While n-Space's Duke Nukem: Time to Kill on the PlayStation was a Tomb Raider-style game that had shooting elements in tow, Eurocom's Duke Nukem: Zero Hour on the N64 is more of a shooting game where you can see yourself, as in Tomb Raider. Like DNTTK though, you act as 3D Realms' trash-talking angry man who travels through different time periods, fighting alien forces that are attempting to repaint human history in harsher, darker hues. Yes, the pig cops and octabrains of sprite-based old have returned in fully polygonal 3D, cantankerous as ever, and even in hi-res if you use the Nintendo RAM Pak.
The gameplay in Duke Nukem: Zero Hour is much the same as in previous Duke games: You clear out levels, solve rudimentary puzzles (a step above matching up colored key cards this time), and free captive "babes." The levels are sprawlingly large, often quite well designed, and surprisingly atmospheric in hi-res. The "running around and shooting" bit that defines the Duke series is well represented here, especially at the points when you face off against alien snipers who are feverishly scanning the environment with their laser-beam gun sights to find you before you can home in on them through your own scope. But the real enemy of Zero Hour is the factor that makes the single-player Zero Hour game almost unplayable, and that's the lack of midlevel save points.
Besides just spanning miles of virtual real estate, each level is peppered with enemies and demands that you accomplish numerous tasks before you can move on (collecting machine parts, flipping switches, and so on). One wrong move and you've killed fifteen/twenty minutes, easy. For example, at the end of the fifth level, you've destroyed gun turrets, battled Venom gunships, sabotaged an energy generator, and are midway up a ladder leading to the exit when a sniper teleports in and takes potshots at you. Since you can't shoot while climbing, as in DNTTK, you must immediately drop down and find cover, or else you're out. It's a situation that you're not going to be able to overcome the first time through, since it's not something you'd think to prepare for - like knowing that you should peek around a corner to check out a room. You have to die to learn how to beat it, and this example is in now way an isolated occurrence. Imagine it happening a few times per stage and you start to get the idea.
Still, that would be all well and good if you had a checkpoint halfway through at which you could save your progress - this doesn't seem like an unreasonable request since you could save anywhere in two out of three Tomb Raider games. Without this feature, the single-player mode is downright infuriating, made up of more than twenty levels that only strategy guide/game reviewers and the most stubborn players will force themselves through.
While the multiplayer mode is missing the computer-controlled enemies and the two-player co-op missions that were originally promised by GT, it's quite fun even without them. There are many levels to choose from, each with its own look, feel, hidden passageways, and array of weapons. For instance, the ice level Cool As Ice is full of freeze throwers and puts all the players on skates. Meanwhile, Fogging Hell is full of thick green fog and trip wires - a deadly combination, for obvious reasons. Trip wires and rocket launchers are still favorites for the Dukematches, but the sniper rifle is a welcome new addition. Setting the game to switch levels after each round will inspire many sessions of four-player play, even though the frame rate makes you feel as if you're running in taffy compared with the frame rate of Quake II.
In the end, Duke Nukem: Zero Hour is a game that could easily be recommended if only the save system were better. As it stands, you're better off renting it to check out the multiplayer modes with a group of friends, and simply forgetting about playing it by yourself. --Joe Fielder
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