As much as I love snow and the colder months, sometimes it’s nice to get some sun. Every once in a while, it’s wonderful to be in a place that’s nice & toasty! Even within the world of Video Games, the more warm environments can make us feel at ease, and that can oddly apply to the realm of the FPS genre surprisingly well. Normally I’d get out a seasonal themed review out of the way after my lists, but I’m delaying it somewhat as I take all of you on a trip to a place of sand & surf. Where the drinks are in coconuts, and the fun never ends! So, grab your swimwear & suntan lotion, make sure you’ve had a bikini wax, and get ready for my review of Duke Carribean: Life’s A Beach. Let’s begin!
Story
According to the Duke Nukem Wiki/Manual:
“Duke Nukem is on vacation in the Caribbean to take a break from killing aliens. However, the aliens have decided that the Caribbean offers the perfect climate for a new breeding ground, so they begin laying eggs and terrorizing the local tourists. Angered that his rest and relaxation is being delayed, Duke Nukem sets out on a mission for retribution against the aliens who are interrupting his vacation.”
As bare bones as most FPS titles were in the 90s!
Setting
Like the title of this review says, this new adventure with Duke Nukem takes places in the Caribbean, and it is a beautiful venue to blast aliens in! In comparison to most of the base game & most of D.C. and Nuclear Winter, Life’s A Beach is surprisingly vibrant. There’s a greater emphasis on brightness and color, with only a few places that scale those aspects back. Secondly, most of the levels share that odd sense of fantastical reality with some of the levels from the 1st & 3rd episode of DN3D (Not realistic, yet has elements that might be real). You have a beachside hotel, local market, a casino (The secret level), a water park, a cruise ship, and two cave/lagoon levels. They’re all packed with so much personality, and there’s little Easter Eggs to find that make you smile.
If any of the levels would be even remotely bad, it would be the final one. Titled “The Alien Remains”, we see Duke make his way to where the aliens have their underwater base, and if I’m being honest, it feels like a lost episode from the 2nd episode of the original game. Granted, there are some neat little parts, like descending into the base on a slow elevator that shows how far underwater the place is & the main boss’s arena is designed to look like a beach party, but there’s much more in common with levels like Occupied Territory or Tiberius Station. Still, I find it funny that in this fortress of alien terror, they all continue to wear their outfits from the surface, and there’s still an odd party vibe you’d find in the earlier levels.
Characters
As per usual, Duke is the star of the show. He’s as manly & badass as normal, yet being in the Caribbean has changed him somewhat. His one-liners make him come across like a fun surfer dude, and curiously enough he almost never swears (Except for the word “Ass”). In a fun little twist to his model (More on that in a bit), he no longer has on his signature jeans & boots, as he traded them in for some jean shorts and sandals. All of these changes makes Duke a somewhat new character, yet at the same time stays very familiar to fans. Also, Jon St. John came back for this!
Gameplay ***
As with Duke It Out In D.C. and Nuclear Winter, Life’s A Beach’s gameplay isn’t really all that different from DN3D. Run, gun, look for keys & secrets, etc. Unlike Nuclear Winter, there aren’t any presents that drop from enemies that give you stuff, but it does have it’s own quirks.
For starters, there are 2 new enemies. There’s seagulls that’ll poo on you, and the Pig Cops bouncing around on animal floaties (Called the Inflatable Sea Monster). The seagulls will go down in just a shot or two, as do the floating pigs. Yet the cops are a bit more dangerous, as they’ll shoot explosive coconuts as you! There was also supposed to be humanoid Iguana enemies (Which would have replaced the Enforcers), but they never got put in, and what little physical evidence there was of their existence was lost when Sunstorm Interactive updated their website.....and eventually got sold off. There are also random Beach Babes in certain levels that are walking around, but they’re more of an annoying obstacle than anything else.....but they will hit on you.
Next up are the “New” weapons & items Life’s A Beach brings to the table. I put quotes around “New” because they’re just the base weapons and items given a Caribbean coat of paint, but at the same time feel new-ish to a certain extent. The Mighty Boot became the Mighty Sandal, the pistol and shotgun became squirt guns, the Chaingun became the Triple Poison Shooter, Pipebombs are now Pineapples, the RPG turns into the Coconut Launcher, the Shrink Ray becomes a Voodoo ring, the Devastator was retooled into the Conchanator, Laser Trip Bombs became possessed by the spirit of Voodoo, and the Freezethrower was fixed up as the Ice Maker. The medkit became a crate of bananas, the nightvision goggles became a pair of sunglasses (Weird), the boots that protected you from hostile surfaces are now sandals (Also weird), the scuba gear is now a snorkle, and the steroids is now a bottle of hot sauce. The Holoduke is still functionally the same, but it looks like Caribbean Duke, and the Jetpack is no different than before.
Even the standard pickups became Caribbean-ized! The various health picks are now bananas, Atomic Health is now a pearl, and the armor has become suntan lotion. The Pig Cops you come across have the chance to drop suntan lotion, and like in the main game has a chance to be at a varied amount you gain. Possibly the funniest item that was given the tropical makeover were the keycards. No longer do you pick them up, but instead they’re now Vista Credit Cards as a parody of Visa. It’s a funny little touch, but oddly prophetic given what would come out a little under a decade later.
As for any faults with the gameplay, there really isn’t. It’s just a small smattering of things that don’t damage the experience, but they do make my head scratch. You can harmlessly break the end of the 1st level, and the Assault Commander will not teleport back in once it goes away for a moment like it normally does. I know there’s some more, but the previously mentioned 2 are the only ones I directly know of.
Graphics & Sounds
Underneath it all, Life’s A Beach’s graphics are still powered by the Build Engine. All of it’s quirks, all of it’s faults, you name it. What makes this expansion special when it comes to graphics is the usage of color. In comparison to DN3D, things are warmer, as Sunstorm Interactive opted to use a brighter color pallet. There’s a variety of blues, reds, green, oranges, pinks, and other lighter colors in certain places. Because of that, there’s a more inviting atmosphere in this expansion, and this is also helped by the music. A completely new soundtrack was made to match with the Caribbean atmosphere, as you can hear steel drums, saxaphones, and a few other instruments you didn’t hear in the normal Duke soundtrack. The intro track was particularly interesting, as it was a mix of the Grabbag theme & theme song to Hawaii Five-O, and you can here the influences of both pretty easily!
Another obvious change is how the enemies look! The Assault Troopers look like they’re wearing the suit from Fantasy Island, the Pigcops are all wearing sunglasses & Hawaiian shirts with shorts, the Octobrains all have on flowers & sunglasses that cover their 3 eyes, The Assault Commanders have on snorkles & floaties, and the final boss? Well, I can’t spoil him, as it’s a genuinely funny surprise. The only enemies to not be changed are the drones, the sharks, and the ooze monsters that hatch from the eggs, and the only enemies to not be in the game at all were the Assault Captain & Assault Commander, as their coding was used for the Beach Babes and Inflatable Sea Monsters respectively.
Overall & Rating
Duke Caribbean: Life’s A Beach was the best of the expansions upon it’s release, and still managed to be amazing today. There’s definitely an incredible amount of effort that was put into each & every aspect of the gameplay and it’s looks & sounds, and even with the tiny few glitches it does have, they in no way ruin the experience. It’s a testament to it’s overall quality that nearly 30 years later Duke Nukem fans still talk about it, and that proof enough that Life’s A Beach is worth your time.
Duke Caribbean: Life’s A Beach gets a 9.5 out of 10.
And that was my look at Life’s A Beach. It’s bright, it’s tropical, and it’s a great counterbalance to what it’s like outside right now. Whether you’re a full blown Duke fan, or you just like FPS games in general, Duke Caribbean is for you! And with that said, I got the final post of 2023 incoming this Friday. I don’t know what it’s going to be, but I’m sure to make it Christmas-ey. See you soon!
***
If you like to see a walkthrough, then click on the link below:
Duke Caribbean: Life’s A Beach
Also, if you would like to listen to the soundtrack, the OST is below:
Duke Caribbean: Life's a Beach OST (1997, Sunstorm Interactive)
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