24th of August 2025
Duke Nukem 1 & Duke Nukem 2
The last time I played through these two was in the summer of 1997 (they were generously included on the Duke Nukem 3D CD-ROM), so they were due for a replay. They were fun and seemed ancient already back then; now they're still fun and don't really seem any more ancient than they did in 1997.Duke Nukem 1 and Duke Nukem 2 are both 2D platformers, separated by just 2 years. These days even a 5-year difference means basically nothing, but back then such a time span included several technological revolutions. Duke Nukem 1 has primitive audio (beeps and boops) and significantly less colors (it's one of those games that look like they were made in Paint). Duke Nukem 2 already has a much wider color palette and audio. Duke Nukem 3D was then released only slightly more than two years after Duke Nukem 2.
Duke Nukem 1 consists of three episodes; Shrapnel City, Moonbase and Trapped in the Future, with 10 levels each. It's mostly basic platforming, but you've got some gimmicks such as a grappling hook for navigating ceilings, jump boots to help you reach higher and a cybernetic arm for opening up routes. The levels have a good variety of action and platforming, including taking advantage of the vertical dimension. Some are a bit confusing to navigate owing to their size and the lack of a map, and a few are a pain to play through (freaking conveyor belts!). While graphics are dated and the game seems to borrow a lot of assets from other similar titles of the era, the levels have some nice epic backgrounds, particularly the futuristic domed cities in the last episode.
Your main enemy is Dr. Proton, the same guy who was meant to show up in the first Unreal Engine version of Duke Nukem Forever and who eventually was used as the primary antagonist in the Doctor Who Cloned Me DLC for the 2011 Duke Nukem Forever. This means your enemies will consist of his massive army of various robots. You'll fight Dr Proton himself at the end of each episode; these are quite easy so long as you're at full health when entering the boss arenas. There's only one weapon, but with upgrades you can increase its rate of fire significantly. Annoyingly the gun fires only straight ahead. You cannot save in the middle of a level, only between levels, which naturally eliminates savescumming as a way to play the game. Naturally there are also plenty of items to collect; these yield points, but points are rather, well, pointless in these PC platformers, as there are neither lives nor continues to obtain. Still, it's fun to have stuff to collect.
Duke Nukem 2 has four episodes with 8 levels each. You've got a nice variety of themes, ranging from underground caverns to the exteriors of alien spaceships, but over the course of 32 levels there's bound to be some repetition. It also seems like Duke Nukem 1 had a bit more consistency, as in this one level themes sometimes repeat in a rather inconsistent manner. Like in the first one, the game has a few cool backgrounds; still, I've gotta say the ones in the first one struck me as more impressive. Some levels are quite challenging, especially in the last episode. The game also has way too many annoying enemies. Often this is due to a bad habit of placing flying enemies so that you cannot shoot them from where you're standing, and some enemies like soldiers react in a split second as they become visible, giving you almost no time to dodge their shots. Weapon ammo mods make a huge difference; enemies are harder to kill than in Duke 1, so anything that yields extra firepower is always welcome. You can also finally shoot above and below you; too bad diagonal shooting is still missing. Like in Duke 1, you may accidentally destroy vital health items, which is a bigger problem in the sequel because of the tougher enemies and because the screen is often more cluttered with stuff. You can save at any point, but loading a game still takes you back to the start of a map; luckily there are still checkpoints (which, thanks to the absence of savescumming, are always a great relief).
Gameplay is once again pretty basic platforming stuff, but there are some interesting environmental hazards such as
airlocks every now and then, plus in a few levels Duke gets to fly a small craft. Bosses are tougher than Dr. Proton
was in the first one, but if you can click the attack button fast enough you can simply outlast them. The first
game had no soundtrack, but this one has a good one with plenty of memorable tracks (again, I played the original only
once before this but could still remember many of the tracks).
I did play the game with the Rigel Engine. This allows for stuff like widescreen support,
quicksaving and higher framerates. I never used quicksaving and disabled the widescreen feature, as being able to save
whenever and seeing more of the screen at the same time may be convenient, but these are also blatant cheating as they
make the game considerably easier in a way the developers never intended.
What do the games have to do with Duke Nukem 3D? Not much really aside from the protagonist. There are earthquakes, security cameras (for points when shot) and some reactors you can blow up, but these are hardly unique to Duke 3D. In the first game you fight Dr. Proton, in the second one you fight a race of aliens known as Rigelatins in their homeworld of Rigel, while in the third one Duke fights another race of aliens (the Cycloids?). The only interesting fact is that the start of Duke Nukem 3D is a direct continuation of the ending of Duke 2, with Duke returning to Earth only to be shot down. (The LA of Duke 3D also seems more grounded in the '90s than the more futuristic stuff in the other two games.) But hey, one episode in the first game is called "Shrapnel city" (although this one is in ruins), there are Atomic Health items and this texture made its way all the way to Duke 3D.
Conclusion: I was positively surprised that both Duke Nukem 1 and Duke Nukem 2 are still fun to play. Duke 2 may be more technically (or technologically) impressive, but it's also often more annoying than Duke 1. There are plenty of levels, but there's also enough variety (and some epic backgrounds) to keep your interest up. There are plenty of pointless items to collect, and shooting enemies is fun. It's also a positive that neither game allows you to savescum your way to victory; you actually have to be careful and treat health items as something important. Both are essentially rather basic and typical platformers of their era and neither is essential even if you're a Duke3D fan, as they share so little with Duke Nukem 3D. Still, if you're into early '90s PC platformers, I'd strongly recommend giving these two games a try.
