Alright, positive out of the way first

Combat is as fluid and hectic as you'd expect from the engine's capabilities and the levels are sprawling and jam-packed with secrets

The aesthetic of the game is pretty outstanding and most of what I wanted out of it, I got

however, there's a list of perplexing mistakes which justified my refusal to get this game in early access:

-lots of interactivity as with most build games, but misses obvious expectations (no mirror dialogue?)

-more missed opportunities with dialogue options, feels very subdued in contrast to its cartoonish plot

-enemy attack variation is all over the place, but a lot of them feel interchangeable, making their silhouettes useless for prioritizing

-weapons are tightly designed but have some confusing foibles and limited specialization

-minimal hud options

-trading a quick kick/melee with a switch to electrifryer button is somewhat annoying and should be optional

-melee itself feels sticky and most of the time you'll secondary fire if you want it to be useful

-no autorun toggle, stuck in always run

-opengl rendering is broken not because my machine can't handle it but because the .exe points to the integrated graphics in a way that i can't physically stop it from doing (ignores nvidia control panel override)

-alt tabbing breaks the game

there's probably more that i've forgotten

I understand this was probably meant to be both a departure from the legacy of duke but also an homage to that particular era in gaming, but it's missed a lot of cues from the community in the meantime on how to fit in its own shoes in a way that only the devs could've made happen

Can't recommend for the current price of $26 USD

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Edit: they've fixed a lot of my quibbles since this review, so cheers to the devs on that one
keeping it as-is for posterity

Alright, positive out of the way first Combat is as fluid and hectic as you'd expect from the engine's capabilities and the levels are sprawling and jam-packed with secrets The aesthetic of the game is pretty outstanding and most of what I wanted out of it, I got however, there's a list of perplexing mistakes which justified my refusal to get this game in early access: -lots of interactivity as with most build games, but misses obvious expectations (no mirror dialogue?) -more missed opportunities with dialogue options, feels very subdued in contrast to its cartoonish plot -enemy attack variation is all over the place, but a lot of them feel interchangeable, making their silhouettes useless for prioritizing -weapons are tightly designed but have some confusing foibles and limited specialization -minimal hud options -trading a quick kick/melee with a switch to electrifryer button is somewhat annoying and should be optional -melee itself feels sticky and most of the time you'll secondary fire if you want it to be useful -no autorun toggle, stuck in always run -opengl rendering is broken not because my machine can't handle it but because the .exe points to the integrated graphics in a way that i can't physically stop it from doing (ignores nvidia control panel override) -alt tabbing breaks the game there's probably more that i've forgotten I understand this was probably meant to be both a departure from the legacy of duke but also an homage to that particular era in gaming, but it's missed a lot of cues from the community in the meantime on how to fit in its own shoes in a way that only the devs could've made happen Can't recommend for the current price of $26 USD ---------- Edit: they've fixed a lot of my quibbles since this review, so cheers to the devs on that one keeping it as-is for posterity