Reviews - Back in Business mod for Duke Nukem 3D

A loosely connected map set that goes through a variation of gameplay styles and terrain themes.

Although the architecture is nice, and details can be seen strewn throughout the maps, it suffers greatly from lack of ammo and terrible directions early on.

The directions on what to do are simply unclear, and had me scratching my head stuck on the first level for 30 minutes, to the point I was questioning if maybe some key items were missing entirely. At some point, a red key is supposed to be picked up, but I couldn't find it anywhere. Even after noclipping through the entire level, for an extensive amount of time.

There's also an entire sewer section that seems to serve no purpose? Maybe the key was supposed to spawn here?

Edit:
It's hidden in a box at the end of the sewer, as I expected. This is telegraphed so poorly it took me seeing a walkthrough to get it.
Not really the best case of forward map design. Please, do respect the time of your players.

Normally I'm all for secret hunting, but I ran quite impatient after this.

From this point onward, all levels are prefaced with a written piece of briefing and some set dressing to explain the whereabouts of Duke. I like the idea of gearing up before a mission a lot more than just going in with the standard piece and boot. (Side note, I don't know if Magazine still gets used a lot like this, Depot or Warehouse probably fits better.)

The second level seems a return to form of the classic Atomic formula, running around a pretty self explanatory 'nevada' base.

It instantly feels at home in the ranks of Duke levels.

For the third level, I personally adore the snow effects. I don't see it too much in older games.

I would however appreciate if (map) developers would respect my intelligence and stop plastering invisible walls on areas that could instantly kill me. I enjoy walking off of ledges for no apparent reason other than seeing Duke go splash.
The elevators also seem to move incredibly slow, adding to the trope.

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You can also rpg the saucer for some 'funny hijinx'

All around a pretty good straight forward level (although it took me a double-take to realize the little palm pad PDAs on the floor could be interacted with.) The wave defense at the end also seemed a little random and slow. Not sure why, but the triggers seemed off and took forever to spawn new enemies. Again, the lack of ammo really hurts the game at this point.

The ending van section broke for me a few times, causing duke to blow up instantly. ̶N̶o̶t̶ ̶s̶u̶r̶e̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶'̶s̶ ̶a̶b̶o̶u̶t̶.̶ It happens if you try to walk in any direction when the cutscene/flash takes place.

The map could easily be turned into a more horror like experience with better fitting music and slower pacing, but for a duke level, it is very solid.

The last map involves a ' western ' prison break. I didn't see that coming, but I liked the change of pace. The music is very jarring though.

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All in all, great designs and architecture, but mediocre execution, making for above average gameplay.

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Edit:

After downloading the eDuke version that was around when this came out, I can safely say that despite the architecture is still grand up till the end, the gameplay takes a massive drop down towards the end, just throwing random stuff and the kitchen sink at you without the gear to take care of it, so I dropped the rating down to 7/10. Maybe I just suck at Duke, but given the fact I used to playtest duke mods and other games, I think that's a pretty poor chance. Who knows.

Although seeing all of the map details correctly without sprites and sectors blowing up is pretty nice, especially seeing how the sprites/flats were used to construct objects, which I don't think I've personally seen before (perhaps in AMC?).

Despite the negative bits strewn in left and right be it with(out) my incompetence, I genuinely enjoyed this mapset, so I feel a 7/10 is fair.