Summary
A below-average add-on
The Good
Duke Nuclear Winter adds a whole new episode to Duke Nukem 3D. The best thing about it is probably the new enemies; evil snowmen that hurl deadly snowballs at you, and two new enemies that drop presents when they die. These presents can be opened and contain a random item/weapon. The sounds and music (.MIDs of classic Christmas songs) are mostly nice too. There is also a cool new boss that acts just like Duke and shoots rockets. Levels are fun to play. There are new beginning and ending animations too.
The Bad
Lots of bad things with this. First off, the level design is below average. There are lots of lighting and trimming errors, bad texture choices, and empty areas. The first two levels are ripped from the original Duke3D, just with added areas and changed textures. The rest of the levels are a combination of the things I said above. The new enemies (besides the evil snowman) are just enemy replacements with little to no new code. There are no new weapons, which is a disappointment because weapons with a Christmas theme would have been pretty cool. The Christmas clothes for the old enemies are poorly drawn and add barely anything (the lizard troop wears a Santa hat and the enforcer has barely noticable antlers). Also, unlike the other add-ons, Duke Nuclear Winter requires Atomic edition, leaving 1.3d users in the cold. Finally, there are dozens of ripped textures from other games such as Shadow Warrior. There is simply no excuse for this.
The Bottom Line
All in all, Duke Nuclear Winter is a below-average add-on with too many mistakes. If you can find it at a very low price, get it. Otherwise, stick with the other (better) add-ons by Sunstorm: Duke Caribbean and Duke It Out In D.C.
