Duke Nukem 3D
by Colin Closser
Released in : 1996
Creators : 3D Realms
Platform : PC only
Review: 7/10. Duke Nukem 3D, the bastard child of classic labyrinth first-person shooters such as Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, sprang onto the first-person shooter scene in the pre-Quake era.  Although the basic run-and-kill-the-enemies concept was definitely not the brainchild of 3D Realms, Duke 3D offered innovations on other fronts.  It was the first to offer controls such as up/down mouse aiming, crouching, and jumping. However, the default keys are in frustrating, hand-straining positions if you choose to use a mouse.  If you want to play the game using modern movement setups like those offered by Quake II or Battlezone (mouse aims/shoots only and keyboard performs movements only), you will have to hack the DUKE3D.COM file and change the keyboard keys yourself. This setup is in my mind the only acceptable way to play a first-person shooter.  Hacking .COM files is an unnecessary pain in the ass that should have been avoided by having more easily customizable controls. Thankfully, the gameplay that Duke Nukem offers easily makes it worth your while to spend time setting it up right.
 Duke Nukem 3D offers up excellent level design rivaled only today by Quake II; its attitude and setting makes it stand out from a genre that was until very recently mostly comprised of endless levels of dark mazes. Duke, however, kicks ass in a strip club, a movie theater, a football field, an office building, and a spaceship, as well as on the streets of LA.  You will fight in bathrooms, tip strippers, narrowly escape death by electric chair, break open ATMs, taunt enemies, crawl through air ducts, experience earthquakes, compliment yourself on your own looks, and set up remote-detonation pipe bombs. The weapons are more inventive and well designed than almost anything else from its generation, and they are well above average even when compared to the new generation of shooters.  Not only are there weapons that differ from standard Doom fare, such as the Shrinker and the Freezer, but the more conventional and common weapons used in the game feature excellent design.  For instance, after every twelve shots of the basic weapon, the pistol, Duke pauses briefly to slam another clip in the gun, leaving you momentarily vulnerable; it is details like this that make Duke Nukem 3D stand out even today among its graphically superior competition.  Also, if you want to play the harder levels and stand even a chance of survival, you will have to manage your ammunition carefully.  The only other game to offer this much attention to detail in its weapons is, again, Quake II.
 Don't let the age of this game deter you from giving it a try; Duke Nukem 3D's gameplay and level design are simply phenomenal. Although it will be inevitably be bested someday by another shooter (Half-Life or Unreal), it is still arguably the best game in its genre to be made so far. It stands as proof that a game does not need advanced polygon rendering and a Pentium II to be incredibly fun.  Although its graphics (driven by the Build engine) and control system are aging, Duke Nukem 3D still offers gameplay more fun than nearly any other first-person shooter on the market—and in the end, that is all that really matters.
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