I liked Duke 3D, I thought it was really fun but from what I can tell, it definitely seems like the weakest of the iconic build engine games, at the same time it was kind of the first big one so its forgivable.
The biggest issue that plagues this entire game is the enemy design. Some of the enemies are so much of a chore to fight, specifically the sentry drones, assault commanders, battle lords, turrets and octabrains (kinda).
The sentry drones are the worst, absolutely unbearable. They tank a fuck ton of damage, spawn in the dumbest spots, ear rape you and blow up in your face constantly. To make these guys bearable to fight you have to do the door glitch or just unload into them because they dodge rockets for some reason. Hitler ass enemy, they're up there with the Quake shamblers and the Blood gargoyles.
Assault commanders and battle lords have the same spongy enemy issue, which is normally fine because they're higher tier enemies, however their danger is completely negated by just using the shrink ray and one shoting them which is more efficient and more enjoyable to do because they're not very fun to fight. Especially the battlelords because they're basically just Doom chaingunners that have a fuck ton of health.
The turrets are annoying as fuck because they have a pixel big hitbox and the octabrains are completely harmless because of the fact the devastator one shots them, but I feel like they're not nearly as annoying as the other enemies I listed.
I generally really liked most of the levels but there were a few misses. All of Ep 1 was pretty good tbh, Ep 2 I think is a bit too overhated but it does have some pretty ass levels like Fusion Station and Occupied Station but most of the rest are pretty fine, their biggest issue is all kind of blending in together aesthetically.
Episode 3 is consistently great. Better than 2 imo but there's still some levels I don't care for like Flood Zone which is cool conceptually but its pretty one note and it overly relies on the jetpack as a mechanic which is lame. LA Rumble also jerks off the jetpack a lot but I can forgive it cuz its a pretty cool level. In general, I'll say that all the episode 3 levels are quite varied and unique, which is great.
Everything else about the game is pretty nice, the soundtrack is pretty good, most of the guns are fun (Ice ray is really underutilized though) and Duke Nukem is Duke Nukem so all is good in the world.
The biggest issue that plagues this entire game is the enemy design. Some of the enemies are so much of a chore to fight, specifically the sentry drones, assault commanders, battle lords, turrets and octabrains (kinda).
The sentry drones are the worst, absolutely unbearable. They tank a fuck ton of damage, spawn in the dumbest spots, ear rape you and blow up in your face constantly. To make these guys bearable to fight you have to do the door glitch or just unload into them because they dodge rockets for some reason. Hitler ass enemy, they're up there with the Quake shamblers and the Blood gargoyles.
Assault commanders and battle lords have the same spongy enemy issue, which is normally fine because they're higher tier enemies, however their danger is completely negated by just using the shrink ray and one shoting them which is more efficient and more enjoyable to do because they're not very fun to fight. Especially the battlelords because they're basically just Doom chaingunners that have a fuck ton of health.
The turrets are annoying as fuck because they have a pixel big hitbox and the octabrains are completely harmless because of the fact the devastator one shots them, but I feel like they're not nearly as annoying as the other enemies I listed.
I generally really liked most of the levels but there were a few misses. All of Ep 1 was pretty good tbh, Ep 2 I think is a bit too overhated but it does have some pretty ass levels like Fusion Station and Occupied Station but most of the rest are pretty fine, their biggest issue is all kind of blending in together aesthetically.
Episode 3 is consistently great. Better than 2 imo but there's still some levels I don't care for like Flood Zone which is cool conceptually but its pretty one note and it overly relies on the jetpack as a mechanic which is lame. LA Rumble also jerks off the jetpack a lot but I can forgive it cuz its a pretty cool level. In general, I'll say that all the episode 3 levels are quite varied and unique, which is great.
Everything else about the game is pretty nice, the soundtrack is pretty good, most of the guns are fun (Ice ray is really underutilized though) and Duke Nukem is Duke Nukem so all is good in the world.