Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project

aka: DNMP, Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project - Total Mutant Mayhem, Duke Nukem: Projeto Manhattan - A Ameaça Mutante
Moby ID: 6505

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Critic Reviews add missing review

Average score: 76% (based on 47 ratings)

Player Reviews

Average score: 3.6 out of 5 (based on 61 ratings with 5 reviews)

Fantastic little gem that proves that you can still kick ass well under the 20$ mark.

The Good
You would expect a bargain bin-direct spin-off to a beloved franchise to be a shameful and boring accident for everyone. Truth is, Manhattan Project is a fantastic little gem that is worth much more than it's bargain bin price of admission.

The idea was to give Pc gamers something to tide them over until Duke Forever gets released.... right... anyway, so 3D Realms licensed their main man for a quick return to it's 2D roots in the form of an action-oriented sidescroller. The trick behind it is that regardless of the gameplay style the game uses a fully polygonal engine that allows the camera to zoom in on the action and change perspective on the fly for a more cinematic action, besides allowing for the use of particle and colored lighting effects a fully polygonal environment allows for, making for a considerably more spectacular experience that the usual sidescroller.

Taking place in a mutant-infested Manhattan, the game follows a classic Duke storyline: bad guy Morphix is flooding the city with the mutagenic Glopp Umbrella Corp.-style, but instead of turning everyone into zombies Glopp turns harmless lizards into giant kung-fu fighting monsters, cockroaches into gigantic man-eating beasts and cute piggies into the good ol' pig cops. On top of that Morphix has kidnapped dozens of girls and attached Glopp-bombs to them, and we all know Duke ain't having none of that, so packing his arsenal of weapons and equipment(which include the classic lineup of items from Duke3D as well as some new goodies such as a de-mutating Glopp gun) Duke sets forth to kick some ass while jumping around and saving some babes.

The levels are all simplistic affairs in which you have to collect unlock the exit, find a babe and defuse her bomb, and demolish everything in the middle. Fortunately top-notch level design with plenty of good platforming action and a lot of charisma in the enemies, items and locations take the tedium out of the experience and give the game a fresh look and feel.

As in every platformer you have secret hidden areas, powerups and all sorts of extras in each level which are always fun things to unhide, specially when they award you juiced-up versions of your weapons and other niceties as in this case. Add to that the traditional Duke-isms (by now expanded beyond being Evil Dead ripoffs) as well as good production values for a game of this kind and you have one of the best platformers for the PC in a while.

The Bad
Kind of short (the lenght is where the "budget release" tag in the game is most felt) and truly lackluster boss fights (which should be a high mark in these kinds of games).

Besides that there are some weird ass bugs that caused me to restart at least one level (another consequence I believe of developing a game for a budget release).

Also it comes with a Duke Forever trailer which is extremely sad, specially considering that the game looks quite good.

The Bottom Line
Quite a good release that proves that budget titles don't need to be horsecrap. Add a profitable license, proven gameplay mechanics and a group of developers willing to put some heart into their product and you have a title that delivers the best Duke-fun since the seminal Duke Nukem 3D, and that's counting the gazillions of console-born sequels and spin offs.

Windows · by Zovni (10504) · 2004

A reminder of the first two Duke Nukem games

The Good
It will be a long wait until we get our hands on 3D Realms’ latest Duke Nukem game, Duke Nukem Forever, but in order to keep us entertained, 3D Realms, in conjunction with Sunstorm Interactive and Arush Entertainment, bring you Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project. And if you played the first three Duke games (Duke Nukem, Duke Nukem 2, and Duke Nukem 3D), you’ll know who the hero is by now. Only this time, Duke takes a trip to New York where it seems that an evil ruler known as Mech Morphix is producing Glopp, radioactive slime capable of turning innocent citizens into monstrous beasts. And as part of his plan, Morphix has taken a few babes and strap them to bombs that will explode at any minute.

There are eight areas to explore: Rooftop Rebellion, Chinatown Chiller, Metro Madness, Unholy Underworld, Fearsome Factory, Tanker Trouble, Deviant Drilling, and Orbital Oblivion; and there are three parts in each area. When you load up Manhattan Project, you can also load up one of your saved games and pick which area and part you want to play or replay. Only those parts can only be played if you at least complete that part. In each, the object is simple: find the bomb strapped to a babe, defuse it, get a keycard that will open up the exit, and get the hell out of there. When Duke defuses the bomb, the babes will then thank you and position with her arms up in the air, suggesting that either she is holding up an invisible object, or begging Duke to hold her tight.

Stopping you from defusing the bombs and obtaining keycards are a bunch of enemies such as Fem-Mechs, Ratoids, and Gator-Oids. There are also your favorite Pig-Cops from Duke Nukem 3D. To kill these bastards, you have up to seven weapons at your disposal. These include the Golden Eagle, shotgun, pipebomb, assault rifle, missile launcher, and Glopp Ray. You also have your mighty boot kick that really packs a punch. Out of all these enemies, the Fem-Mechs are worse, as they somersault all over the place to avoid being shot at, and use kinky devices like whips and electrical rods. However, two shots from the mighty rocket launcher will wipe out these bitches. Some weapons have their advantages and disadvantages. The Glopp Ray, for instance, may be used to shrink enemies to the size of a rat to make them less threatening, but the process of shrinking takes time and it’s more likely that they will kill you before they have a chance to shrink.

You also can get items called Nukes, which helps you build up your weaponry if you manage to get all ten of them in each areas. Some may be out in the open, or hidden behind walls, which might be blown open by a pipebomb. Secret areas may also contain a few power-ups like more health, Double Damage and Force Field. Double Damage makes your weapons do twice the damage, while Force Fields turn you invincible for a short period of time.

Gameplay is similar to Duke1&2. Yes, you do have infinite lives, but there are some major differences. Unlike in these games, Duke can double jump to help him get to hard to reach areas, and if he is about to miss, he can hang on to the ledge and pull himself up. One thing I like about the game is when Duke moves, the camera angles moves as well, allowing you to either view the action close-up or far away (you can make the camera stay still by turning automatic zoom off in the Options menu). There is also no score indicator. You can even save in the middle of your game, so when you die, you’ll restart at the last save point.

Duke can interact with the environment. In most areas, for example, you can look at a monitor and spy on something. In the Chinatown Chiller and Metro Madness areas, you can use the phone to receive a funny response. And you can use soda machines to receive more health. But more often than not, you’ll have to push a switch in order to open a door, raise heavy items like crates, or make platforms appear. And finally, your favorite "Duke-Talk" from Duke Nukem 3D is back, with Duke this time saying one-liners like "You're more beautiful when you're dead!", "Say hello to my little friend", and "I hate pigs!"



The Bad
While playing the game, I found several bugs, even when I patched the game to Version 1.0.1. When I fired several weapons at some enemies, particularly the rocket launcher, the bullets and rockets go straight past the enemies, missing its target. In Part 2 of Orbital Oblivion, the part where you have to open the lab doors and de-mutate a couple of fiends, I was able to go beyond the start point, causing Duke to be sucked into space and float around (see Screenshot #28) Finally, the frame rate was a bit choppy when I got through this area.

The Bottom Line
Great game. If you’ve played all Duke Nukem games straight away, and can’t wait until Duke Nukem Forever is released, then Manhattan Project will get you playing for hours. ***

Windows · by Katakis | カタキス (43092) · 2003

Welcome back, Duke!

The Good
Duke Nukem returns home to the side scroller platform genre in which he was born in a beautiful action game with glorious graphics and intense action. He may be back in his old genre, but he's bringing with him the attitude from Duke 3D, complete with hilarious one-liners, many of which are original this time*. Duke even pokes fun at himself. "Someone's going to pay for making me find these friggin' keycards!"

It would appear that a big bad villain Morphix is terrorizing New York, so they call upon Duke to save the world, and to save the babes. Duke, equipped with his golden eagle begins his adventure jumping from New York skyscraper rooftop to rooftop killing pig cops and quickly descends into the sewers and subways, deeper and deeper until finally he reaches Morphix's layer.

Any fan of platform games will feel right at home in Manhattan Project. While the game runs in a strictly side-scroller manner, often times the camera will pan around and rotate to reveal to you that you're not just running around in a bland 2D sides-scroller world, but a real 3D environment. But sudden camera twists will never confuse you, because your movement is strictly side-scroller, with the only exception being that sometimes there are alternate and optional routes you can take.

You have eight or nine weapons to your desposal, as well as the infamous "Duke kick" which deals almost as much damage as a shotgun. Throughout every level there are hidden secret locations and "nukes", which if you can gather all ten in the level, you'll receive a permanent bonus to your health and ammo capacity.

Every area consists of three levels (eight areas total - 24 levels), and at the end of every area you'll fight a boss. These bosses, while perhaps a bit easy, are a blast to fight. In one level you'll be hanging off the ladder of a flaming helicopter heaving pipe bombs at it, and the next you'll be riding a subway while a twenty foot-tall cockroach chases you.

The enemies you'll fight are typical, and reminiscent of earlier Dukes. You'll fight pig cops, armed with shotguns, mutant gaters with uzis, as well as some newcomers to the Dukes, like women in leather with whips and goo-spitting cockroaches.

The battles are fought in traditional side-scroller action. Duck, fire, jump and kick, bam! bam! jump back, hang from the pipe, bam! bam! collect dropped ammo and move on. Blood and guts will splatter onto the ground and walls in these battles, and if you're not careful you might find some of that is your own.

The camera movement is excellent. I loved the way you never seemed to be running in a straight line, like most side-scrollers. Often, you would turn the corner, or the camera would shift to an overhead view so you can make it across a difficult path a la Frogger all seamlessly as you marched on. If you can't see what you're doing, you're able to manually pan the camera as well.

Some of the battles can get quite intense, but if you're good (or as good as whomever stars in the demo that begins when you start the game) you can get through it with ease. I wish I could do it that good.

Most of the one-liners from Duke Nukem 3D were swiped from Army of Darkness and other movies.

The Bad*
While the fighting was fun, it did get really repetitive. Maybe if there had been more death animations or more blood or something it would have been better, but it gets a little old when you kill a pig cop, watch him fall, walk a few steps, kill another, watch him fall the same way, and do it over and over again. The death animations aren't particularly interesting, either. They just fall dead. Never a dramatic sort of "knock-back" to illustrate the power of your shotgun or anything.

Your automatic rifle, pistol and shotgun all use the same ammo. Perhaps the rifle and the pistol I can understand, but the shotgun?

The 2nd through the 4th or 5th areas all look identical. It's all sewer and rails, and it gets a little repetitive after a while, especially after the dramatic change from the rooftop-jumping from the first area to the sewer in the second.

This is perhaps just an issue with my video card, but some areas of the game ran awful! There was nothing more in these particular areas than any other, but the game would go from perfect frame rate to .2 FPS for a little while.

Surely there are more "bad" things about this game since it was made to be a platformer and nothing more, and it certainly accomplishes that.

The Bottom Line
For twenty bucks, you bet this is a great game! Fans of Duke or side-scrollers in general, or those wanting to get a bit of nostalgia from them good ol' days will feel right at home in Manhattan Project. It's a great game all around and will provide hours of entertainment.

Wahoo!

Windows · by kbmb (415) · 2002

Kicks much in the way of ass!

The Good
Ah, finally a CLASSIC Duke Nukem game. No more of that stupid 3D shooter, no more useless comments about one of the most impressive vapourware products in history: a Duke Nukem game in classic platform flavour. Hoozah!

I've been platform-deprived for ages. Not being much of a console gamer, the last two worthy platform game in memory before Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project had been Alice and the astounding MDK. Mind you, these games are years apart! So when Manhattan Project came out I went out on a limb and bought it right away, and hoo boy, I was not disappointed.

Take the Schwarzenegger-parody Duke Nukem attitude, add to it a bottom-line kick ass 3D engine called Prism3D, classic platform controls, mix it with some great graphics and level design, stir and serve cold - DNMP has it all. It's short (at hard difficulty, and with my anal-retentive attention to detail and the desire to find every single secret it took 8 hours net), fun, to the point and has the exact amount of varied locations and enemies to keep you constantly interested. Right down to the end, the game never gets boring. As for frustration - even at the highest difficulty level the game is challenging, but not overly so, and simply does not frustrate. Damn fine work, if you ask me!

A word about the 3D engine: a modern graphics card should be able to run it with antialiasing and anisotropic filtering turned on. The difference can be astounding at times - while the game generally looks very good, with AA it looks smooth and with AF it looks extremely sharp despite some mediocre textures. So bottom line, the graphics are absolutely beautiful, particularly for a "classic" 2D platform! The camera angles and varying motion directions really give that extra punch to what would otherwise be a dying genre.

The sound is true-to-form: not absolutely inspired, but gets the job done VERY well. Duke is as, well, as Duke-ish as ever, with snug remarks and silly machoistic attitude ("Babes, bullets, bombs... damn, I love this job!"), the explosion and gunfire sound effects are crisp and everything is just right.

Finally, the level design ROCKS: it never gets repetitive, usually is not easily predictable and all in all extremely pretty. Thumbs up!

The Bad
The save point system is slightly annoying, but admittedly being used to Keen-style platform games where one mistake means running the whole level over again, that's not too bad.

The Bottom Line
An oldschool platform game, with great graphics, sound and level design and 3D twists and surprises to keep you on your toes. If you find it somewhere in a bargain bin, make sure to grab it!

Windows · by Tomer Gabel (4539) · 2004

Endearing and truly fun!

The Good
Duke is cool, what else can I say? His hilarious sense of humor and running dialog of detrimental quips to his enemies are worth the price of the game itself!

The Bad
Nada.

The Bottom Line
Fun and funny. Mutants don't stand a chance against our hero. He IS the ultimate alien, and now mutant, ass kicker. The graphics are a stupendous cross between realism and comic art. Great sound effects are loud and realistic. Is Duke a human or a super hero? Play the game and find out for yourself!

Windows · by kevin whatever (2) · 2004

Contributors to this Entry

Critic reviews added by chirinea, lights out party, Alsy, Tim Janssen, Kabushi, Patrick Bregger, Riemann80, Yearman, Cantillon, 666gonzo666, vedder, Xoleras, Emmanuel de Chezelles, Jeanne, Wizo.