Wow, I can't remember the last time I've felt so sorry for a game developer. 3D Realms had spent something like 14 years developing this game, and throughout that time it has been cancelled multiple times. The latest cancellation felt like the final nail in the coffin, but lo' and behold, Gearbox stepped in to finish the game. The long-awaited day was finally here, and wow....reception has so far not been friendly.
I have to say, I sort of saw this coming, but even I didn't predict a 49 Metacritic score, an even lower user-rated Metacritic score (4.2) and an Amazon.com Customer rating average of 3/5 stars. People do not seem to be digging the game, and I can only wonder how its developers feel, having devoted over a decade of their lives into something that's now getting trashed by gamers and critics alike.
The question which of course begs to be asked is how much of this is due to the game's infamously long development time, which may have vastly increased expectations and skepticism among the gaming and critical community, and how much of it is truly based on the game's own merits, or I guess lack of them? It's something that I don't think I'll personally ever know, since I've never really even liked Duke Nukem and certainly never planned on buying this game. Still, its release marks the closing of a pretty bizarre chapter in the gaming landscape, and the product not delivering, especially after such a long period of development, makes the situation even weirder.
Only time will tell if this is truly the end of Duke Nukem or if other installments are planned, but that'll depend on sales figures, I assume, and with such bad word of mouth, I have to wonder how good those will even be, even with all the apparent anticipation that surrounded the title's release.
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