DNF Micro-Review

I actually originally posted this in response to a review on Ausgamers that found the game wanting. You can read that here.

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It's a fun game IMO. I haven't quite finished it yet but I'm really enjoying it. Despite some slightly out of place mechanics like the regenerating health (kind of bugs me) and two weapon limit (don't care, there are weapons scattered all over the damn place anyway) it still plays in a pretty old-school way, and it's a good thing. If you want to compare the single-player in this to, say, CoD, this game shits all over it. It's got fun weapons and gadgets and actual pacing instead of being an ADHD shooting gallery. Plus it's got a lot of personality - as much as BioShock or Half-Life 2, I'd say, although it's obviously a DIFFERENT personality. It actually belongs to that canon of games. Single-player focused shooters with strong settings and a little bit more complexity. And it fits in admirably. Half-Life 2 did it better. BioShock did it better. But DNF still does it WELL.

The AI is also comparable to those games, and a damn sight better than CoD's. Sure, the enemies aren't super-smart, but the AI isn't broken, either.

Graphics are nothing ground-breaking but they look fine to me. I actually quite like them. Not technically impressive, but they have style. I always find it funny when somebody plays a game on console and complains about muddy textures, texture pop-in, or long load times. Get used to it playing on hardware that dated.

I'm not going to pretend the game is some kind of superamazing gaming messiah. It's not TRYING to be. What it's trying to be is FUN, and it is. So what if it should've come out 10 years ago? My favorite game of all time came out MORE THAN ten years ago. Games of that time hold up just fine against current games in every department except graphics, which is largely superficial anyway.

I will say that the MP is pretty appalling. I mean, it's a lot of fun, but there's a RIDICULOUS level of lag in an 8 player game, and no dedicated servers. Bad form. Get the netcode fixed up and the MP'll be pretty fun, though.

I'd give the game an 8 as well, personally, and not just because of my love of Duke, but because I had a lot of fun playing the game.

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Full review will come after I finish the game.