Duke Nukem Alien Armageddon
28th of August 2018Alien Armageddon by Alien Armageddon TeamAlien Armageddon has its genesis in a Duke4.net user 'sebabdukeboss20' posting a whole bunch of his 8-bit spritework,mostly enemies and NPC sprites, for all the world to see. The material was so good that you could have expected to see these as enemiesin an official Duke3D expansion. The quality was enough to prompt DeeperThought to provide code for the newcharacters and a small team of mappers to come up with a small episode of five-plus-one maps. The episodestarts off like any Duke3D release; the aliens attack and Duke must fight off the invasion. However, this timeDuke finally gets to team up with Bombshell, an opportunity we were denied in both and therecent 'Build' game.There are some big names behind the new episode: William Gee, the Oostrum bros and James Stanfield.
The first map is a bithard to navigate due to its highly open-ended and interconnected layout, but otherwise this is a rewarding map with plentyof exploration (including some epic easter eggs) and a very comfortable length to get you used to fighting the new enemies andplaying as Bombshell. The second map is like the Flood Zone but on a much larger scale, conveying a sense of a city utterlyobliterated by the alien scum. It strikes a good balance between its underwater and topside segments while preparing you for what's to come. The third map takes place in a sunken city where Dukechases air bubbles to survive. This mechanic takes you away from the comfort zone of navigating underwaterareas with a Scuba Gear.
It's nothing new of course, having been done before in games such as Sonic and, who could forget, Duke NukemForever, but the experience here is far less clunky, and killing underwater troopers is satisfying as their bodies are left hanging suspendedin water with their heads cracked open by bullets. (In all fairness it needs to be noted that my first experience of this map was marred bya severely malfunctioning autoaim, so for nowturn your autoaim OFF for the entire duration of the third map.)The last two maps take place in an underground base located in a gigantic cavern. In these maps (which easily could havebeen combined into one bigger map) James shows off his proficiency at handling large areas, filling them with impressive lightingand massive architecture, a skill he has picked up during the development of the AMC TC. There's also a slightly gimmicky secret map, but I'll leavethat as a surprise.You start off the episode playing as Duke, but once Bombshell makes her entrance, you're given the option to switch between the characters. Beyond this point there's little reason to stick with theold alien-ass-kicker; all the new guns belong to Bombshell.The new arsenal is functionally pretty close to the original, but the new weapons are satisfying to use and there area few real gems, my favorite being a small pipebomb-replacing turret that does a great job attacking enemies: I only wish the railgunwere a bit more adept at turning its victims into gibs. There's also a new crosshair system that felt just slightly annoying but mostly just pointlessin not being an obvious or a needed improvement over the old system.The sidekick (whichever) does a pretty good job at following you and shooting aliens, but he/she has a nasty habit of wanting to get upclose and personal with the enemy while getting shot in the back by you in the process, making the use of explosives especially risky.
Quite franklyI'd have simply disabled friendly fire and improved the AI's ability to circle strafe: near the end of the episode as battles become more hectic you'll be spending a lot oftime reviving your sidekick, a task that drains a bit of your own health each time. There's also a problem-solving aspect to using the sidekick system,but it hardly gets utilized in the episode. Bombshell's voice acting is pretty good with a 'tone' fitting for the character, but a few lines could haveused another take and the oneliners are pretty forgettable. Also, NPCs seem to always assume you're playing as Duke.Sebabdukeboss20 has done a tremendous job in designing the new characters.
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The new enemies look like they belong in the same alien race as the originals, although it felt like thecolors were a bit more all over the place compared to the originals' consistency.