Kick ass and chew brains in Duke Nukem: Horror Castle, a spooky mod where you blast skeletons and chow down on the gooey insides of their skulls

A skeleton approaches the player in a stone courtyard in Duke Nukem: Horror Castle. — (Image credit: 3D Realms, WilliamGee)

If you're a die-hard Duke Nukem 3D fan feeling starved for Hallowe'en themed action, that's an oddly specific scenario in 2025. But I have something for you nonetheless. Duke Nukem: Horror Castle takes the bubblegum-starved FPS titan and plonks him into an all-new episode, swapping out the original's sci-fi shenanigans for a spookier theme.

Created by modder WilliamGee, Horror Castle is a sizeable affair. Its nine-level campaign sees Duke explore not one but several gothic fortresses, offering between 3-5 hours of additional FPS fun. It isn't just a level pack either. Horror Castle introduces 24 new enemies including wandering skeletons, vampire bats, and Nosferatu-like bloodsuckers, as well as four minibosses from D3D with the added bonus of being able to shrink them and stomp them to death.

Horror Castle also equips Duke with four additional weapons. Duke can toss enormous spiders to attack enemies, then blast them with skeletal shrapnel using the Bone Crusher, a weapon reminiscent of the Ravager from Doom: The Dark Ages. And rather than replenishing health using medkits, Duke can boost his vitality by cracking open discarded skulls and feasting on the soft and squishy sponge within. Yum.

DUKE NUKEM HORROR CASTLE TRAILER - YouTube

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Duke Nukem: Horror Castle originally released back in May, but WilliamGee recently released an updated version that garlands the mod with a more specific Hallowe'en theme. This includes several newly added Hallowe'en items, like a pumpkin and a ghost, plus a new secret level that features even more bespoke enemies.

You can download Duke Nukem: Horror Castle over on ModDB. While the chances of seeing a proper new Duke game anytime soon (or, for that matter, ever) are slim, the Duke modding scene has been livelier than usual lately. Only last week, the creator of Voxel Doom revealed he's making Voxel Duke Nukem 3D, with a release due soon. There's also a chance we might see a Duke Nukem TV series from the producer of the Devil May Cry and Castlevania Netflix shows, with Adi Shankar saying he acquired the rights from Gearbox earlier this year.

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Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.

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