3rd of May 2026

Duke Nukum V by Aymeric "MRCK" Nocus

Note: The four maps now being reviewed (3rd of May, 2026) consist of the first half or so of the upcoming episode. The review will be updated as more maps are released.
Update: The review now includes maps 6, 7 and 8 as well. Maps 5 (a short interlude) and 9 (a secret) are yet to be released.

Apparently the episode is based on an idea of a would-be fifth game that'd have followed Duke Nukem Forever. Considering MRCK's style is rather unorthodox, don't expect anything resembling a throwback experience.

The first map, Capitol Cockblock, is a city block with a movie theater and a titty bar, so nothing out of the ordinary. Both the garage where the map begins and the movie theater have an extra TROR layer, but it's really nothing that couldn't be done with traditional sector-over-sector, and the contents are merely copypasted, which makes the extra layers feel unnecessary. The layout is a bit confusing as well once you find the red key, as the map now offers at least two paths to the next section, but it's easy to miss a small, darkened corridor with an elevator that you're ultimately meant to use. I did like the traversal toward the rooftop; gives the whole map a neat little goal.

The second map, Deathvalley Deepthroat, takes place in a canyon housing a rocket. The traversable geometry here includes plenty of sloped surfaces you're expected to "climb". The outdoors look rather barren and unimpressive, and the constant red haze doesn't really do it any favors either. The map's main draw is the rocket, which consists of many TROR layers. It's truly well made and impressive, a memorable moment for the books of Duke3D history, but I would've given the player more room, as Duke is just too fast a runner for such tight sections. Still, it's really cool how you first make your way to the bottom of the rocket, then back to the top (in a hurry!), just a bit annoying because you're constantly hitting things - and it's rather easy to miss essential stuff in such tight, poorly-lit compartments.

The third map, Pussycat Plunge (see, there's a clear motif with these titles!), consists of a rooftop of a building and its top floor featuring several identical apartments and a lounge. There's this one rather annoying ambient computer sound in Duke3D that for some reason plays throughout the map. I mean it's one thing to have an ambient sound play everywhere, which may often be justified, but to pick the worst of them and have that play constantly? The layout with its many apartments, balconies, elevators, hidden passages and such leaves plenty of room for mindless wandering, and there's too much visual noise constantly distracting you. You do get a viewscreen though and are expected (I think) to use your jetpack, so better not run out of fuel. The use of respawns in this map is a lesson in how not to use them, as you'll be constantly killing aliens appearing in the exact same spots over and over again. Basically every time you visit a new section all the slots you just cleared of enemies will have been refilled with fresh spawns. Respawns ought to be used sparingly and preferably in clever ways; here they're just excessive and in-your-face. Add to this the omnipresent computer sound and the experience ends up being just chaotic and not fun. TROR is once again featured prominently and this time in a more noticeably way than in the first map.

The fourth map, Goo Goo Gadget, takes place in some underground alien base. There's very little space to move around in this place. In the underwater tunnels you're constantly hugged by Octabrains who take away your space and make it tricky to use explosives against them. In the reactor room you'll face Battlelords, Protector Drones (including tiny ones that are hard to hit) and many others with not much space to outmaneuver them. There are flickering lights, exotic colors and humming sounds (the annoying computer sound is there again) everywhere, acting as a distraction. At least there are some cute little ideas scattered around, including alien pistons, the generators in the last room and some circular shapes here and there.

14th of June 2026:

The narrative gets a bit weird in Good Ole Gloryhole; environments are now even less familiar. With no explanation of what's happening, the player is left wondering what's going on. At the start of the map I spent minutes wandering in the underwater tunnels because I had missed a button that didn't look like a button (and that's not the only such thing in the map). Then are more tiny drones to piss you off; these were "interesting" maybe the first time we saw them some years back (enemy sizes can be changed in the editor, but in game they always revert to their hardcoded values; Protector Drones have been an exception for a while now), and there have been maybe one or two usermaps where they were used well, but overwhelmingly they are just a major annoyance. Design-wise the map is a bit of a mess, but it has some cool stuff thrown in such as moving vehicles, and I liked the vertical design and platforming of the last section (aside from the slow-moving final lift).

The next map, Mount Anal Cave is visually ambiguous and yet with a lot of impressive stuff in it. There are areas lush with weird and creative alien vegetation, there's transparent liquid, weird structures, stalactites, stalacmites and so on. Too bad gameplay takes another turn for the worse. For one, there are still more mini drones, and now there are also way too many Octabrains; being spongy and slow, these are simply boring to fight against in such numbers unless you have plenty of explosives. And while all the thick vegetation looks good, the sprites are of the blocking variety. There's one bit where (unless you have enough jetpack fuel left) you have to spend minutes waiting for some moving platforms to complete their route; the visual gimmick involving a non-used sprite from the original game is neat, but the execution just ends up being tedious. And once I got the yellow key I walked around for minutes looking for where to put it (always a risk with these open-ended maps); and when I finally found the door the switch behind it seemed to do nothing but spawn in two sentries, so I cheated to get to the Nukebutton. (Edit: This should be fixed now.)

The aliens have gathered to witness your public execution in Double Penetencury. How painful the start is depends on how much health you had left at the end of the previous map. It's not a bad sequence but definitely calls for trial and error; and the player should have been given full health (maybe even overcharged) no matter how he ended the last map. Unfortunately there's more tedium on the way, as you'll spend the next 5-10 minutes trying to get in and out of prison cells using these tiny manholes that are just too small by an annoyingly small margin. Luckily the map opens up considerably after this. Like basically all maps in the episode, the alien prison consists of several TROR layers (the layout reminded me of E2L11) and plenty of vertical navigation. The circular hallways look nice and the top of the prison with the reactor is a highlight of the episode - visually, that is, as the gameplay still consists way too much of annoying monster spam (sentries this time). I actually found my way to the final section relatively fast here, but it wouldn't surprise me if many missed the tiny opening. The boss fight sequence is rather elaborate; another cool idea involving plenty of impressive visuals (including Dr. Proton himself!) but that just ends up being not fun at all from a gameplay perspective.

All the levels of the first half took me between 16 and 18 minutes. The maps are heavily TROR-focused, but other than that I found them creatively less inventive than some of MRCK's recent usermaps. To be sure, there were still some cool ideas scattered throughout, like using the nukebutton sprite as platform, the "Million Dollar" floor carpeting in the first map, and so on. Overall the maps suffer a bit too much of things that have become a hallmark of MRCK's modern design. Too colorful, too many flickering lights, too noisy with fast punk music tracks on top of an already oversatured ambient soundscape, too many trash cans, etc. Then there's gameplay marked by excessive reliance on respawns, enemies chasing and too many flying enemies being a constant pest; and all the audiovisual noise can make the maps harder to navigate as well.
In the second half of the episode there's overall less audiovisual distraction and the player is served more creative ideas here and there. Thematically the maps are now harder to define; it'd have served the episode well to give the player some clue as to what's happening. Instead we've got some vague mention that the episode is based on the story of a would-be sequel to Duke Nukem Forever. And gameplay-wise there are just too many annoyances along the way.

Score: 7
Download: Mirror
Version: 1.4, 1.5
Author: Aymeric "MRCK" Nocus