First, the good news: Duke Nukem Forever is available via the OnLive streaming game service (plus, Aspyr just announced today they'd be porting a Mac version, due in August), and it runs well on the Mac.
The bad news: It's not what you hoped for.
Duke Nukem Forever, which takes place immediately after the events of Duke Nukem 3D, places you in the role of mega-star Duke Nukem as he once again battles the Cycloid aliens to stop them from abducting Earth's women. Duke Nukem Forever contains all the machismo and charisma of the original, adding in both steroids and beer as power-ups for full effect.
From a technical perspective, Duke Nukem Forever holds its own. Detailed graphics meet great sound and music, and the game possesses a larger-than-life feel, complete with the classic Pigcops, Octabrains, and 50-foot level bosses that do everything they can to blow you to tiny pieces with weaponry almost as large as their own bodies. A detailed physics engine keeps pace with the frenzied action of the game and accurately tracks the destruction that results from gunfights along the way.
Unfortunately, that's about all the game does well. While Duke Nukem Forever has some terrific moments, complete with the weapons, gun battles, and action you loved from the original, the game shoots itself in the foot on several levels. Frustrating puzzles, exceptionally long load times between levels and respawning, a two-weapons-at-a-time limit, mediocre level design, and bugs in the graphics and physics engines showed that the title could have spent a few more months in development. (Hopefully that made you laugh, since this spent nearly 15 years in development.)
The basics of multiplayer gameplay are present in deathmatch, team deathmatch, king of the hill, and capture the flag modes with a Duke Nukem twist. Unfortunately, a lack of AI-controlled units makes practicing alone or with a few friends impossible, and a dearth of players on OnLive made finding a quick match that much harder.
The bottom line. While there are some fun parts to Duke Nukem Forever, the game seems to have been tripped up by its own constraints -- elements like platform-based-puzzles and limitations on the number of guns you can carry -- taking several steps back from the simplicity that made Duke Nukem 3D great. Maybe this can improve with a few updates, but for now, the Duke seems en route to 2011's bargain bin, bravado and all.
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Duke Nukem Forever
Intel-based Mac running Mac OS 10.6 or later with 5Mbps wired or Wi-Fi connection. ESRB Rating: Mature.
Good graphics. Great sound. Performs well over OnLive. Delivers a great first-person shooter feel at times.
Long load times between levels and starting again after dying. Irritating puzzles prove frustrating. Slight bugginess with the graphics and physics engines. Two-weapon-at-a-time limit proves infuriating. Multiplayer gameplay adds nothing new.
