Duke Nukem Forever was a long time coming, and when it finally touched down the reception by critics was… rough. Metacritic scores for the game settled around 50, despite the game being profitable for Take-Two. Now Gearbox co-founder Brian Martel has told Eurogamer that critics did not review the title fairly.
"We wish the reviews were a little less caustic. We're not quite sure where some of the anger came from,” said Martel at Gamescom.
"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."
Martel believes that critics and gamers were not prepared for Duke, which harkens back to an older style of play.
"It was what it was meant to be, which is a more old-school style game in what is today's technology,” he said. "I think there was no way that anybody could manage expectations. Name another game that's in a similar situation.“
"It is a caustic game in some ways, so maybe in some of that respect it could've been softened," he added. "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. Gearbox made sure the world got to see what they made and I think everybody should really be thankful that it existed to some degree at all. Because it really would've just gone away.”
Martel explained that the next Duke would be a Gearbox title through and through.
"Is it a Gearbox game? No. When and if another Duke comes out it's going to be more consistent with what I think people would expect out of a Gearbox product. But this is the vision that 3D Realms had and that's awesome. It's just great that the world gets to see it,” he added.
"I can guarantee it won't take 15 years to see another. 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."
