Duke Caribbean: Life's A Beach (PC)

If you're a fan of old school first person shooters, you owe it to your self to check out Duke Caribbean. It's honestly a bad fucking ass game.

The whole vacation theme fits so well in the duke universe. Blasting away enemies asses off with water guns, coconut rocket launchers, and an shrieking voodoo ring is so satisfying. Most of the enemies from Duke 3D also return, vacation style, so you have enemies in Hawaiian shirt, seagulls, and octopuses with shades. There is nothing like throwing a pineapple in a group of enemies and blowing them off to hell.

The only real complaint I have is that Duke is kind of quiet in the game. You don't have nearly as much one-liners as you would want, and the few times he says anything, it's usually a repeat of lines from Duke 3D. I came for the Duke, so when Duke's got nothing but shit to say, you gotta be a little disappointed.

On the upside, you do visit some cool and really well designed areas in the game like a beach resort, water park, and luxury cruise. Riding through water park rides was easily one of the highlights of the game and is something you just don't get to really experience in newer games. The levels feel a lot more streamlined than in duke 3D and these older first person shooters.

You won't find yourself running around aimlessly nearly as much as in Duke 3D, with a better sense of progression in levels. Though there is one level in particular, the cruise level, that will have you tearing
your hair out if you don't realize a certain item appears right behind you.

Overall, I'd definitely recommend Duke Caribbean to anyone looking to get away from the monotony of the modern first person shooter, and want to simply rip off an enemies head off and shit down their neck.

Duke Caribbean was developed by Sunstorm Interactive in 1997 as the first official expansion for Duke Nukem 3D. It's available on PC/Steam in the Duke Nukem 3D - Megaton Edition.


Pros
+  Really unique and fun vacation theme
+  More streamlined level design

Cons
-  A few levels will leave you scratching your head
-  Duke is fairly quiet compared to Duke 3D