Duke Nukem Forever was not received kindly by most reviewers, despite the sales success that the game saw. Gearbox co-founder Brian Martel did not, however, think that the game was handled fairly by the gaming media.
“We wish the reviews were a little less caustic. We’re not quite sure where some of the anger came from,” said Martel. “There were things towards the high and things towards the low, but the middle just didn’t get any traction. It’s pretty obvious that people were using it in some ways to kind of use it as a soapbox or whatever.”
When asked if he didn’t think the game was reviewed fairly, he replied: “I think that if we were going to review the reviews fairly, no. A certain amount of gamers today are not used to [games like Duke Nuke Forever.] It was what it was meant to be, which is a more old-school style game in what is today’s technology.”
There is a question of expectations, to which Martel said, “I think there was no way that anybody could manage expectations. Name another game that’s in a similar situation. This is a game that was around for 15 years and it went through a number of engine cycles. It could never be everything for everybody, right It is a caustic game in some ways, so maybe in some of that respect it could’ve been softened. But it’s [3D Realms’] vision and people should understand that in a world where we embrace the creator’s vision for something, we let that go. We let that be what it was supposed to be. And that is the team’s vision.”
As for the future of the franchise, “I can guarantee it won’t take 15 years to see another,” he promised. “We love the IP and I think there are a lot of people that really love it. You just have to make sure the character is something that people can love as well.”
Source: Eurogamer
