Duke Nukem 2 is a much improved Duke Nukem 1. The controls are better and the puzzles are smarter. The other nice feature about this game is that it was programmed in an environment that transcends most hardware configurations, it runs on everything. I have it on an old DOS 233 Pentium MMX and it also runs on an Athlon XP 3200+ in XP. The sound is fine as in all these old DOS games, that's what makes them so good. I didn't even have to install, it sees the hardware settings and configures itself with no issues.
I do not use DosBox or any other DOS simulation programs, just good ol' Command Prompt. Another good thing is the rate the game runs at is independent of the processor speed, so if you run it on a spiffy new system, the timing is the same, no problems.
Level one gives you a nice feeling of success, you think you can do this. The controls are simple, (I like that), and there are no lag issues. Hop around, avoid the poison, and don't get fooled by the bad guys behind bars. There is a pretty good maze with ladders and all and you have to learn the layout to find your way out of there. I constantly forgot
about the poison, so pay attention. I'm a big Duke Nukem fan, loved the Duke Nukem 3D when it came out and you'll see the feel of that game in here. It all makes sense and if you are careful, you can breeze through level one in minutes after you know the tricks.
So, you think you're hot. You think this is a piece of cake. Level two gets stinky. Stupid spiders. They are everywhere and if you don't shoot them your only recourse is to "shake" them off. Figure out how to do that, it is possible and I did discover it by accident, but it takes its toll. I particularly like the fact that some of the symbolic health and weapons found their way to Duke Nukem 3D, and there is a sense of continuity here for that.
I won't spoil the next 3 levels, it gets worse. If you have a keyboard with the totally asinine "Windows Key", throw it out, burn it, bury it deep. It will be the death of you, literally. There is no room in DOS games for that ridiculous keyboard. I did pry the key out and then you can get serious about getting ol' Duke to jump, spin and shoot without blowing yourself back to the desktop. There are spots where you only have a few pixels to spare, timing and positions are very critical.
The only issue I had is that the game didn't seem to save at the spot I saved. I don't know if this was the way it was designed, or if in fact there was some interaction with the OS. This was in XP and I haven't tried it on my DOS system, but not too many people have dedicated 20 year old systems for these games, so it probably is going to act that way for you.
