Duke Nukem 3D: The Last Blood (1996)

Lore & Background

The game is set on Earth 'sometime in the early 21st century'. Duke returns to Earth after the events of Duke Nukem II, but his ship is shot down over Los Angeles. He fights an alien invasion, battling through episodes including L.A. Meltdown, Lunar Apocalypse, Shrapnel City, and later The Birth (in the Atomic Edition). The story involves aliens capturing women, and Duke ultimately defeats the Cycloid Emperor and later the Alien Queen and Cycloid Incinerator.

In Their Own Story

The corridor reeks of ozone and something sweeter, something organic. Duke's boots crunch over shattered glass and something that used to be a wall. His sunglasses catch the flicker of a dying light, and he doesn't blink. A skittering shape peels itself from the ceiling — too many joints, too much teeth. He doesn't raise the shotgun. He doesn't need to. He sidesteps, drives his elbow into the thing's thorax, and it folds. He spits on the floor, adjusts his shades, and walks on. Behind him, the corridor groans. More are coming. He smiles. They always are.

Reader's Guide

As a first-person shooter similar to Doom, gameplay involves moving through levels from Duke's point of view, shooting enemies. Environments are highly destructible and interactive. Levels are non-linear, with air ducts, back doors, and sewers. Duke's arsenal includes the Mighty Foot, pistol, shotgun, chain gun, RPG, pipe bombs, freezethrower, shrink ray, laser land mines, Devastator rocket launcher, and in the Atomic Edition the Expander, and in the 20th Anniversary World Tour the Incinerator. Items include medkit, steroids, night vision goggles, HoloDuke, protective boots, aqua-lung, and jet pack. Enemies include Pig Cops and various aliens.

Did You Know?

• The shareware version was released on January 29, 1996, and the full version on April 19, 1996.
• The Plutonium PAK expansion added a fourth eleven-level episode and updated the game to version 1.4, released on October 21, 1996.
• The Atomic Edition, a standalone version including Plutonium PAK content and updated to version 1.5, was released on December 11, 1996.
• A fifth episode was released on October 11, 2016, with 20th Anniversary World Tour published by Gearbox Software.
• Duke Nukem 3D was developed on a budget of roughly $300,000 by a team of 8 to 13 people.