It really tickles me that one of the Duke Nukem gaiden games is a blatant derivative of Tomb Raider. Mr. Nukem and Ms. Croft were both ‘90s gaming icons, so to have the big muscle dude crawling behind one of gaming’s first big female action heroes feels kind of poetic.

It makes sense, though. I spoke to the producer of Duke Nukem: Time to Kill, Dan O’Leary, and he says that, when asked what n-Space would do if given the license to the character, Erick Dyke, having been put on the spot, replied “Duke Raider.” Tomb Raider was one of the hottest games at the time, and Duke Nukem is sometimes viewed as a parody (or straight referential) character, so having him steal Lara’s hotpants seems appropriate.

But Duke Nukem 3D wasn’t good because of the referential humour. It was good because of its outstanding level design and a surreal urban aesthetic. This was heightened by the way the environments incorporated referential humour, but the game probably would still be excellent without remaking movie sets. So, the idea of “Duke Raider” can absolutely work, as long as it has more to back up the concept – as long as there are more ideas behind it. Which isn’t really the case with Duke Nukem: Time to Kill, unfortunately.

DUKE RAIDER

“Duke Raider” is also a very ‘90s idea, and the opening cutscene is an excellent highlight to that. It looks like something a teenaged boy would storyboard in the margins of his homework. Honestly, if I had actually seen it when I was a kid, I probably would have been obsessed.

Duke goes to a strip bar. The aliens from Duke Nukem 3D show up. Duke stoicly starts blasting them. He stands glued to the spot, like his red singlet is going to protect him from buckshot. It keeps cutting between Mr. Nukem blasting away with various implements and Pig Cops reacting fatally and storefronts exploding. A very ‘90s hard rock angst song (by Stabbing Westward, no less) screams in the background, and of course it ends with Duke walking slowly away from an explosion. Gosh, yes. If this cutscene had a scent, it would smell like a gym bag.

There’s a time travel plot. Hence, the portal. The aliens… this doesn’t make any sense. The aliens are travelling back in time to screw up the future (or present, whatever). For some reason, they built their time machine within walking distance of Duke Nukem’s favourite strip bar. They try to assassinate him (again, for some reason) which just draws his attention. Like, this is really similar to the plot of Duke Nukem: Zero Hour. For that matter, time travel was an entire episode in the original Duke Nukem, so it’s familiar territory for the series. I just don’t think the bad guys in those games built the time machine directly adjacent to their biggest adversary.

And if that’s their plan, why attack Duki Nuki so directly? Why piss him off? Just go back and kill his parents. I guess that runs the risk of turning him into Batman…

WHO WEARS SHORT-SHORTS?

I’m not exaggerating when I say Duke Nukem: Time to Kill is a clone of Tomb Raider. Well, I sort of am, but it goes beyond being “inspired by.” The control scheme is pretty much the same, but worse. It’s extremely noticable, because Tomb Raider has a very distinct control setup.

Like in Tomb Raider, you can hold the jump button and press a direction to tumble around. But unlike Lara, Duke can’t shoot in midair unless he’s jumping directly up and down. Maybe because backflips don’t mix well with rocket launchers. You can press a button to turn 180 in an instant, but he doesn’t dodge roll. You also have to hold a grab ledge button in midair to grab ledges. Otherwise, you’ll just slam into them. There’s a button to make Duke take tinier steps, so you can better position his mass. The way the action button is really picky about your proximity to an interactive object? Total Tomb Raider. Duke even has a little backpack just to complete the look.

So, yeah, that’s the review: Tomb Raider but not as good.

And it’s tempting to just leave it at that, but I didn’t push through this game for nothing, so have a seat.

Duke Nukem: Time to Kill is one of those games that sways between “this is tolerable/almost enjoyable” and “please make it end.” I think, when it comes to shooting stuff, it feels like Army Men: World War. It’s really clunky and stiff, but it works in the sense that you can move and shoot things. It’s standard for the era of third-person shooters. Nothing egregious. I have no idea why Duke can’t shoot while tumbling through the air, since that’s 90% of the combat strategy in Tomb Raider.

But while the controls feel directly lifted from Tomb Raider, the environmental design and overall flow makes the whole experience really dissimilar. It gives me a new appreciation for Tomb Raider. And Army Men: World War for that matter.

NEW APPRECIATION FOR ARMY MEN

Tomb Raider would, for example, set up its platforming sections in a very logical way. Crystal Dynamics knew how well Lara Croft handled (poorly), and created the challenges with her clumsiness in mind. It wasn’t always perfect, but if you were supposed to make a tricky jump, it would be configured in a way that enables you to pull it off. Duke Nukem: Time to Kill will present you with platforms and climb-y things, but the way they’re positioned doesn’t account for your lack of control over the camera or the fact that Duke can’t adjust direction in midair or the way that there’s an awkward delay every time you want to jump while running (like in Tomb Raider). And then they’ll make you climb way up high or platform over lava, and it becomes painful.

For that matter, most levels aren’t designed like Tomb Raider levels, which largely consisted of isolated areas where you need to perform some sort of jumping challenge or complete a puzzle. Time to Kill‘s levels are designed more like a shooter. Mazes of corridors and open set-pieces. It’s mostly built on the weakest application of Tomb Raider’s control scheme; the combat.

Luckily, Duke has his jetpack, which I don’t think Lara ever had. It feels like a “get out of platforming free” card. It’s Time to Kill’s saving grace, because otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have the tolerance to get past some sections. The jetpack tends to be pretty scarce and sometimes only found in hidden-ish areas, so it’s a limited resource. I found it plentiful enough to get through, just save it for whenever you see a series of obvious platforms suspended over death.

The platforming does, fortunately, thin out toward the end. There are three stages in Future-ish L.A. that act as breathers between three levels in the old west, three in medieval times, and three in ancient Rome, plus bosses for each. In ancient Rome, I don’t remember much platforming. Not that the level design gets much better. In the last (non-boss) level, you’re presented with a set of portals. One of them ejects you in midair high above a pit of lava, leaving you precious little time to remember the button to open your inventory, then remember the button to jetpack. It’s, uh, frustrating.

But by then I had a stockpile of continues. Whenever you complete a stage, you’re given an additional continue. If you die, you can choose between loading your last save or continuing. Continuing plops you back down at the last checkpoint, and anyone you killed is still dead. Even if you’re in a boss battle, the health you chipped off the boss doesn’t come back. Weirdly, this is almost exactly like Shadows of the Empire.

SHADOWS OF THE DUKE

Also, the environments are so dark. I don’t know what it is about third-person shooters of the generation, but I had the same issue with Duke Nukem: Zero Hour. I actually activated HDR on my RetroTink 4K to deal with the gloom. Which meant that I had to colour-correct one of these screenshots.

I have a degree of respect for n-Force, mostly because of 2005’s Geist. Not that I love Geist (I haven’t played it since its launch), but it at least had a pretty creative hook to it. They’d later go on to do the DS ports of games like Call of Duty 4, which I haven’t played, but I’ve heard are rather capable. But after their two Duke Nukem PS1 games, they made a few of the Mary Kate and Ashley games. Kind of ironic.

It’s also worth noting that, as Dan O’Leary told me, Scott Miller and George Broussard from 3DRealms had a lot of say in the production, so Time to Kill is very much part of the wider series.

With that in mind, Duke Nukem: Time to Kill is… a game. Judging from its proximity to Duke Nukem 3D’s launch and the overall result, I would imagine that it’s not a particularly high budget game. On the back of Duke’s explosion in popularity, it apparently did pretty well, as the version I own is a green-bordered PlayStation Greatest Hits release.

It’s just really unimaginative. As I said, I totally get why “Duke Raider” would be pitched. It’s a very ‘90s mindset. But the Tomb Raider control scheme is very contrary to modern design. Third-person games these days try to streamline as much as possible, so your character can do a lot, even when you’re doing comparatively little. There’s still value in Tomb Raider’s controls, since they require more attention and take more time to master, but that’s moot, because Time to Kill doesn’t even use it effectively. It winds up being a further impediment and makes it that much more difficult to derive any enjoyment from the game today. If nothing else, that is Time to Kill’s biggest issue. Hail to the Queen, baby.

5/10

This review was conducted on a PS1 using a disc version of the game. It was paid for by the author.