Duke Nukem Forever is a 2011 first-person shooter game developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K for Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Mac OS X.

Announced in 1997 following the critical and commercial success of Duke Nukem 3D, it was delayed several times, which was attributed to engine changes, understaffing, and a lack of a development plan.

Players control Duke Nukem, a 1980s-style action hero, as he battles alien invaders[6] through three main locations: Las Vegas, a highway and Hoover Dam.

[6] Like Duke Nukem 3D, Forever includes pop culture references, toilet humor and adult content, such as strip clubs and the ability to urinate.

In the downloadable content The Doctor Who Cloned Me, Duke wakes up after the nuclear explosion and finds himself trapped in a strange laboratory while video recordings of himself declaring his bid for Presidency play on monitors.

Set apart from other first-person shooter games by its adult humor and interactive world, it received acclaim and sold around 3.5 million copies.

[8] The 3D Realms co-founder George Broussard announced the sequel, Duke Nukem Forever, on April 27, 1997,[9] which he expected to be released by Christmas 1998.

[8] The 3D Realms co-founder Scott Miller said the Duke Nukem franchise would last for decades across many iterations, like James Bond or Mario.

[8] According to staff, Broussard became obsessed with incorporating new technology and features from competing games and could not bear for Duke Nukem Forever to be perceived as outdated.

A developer who joined that year described it as a series of chaotic tech demos, and the staff felt that Broussard had no fixed idea of what the final game would be.

[8] As the success of Duke Nukem 3D meant that 3D Realms did not require external funding, they lacked deadlines or financial pressure that could have driven the project.

[16] It holds the Guinness world record for the longest development for a video game, at 14 years and 44 days,[17] though this period was exceeded in 2022 by Beyond Good and Evil 2 and in 2024 by Kien.

[27] In North America, the video game retailer GameStop promised exclusive in-game content for customers pre-ordering Duke Nukem Forever.

The critics Elton Jones of Complex,[42] James Stephanie Sterling of Destructoid[57] and Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, creator of Zero Punctuation, named it among the worst games of the year.

Kevin VanOrd of GameSpot felt that the "joy" of the Duke Nukem 3D combat had been "flattened", with "little sense of impact", and found the design tedious.

[48] Eurogamer wrote that the locations lacked the "exploration and excitement that made Duke 3D such a memorable experience", and that the levels were too linear, with "huge chunks of the game are spent simply walking from one fight to another through uninspired corridors".

[44] IGN felt the shooting was "simple fun", but criticized the platforming sequences, which "make up an unnecessarily large percentage of the story mode".

[6] GamesRadar concluded that the "world-record development time has produced an ugly, buggy shooter that veers back and forth between enjoyably average and outright boring, with occasional surges of greatness along the way".

"[46] Many reviewers questioned the design choices in comparison to Duke Nukem 3D, with Kotaku writing: "Old-school shooters, and this is definitely trying to be one of those with its basic AI and lack of cover mechanics, always had two great things going for them: speed and a ridiculous arsenal of weapons...

"[5] The Escapist agreed: "Having been almost cryo-frozen for more than a decade, then awoken and peppered with modern touches, Duke Nukem Forever feels so out of place.

[50] Edge wrote that "the myriad technical shortcomings – particularly prevalent on the console ports – only get worse the further you progress into the campaign",[43] a view echoed by Game Revolution: "when they started on the design, that tech was already outdated".

In one regard, some critics such as Team Xbox praised the voice work of Jon St. John, who did an "excellent job as always with Duke's persona",[60] while others such as Machinima.com[61] appreciated the comedic gameplay tips and pop culture references.

The level and its inclusion of disembodied "wall boobs", which the player can slap, were listed in GamesRadar's "8 worst moments in Duke Nukem Forever".

"[42] Official Xbox Magazine UK thought that the humor was not "so much offensive or misogynistic as just suffering from an adolescent fixation with boobs and crowbarred-in innuendo".

In a positive review PC Gamer noted that "years of anticipation will spoil Duke Nukem Forever for some", adding, "There’s no reinvention of the genre here, no real attempt at grandeur...

"[45] Giant Bomb concluded that for those "part of that faction that finds yourself so fascinated by this whole project that you need to know how it ends, I recommend you play Duke Nukem Forever for yourself.

[72] In 2021, Destructoid wrote that reactions had "ranged from negative to 'I guess it could have been worse,'" and that much of the failure was down to its imitation of the first-person shooter games and that it lacked "self-awareness".

[74] On May 9, 2022, an unfinished version of Duke Nukem Forever from 2001, including the level editor and the full source code, leaked online.

[78] Covering the leak for Ars Technica, Sam Machkovech found that the gunfights were "surprisingly solid", with "punchy sound design and powerful weapons", and resembled the Soldier of Fortune series.

He wrote that the large environments, such as casinos, were built to a realistic scale and "play out like a confused team coming to grips with brand-new engine technology, simply building out larger-than-usual levels without yet getting to the crucial stages of balancing".