Overview
Turns out, you can’t actually use Steam’s official Review feature on any game that has been removed entirely from sale like Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project has, so I’ll leave my thoughts here instead.
Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project Review
(Originally written November 8th, 2019)
As a longtime avowed Duke Nukem fan myself, I was very interested in finally trying out this more obscure entry in the franchise, which returns gameplay to Duke’s roots as a 2D platformer.
The mechanics are basic 2D-in-a-3D-environment fare: Duke can move around the fully polygonal world along his single axis of movement as he traverses the familiar cityscape of the New York boroughs. A range of weapons are available to Duke – pistols, shotguns, his trusty rocket launcher – but unfortunately, the controls for using such, in addition to moving about the level and dodging enemy attacks does not seem intuitive or necessarily easily picked-up.
But for all those who will themselves on into learning the game’s controls – they will find themselves coming up against a new villain to the Duke canon – and like most of the previous entries to the franchise’s rogues gallery, it’s a cartoonishly evil mad scientist. This baddie’s goal is to drive New York into utter chaos by mutating the wildlife of Manhattan (roaches, rats, pigeons, sewer gators – that sort of thing) into a slavering army under his command. This mission of Duke’s to stop the nefarious ‘Mech Morphix’ fits into the usual Nukem mould of cheesy action quips, saving thankful eye-candy babes, and the bombastic blowing-up of mutant enemies in as gloriously gratuitous a way as a a 2002 sidescroller can possibly show.
Overall, it’s a worthy entry into Duke’s surprisingly extensive backcatalogue of run-and-gun platformers – and it’s worth checking out if you’re a fan of his, or if you just want to try out this unique little slice of slightly-schlocky action fun.