sort of Grub Worm. Last there are the Bosses. These come in various forms, some are very easy, some are terribly hard. Examples would be the nemisis Morphix attacks Duke via a well armed chopper, a giant Alligator, and a super Giant Roach etc. Lastly are goodies. Duke has a health meter (called EGO meter), blank weapon spots, and ammo meters. These are a concern as you need to find the weapons and keep Dukes health and ammo UP. You need to find and capture small greenish cubes with a + sign on them, these are power ups and restore Dukes health. The large Triangular green units with a green NUKE symbol are the NUKE buttons you need to collect to get bonus stuff. Scattered about are ammo for all of the weapons as well. Occasionally you will run into two new and interesting goodies. The ForceField. When Duke captures this he turns greenish and nuk-lei spin around him. Duke takes little or no damage of course while this is activated. The down side is that it only lasts about 30 seconds. The other goodie is a sort of super Power Up called Extra Damage. In this mode Duke turns red and when he shoots and hits its twice as hard, and twice as damaging. :o). The Double Damage also only lasts about 30 seconds. There is also the return of the Jetpack. Basically the same as before with better graphics as you can see exhaust and stuff. The downfall is that it runs out of fuel really fast, and if you stop (land) it before that time its gone, you cannot keep reactivating it, you need to find a new one to fly again.
Nuff said on "things", hows the play you say. Play is actually pretty cool. The game consists of 8 main levels each consisting of three parts. The object in each part is three fold. The mutants have captured all of the female exotic dancers and encased them in GLOPP machines. These are set to explode and expose the women to GLOPP and mutate them so these guys can really do some breeding. Duke must find the entrapped vixen and smash the machine thus releasing her. She of course.... is grateful. :o)~~ You will need to find all of the NUKE Buttons. These are not required to finish or move on, but if all of them for an area are found then Duke gets all sorts or rewards like double health, double damage, force field and stuff like that. These and other goodies are sometimes in "Secret Areas" so keep your eyes open for hidden paths or cracks in walls just like in Duke 3D and use those pipe bombs. Some NUKE buttons are held by enimies and they drop them when you kill them. Then you need to find a Key Card. This will typically deactivate a force field allowing Duke to move to the next area. You MUST find the key cards to move on. Hint: DO NOT go past those force field areas before you are completely done with that area and have freed the vixen and found the Nukes! If you do, you will be sent to the next level, and the game will be saved there automatically. You will not be able to go back easily. I will explain this later. As stated earlier this is a side scroller so you'll need to run left or right and jump a lot. Jumping can be difficult in tight places. There is also a jump called a double jump, and you MUST learn this to get to certain areas. Its a matter of timing. You press the jump key then just as Duke is at the zenith of that jump press the jump button again and its like he pushed off on air again and goes even higher. Takes a bit of practice to get used to. Weapons selection also takes some getting used to. You need to press number pad 1 to advance to the next weapon or number pad 2 to go back to the previous weapon. This is VERY cumbersome if your in a pinch!!! Thankfully they kept the old old press a number get a weapon style as in Duke 3D. Duke can also grappel. Pay attention for pipes and ropes etc above Duke. Position Duke under them and press jump (L CTL) and then Action (L Alt), and if its a grappel area Duke will grab and hang. Just use your arrow keys to move left or right and Duke does his thing. Killing enimes is not usually any trouble, just choose a weapon of choice and have at it. If your in a pinch against a BOSS, you can toss multiple Pipe Bombs at once then detonate them all for greater impact. At the end of the third section of each main level you will encounter a BOSS, you of course must defeat him or you cannot go on. Lastly, saving the game. At least in my game things were changed from original plan. The creators originally planned on having a default save area, but giving an option for a player to save under a different name for a specific point of play. This, unfortunately, was removed and the game only has the single save spot. This is VERY annoying. You also cannot save during a BOSS fight. This too is VERY annoying in some cases. If you loose to the BOSS, it takes you back to the start of the BOSS point, a nightmare in the first level If you accidentally get into the next level before you wanted to, you can go back, but you MUST play the entire previous level over again. Very frustrating. Not sure what the creators were trying to do there. They do have the game set up so that you can go back and play any or all levels over again, and you will only have your overall score increased if you do better, but it will never be decreased if you do worse. This is Ok in that you can keep going back and playing a level until you get all of the NUKE Buttons and free all of the vixens etc.
Last word on the levels. I was very impressed with most of the levels. The artwork and graphics are excellent, and game play is, for the most part, challenging and the levels winable. I did not like the first level AT ALL. This was a BAD first impression level, so if you do not like it either, do not be dismayed they get better. My impression was that it was too much "up in the air" stuff and wreaked too much of Donkey Kong. That was liveable though if you just concentrated on the game. What really ruined it was the BOSS for that first level. Impossible! Basically Duke gets a shotgun, and 2 power ups. He can run left, he can run right, and he can jump. The power ups, once used are GONE!! The ammo does re-generate so thats not a problem. The BOSS is Matrix in a well armed chopper. He has missiles and a rocket launcher. Yeah... sucks. You need to avoid his shots and get clean shots to a red motor area at the back of the chopper. Very hard to do! If you do succeed to defeat the BOSS, SUPRISE, THEY get a full power up, you get NOTHING! Then the chopper gets a machine gun turret, and Pig Cops drop out and you have to battle them while being strifed by the machine gun. NOT!!! If thats not enough, if you by miracle beat them again, they AGAIN get a full power up, and you get NOTHING!!! You are then moved to the drop down ladder on the chopper with nowhere to go, and you get shot at by the machine gun AND enimies open and close the door at the top of the ladder dropping pipe bombs on you and shooting at you. While this is happening your supposed to take out the engine... again, and the machine gun. See.. I told ya. They should have skipped this level completely, or at least the second and third re-battles of the BOSS. Other BOSS's are fairly easy to take out. Some get only one try at Duke others get two. Thankfully there are cheats, and you can enable GOD mode for all time health to get you past that first level BOSS. Other than that first level, I liked all the other levels pretty well. There is a level editor included, but I've not tried it, nor have I heard anything on it good or bad.
Downfalls. Other than the first level that is... There is NO multi-player capability. This is a concern for some players. Being a FPS gamer I minded a lot the format. I hated not being able to see ahead of me, especially if I was being shot at or could see pipe bombs being tossed my way, and I had no idea what/who was doing that and what weapon to choose. I hated that I could not avoid the pipe bombs being tossed by the roaches. By the time I saw them it was too late, and I lost health. The first level was a problem with not being able to see as I jumped off a building more than 100 times not knowing there was nothing there. I also did not like not being able to explore. I wanted so bad to explore some of these areas. The great artwork and graphics made this worse and the temptation was greater. As mentioned earlier, the single save game option.
My recommendation of YES is only for those who really truly love and get into the side scroller games. If your just into Duke and feel the creators can do no wrong, or only prefer FPS type cames then my recommendation would be NO.
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