Gearbox Software's co-founder Brian Martel had some interesting words to say about Duke Nukem Forever's review scores to Eurogamer back in August, and feels the game wasn't reviewed fairly, and that the team's "not quite sure where some of the anger came from."
"Everybody should really be thankful that it existed to some degree at all," he said.
Duke Nukem Forever was definitely a love it or hate it title, with the review scores either being in the extreme lows, or the extreme highs. Rarely was a score in the middle seen. Responding to this, Martel claims the reviews weren't fair, and that gamers today are not used to what Duke Nukem Forever was supposed to be.
"It was what it was meant to be, which is a more old-school style game in what is today's technology."
Martel then compares the situation to the critically acclaimed Half-Life series, and asks if it would garner the same reception had it been delivered as a new IP in today's world.
When asked if expectations could have been better managed for the game which was in development for so long, Martel replied, "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?"
"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."
Martel does confirm that the criticisms Duke Nukem Forever received would be taken into account when the series' future is considered, and he guarantees that a new Duke won't take another 15 years to release.
