Duke Caribbean: Life's A Beach

The Good
Great ambientation, the caribbean vacation feel is really well done, the levels are awesome, you will find an hotel, a market, a cruise ship, caves and ancient ruins, and lots more, very detailed and real technical maps. The weapons are also one of the good points, all weapons appareance (plus sounds and bullets) from Duke Nukem 3D had been changed for some caribbean 'warfare machines'. Everything has been changed, you will find the classical enemies coming back in a summer outfit and two more enemies. Great work in the art department. Oh! almost forgot! is also doing some new Duke voices in that add-on!

The Bad
Too short, and maybe the progression of the levels is a bit pointless, doesn't seem that Duke is following any kind of hints or something, he just goes everywhere getting boats, opening doors, and so on... with no apparent reason, but that's nothing compared to the good things.

The Bottom Line
I would dare to say that this is the best add-on for Duke Nukem 3D, if you played Nuclear Winter and Duke it out D.C and enjoyed them, you are gonna have a real good time blasting more aliens in the Caribbean.

The Good
Duke Caribbean, no doubt, has a very unique setting. Instead of LA, DC or the North Pole, Duke is sent to the tropical beaches. And in that, it succeeds. Duke Caribbean has a wonderful atmosphere. You'll find seagulls, Caribbean music, babes on the beach and even a beach ball to kick around. You'll go to hotel resorts and water parks; lots of interesting areas. Unlike DC or Nuclear Winter, Caribbean is a total conversion - everything has been changed, even Duke's pants.

The Bad
Duke Caribbean, in my opinion, was almost near perfect, but, of course, not all games are perfect. For starters, Duke Caribbean, like most add-ons, is short. One episode. As such, I would not recommend speedrunning it the first time through. Second, Duke Caribbean is very easy; you'll have your health well over 50 most of the time. Third, because they needed an actor, the enforcer (chaingun lizard) was cut and replaced with the beach babe. Finally, after the cruise ship you go to jungles and an underwater alien base. While the level design is nice and creative, the final levels don't really fit in the caribbean theme very well.

The Bottom Line
If you finished Duke Nukem 3D wanting more, or your getting tired of ravaging LA, you'll find everything you want in Duke Caribbean. The weapons are fun to use, the enemies are humorous, and the levels are unique. I'd recommend getting Duke Caribbean since it's not only one of the best add-ons ever, it's also increasingly rare nowadays.

The Good
The pig cops with the Hawaiian shirts admittedly looked kind of cool Some of the secrets were also rather clever as well. But that's where the nice commentary stops, certainly from me, at least.

The Bad
The fact that it was made by Sunstorm Interactive. The only talented individual to have come out of that joint was Charlie Wiederhold, who went on to work on Duke Nukem Forever. Sadly, as we all know that particular game was a bomb, although Charlie doesn't deserve any blame for DNF's abundant issues.

Anti Sunstorm diatribe aside, What were the things that I didn't like about the game? Well, most of it, really. In particular the graphics. Some of the additional artwork looks like it was created in Photoshop by somebody who looks like they had potential as a professional game artist, but were a few functions and operations short of earning that title. It didn't quite fit in with the artwork that the base game came with.

The texturing is frankly awful. Now, Duke Nukem 3D itself is not known for it's A+ grade texturing, but this is truly awful. I've seen user maps made by first time amateurs that look better than this, and that really is saying something. Concrete slabs for walls? It was bad enough the original used them for ceiling tiles, but any designer who uses tiles that clearly resemble concrete paving slabs for walls has all the talent of doggy doo.

Most of the new weapons are frankly stupid as well. Water pistols? Sure, they help establish the theme of the game, but in reality, water pistols make noises when you squirt them. These ones don't. This is further evidence that the designers at Sunstorm (aside from Mr. Wiederhold, of course) only put 25 percent of effort into the quality control of this game. Coconut grenades? Stupid idea. Ten year olds are inherently better at delivering newspapers than they are developing computer games, especially games peppered with soft-core porn and adult humor.

Aesthetics aside, general level design is such that I would highly recommend this game for those who cannot get to sleep. Go to bed, visualize yourself playing the game, and you'll be out cold in no time. It is that tepid and dull. The architecture is bland and inaccurate, the shading and lighting is horrible, and in all honesty, the only reason you would want to play this game is so that you can claim that you did.

The Bottom Line
Don't waste your money on it. Heck, if it was free, I would still advise against getting it. It is not worthy of being called a commercial product, and it isn't even worth pirating. To sum things up in a nutshell - avoid it like you'd avoid incest. Seriously.