These accusations come straight from Brian Martel, who is known as the co-founder of Gearbox, though his comments towards the reviews seem more like direct attack on review outlets than the standard defense of artistic direction.
For example, when talking about review scores, Brian cites that reviewers often found the game either a modest accomplishment overall, or a completely failed effort. While reviewers should have rated the game on its own merits, Martel suggests that Duke Nukem Forever was judged for more than just the experience it delivered:
Martel also makes mention that some players just weren’t able to get into DNF, blaming the years that have passed since the franchise was a household name:
Martel could have a point, if it were not for games like Hard Reset and House of the Dead - huge throwbacks to the bygone shooter era - that were still able to hold a metacratic score almost twice that of Duke Nukem Forever, which despite mediocre reviews was still able to generate a profit.
The Gearbox co-founder also goes on to cite the game’s lengthy development schedule as something that reviewers should have taken into consideration. The problem with that justification, of course, is that a bad game is a bad game regardless of who’s developing it and how long it took to make. Just because the game took almost two decades to see the light of day doesn’t mean that it should be regarded as something better than it is, or have less responsibility to live up to its price tag.
To be fair though, the odds were stacked against DNF before it ever hit store shelves, which is clearly something the publishers understood:
Perhaps the part that irks me most about this whole situation is when Brian states:
It’s bordering on stomach-turning to hear any publisher, of any media in general, claim that their fans should be thanking them for releasing a product. Unless it’s free. Martel is clearly passionate about what he sees is the raw deal that the game received, and the fact that he’s having waited this long to voice his opinion shows that he really believes it.
But considering how disappointing Duke Nukem Forever turned out to be, Martel has an uphill battle trying to make the ability to play Duke Nukem Forever into a privilege bestowed upon gamers by Gearbox. There’s nothing wrong with being upset about reviews or sub-par scores (including our own Duke Nukem Forever review), especially considering one has put years of their life into making the game in question. But when a developer makes it sound like the fans were ungrateful for a product that disappointed more than it impressed, that’s where we draw the line.
Hopefully these don’t reflect broader sentiments at Gearbox, because it would be a shame to see one of the most talented developers around add their name to those who try to control review scores.
What’s your take? Do you think that Duke Nukem Forever suffered from bias or overly-harsh reviews? Leave us your thoughts in the comments.
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Source: Eurogamer
