In June of 2011, after an infamously long development time, Duke Nukem Forever was released to middling reviews and, over time, became the poster child for games stuck in development hell. In the 14 years from announcement to release, the game had changed developers, engines, and publishers. 15 years after it was unleashed, the Respawn Station crew booted it up to see just how fair those reviews were.

Our retrospective review show, Retro Grade, is back, and the first subscriber-voted game was Duke Nukem Forever. Join Sri Kandula, Austin Perkins, and Nick Sivak on an in-depth and honest discussion about the surprising elements of the game’s design, the occasionally funny punchlines, and the rather impressive interactive mechanics. All of which are overshadowed by a boring gameplay loop padded out with repetitive enemy encounters and painful checkpoints.

Whether you want to play along and listen or just hear three guys rant about Duke’s package, the full episode of Retro Grade is available now on YouTube. New episodes will be released monthly, so be sure to subscribe to vote on the future titles. The next review will be on Call of Juarez so we’ll see you there!