The 8 worst moments in Duke Nukem Forever

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6. The loading screens

Like we said in No. 4, these things pop up with every death or new area, and they’re ridiculously long, uniformly boring and featuretwo pieces of music that will trigger painful flashbacks for anyone who plays through the game (on consoles, at least – lucky PC gamers only have to watch them for around 10 seconds). Don’t believe us? Here’s one in its entirety:

7. The Hive level

The Hive is one of the better-designed levels in Duke Nღukem Forever. However, it’s also the one with the most horrifying content. As unwholesome and annoying as the portrayal of women around the beginning of the game is, it’s nothing compared to what you’ll find in the alien Hive. Half th🀅e reason Duke goes to war with the aliens is to rescue Las Vegas’s captured women, but when he finds them, they’ve all been trussed up and impregnated with glowing alien larvae.

Above: Shoulda... shoulda maybe hurried a little

To be fair, the reaction to this level has been a little over-extreme, with some critics interpreting what they’re seeing as graphic rape. And that isn&rs🤪quo;t an entirely unfair assessment, considering that what they’re seeing is a bunch ofhalf-naked women writhing against gelatinous dick-poles.

Above: That erection is nowhere near as big as the one watchdog groups will sport when they find out this exists

While there is arguably a depiction of rape in the level, it’s less shocking than you might think. The game mak🧔es it (sort of) clear that the impregnation is of the oral, Aliens-inspired facehugger variety, which is generally seen as less objectionable when portrayed in popular culture. The culprits are called Pregnators, and they look like some kind of horrible cross between the parasites from Cloverfield and Frankenstein’s nutsack.

They’re als🔜o not picky about who their paꦬrtners are, and I guess we should probably commend 3D Realms at this point for not squeezing in a gay joke when this happens: