Duke Nukem: How would you resurrect this franchise?

[Callate]

So... There's some suggestion that Take Two isn't ready to give up on Duke Nukem just yet. (Like here: [link]http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111173-Duke-Still-Has-Plenty-of-Fight-Left-in-Him-Says-Take-Two-Boss[/link]) This raises some questions, the most obvious of which might be a flat out "Why?", but I'm putting that aside for the moment.

Most of the response I've seen to Duke Nukem Forever, both from critics and from the casual player, seems to suggest that the game is a disappointment at best and the un-funny, un-fun spawn of years of haphazard development crowned with misguided attempts to graft on the worst features of modern FPS gaming at worst. I have to confess that while I've read a great deal about the game, I haven't played it; the explosion of negative feedback convinced me that I'd best wait until the thing hit the bargain bit at the very least. Though like many gamers in my demographic, I have fond memories of Duke Nukem 3D, 3D Realms' hit of the mid-nineties.

So what I'm curious to hear, particularly from those who have actually played it, is: if Take Two or some other party does in fact go ahead and make further DN games, how do they make it right?

Should they abandon the trappings common to most modern FPSs altogether, going for more of what many would now call a Serious Sam/Painkiller vibe? Or try to make a game that better bears low-reserve regenerating health and cover mechanics in mind in its level design? Should they continue to try to take Duke Nukem's action-hero machismo seriously, or allow it to be deflated? Should they continue to try to push the limits of the "M" rating, or dial it back a notch? Stick with the enemies that inspire nostalgia, or set the character against a new foe?

And maybe most importantly, how do they convince anyone who felt their long patience and fondness for the character was betrayed by DNF's lackluster arrival to give a second try a second chance?

 

[A-D.]

To make this very short here. I'd let him die. I wouldnt try, nor implore anyone else to try to revive the Franchise. Lets face it, the Duke got old and his glory Days are over.

If nothing else, Duke Nukem Forever proved that. It only got bought due to the whole Nostalgia attached and due to People having to play the game that took over 10 Years to make. So no, just let that Guy die in peace and move on.

 

[onewheeled]

I would just remake Duke Nukem 3D with modern, cartoony graphics, updating things here and there while keeping the gameplay and, most importantly, the overall experience exactly the same.

Keep everything the fans loved, while keeping the game up-to-date, and it will be successful.

 

[Zhukov]

How would I resurrect Duke Nukem?

With an engraved headstone.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Oh god I hope they let this one go, if you can't do it right do something else.

Anyway they should have kicked it oldschool fun, and then ramped it up by a million.
I feel silly even repeating the mechanics everyone else figured out already, so sum up all the good shit minus the modern shooter shit and you're there.

 

[mjc0961]

I'd just let Gearbox make a game from scratch making it however they really think it should be rather than just finishing what 3D Realms left behind and see what turns out. If it's great, awesome, long live Duke. If it sucks, time to leave him and his balls of fail behind forever.

It just seems unfair to say "End the franchise forever" because of this one game with a really fucked up development. Gearbox could probably make a game that plays great for shooter fans and is still all the things Duke fans love about Duke at the same time.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Resurrect Duke Nukem?
You talk as if he's already dead.
He's not. In fact, he's coming back for more. He said so himself.
[sup]And this time it's hopefully gonna be made by a single developer and not take 14 years.[/sup]

 

[Samcanuck]

A actual funny team of comedic writers. Don't try and bundle up the past...fresh start. Something unique has to be in the mix. Play on the strengths that make the character unique...holding many fun to shoot weapons, many stage secrets with tounge-in-cheeck humour, nudity and swears (we live in the age of comedies based on catch phrase...thats dukes strength). Don't blungeon to death shock value; Once or twice...fine...less is more.

Other than that...I love Duke Nukem 3d...do it up right.

 

[TerribleAssassin]

Get rid of those fucking Octobrains, and the Queen *****.

Other than, use DN3D as a base plate, and start from scratch.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Acknowledge that he's not funny. If the game stopped laughing with Duke, and started laughing at him, I think it could work.

And then you've got the option of having Duke continue, totally oblivious to how painfully unfunny he is, and/or coming to terms with the idea that nobody likes him anymore.

 

[veloper]

Not.

We already have the new king and that's Serious Sam.

 

[Jordi]

I think that when Take-Two bought the rights to Duke Nukem and DNF they were primarily interested in the former. They must have known that stitching together a game with legacy code accumulated over the last 15 years was unlikely to really result in a good game. No, I think they wanted the franchise, and that they felt they had to finish DNF before making a new game that they were actually interested in making.

Why? Look at what kind of publicity and interest it is getting! This is apparently a mediocre game, but everybody is talking about it anyway. Duke Nukem is a huge name, with a big following. Even now, we are seeing lots of Duke fans saying that most people who are denouncing the game just don't "get it". Those people are probably going to buy the new game too.

I do think that Duke Nukem has no potential for really humongous sales. First of all, because of its age rating, and secondly because not everybody appreciates the humor. But I don't think they should compromise on that, because it will lose them the fans they already have and I doubt it will bring many new ones in, because they're probably still remembering the history. I have to admit, I didn't play DNF because I thought it was going to be shit and I didn't like the trailers. I think they went a little too far over the top. I expected "over the top", but not this much. In my opinion they should get rid of the feces throwing, pissing and probably the wall-tits, but they should keep the strippers and the macho behavior. The latter probably does need to change a little bit though, because from the trailers I thought the Duke was far more tacky and lame than the 80s and 90s action heroes that he is supposed to be one of. Maybe they should even try to keep him ubermacho, but update that to 2011's idea of "macho", although I'm not sure about that.

The gameplay mechanics can be overhauled completely I think. That is not what the Duke is really about. Duke Nukem 1 and 2 were side-scrollers, 3 was a first person shooter, Time to Kill and Zero Hour were third person shooters (and I think there are a bunch more games). Duke Nukem is about the character first and the setting second, and the gameplay mechanics can change all the developer wants.

As for marketing, I think they are just going to say "DNF wasn't as good as it could be, due to us having to stitch together 15 years of legacy code and ideas from different developers. This time we got to start from scratch and we are going to give you a real Duke game.", and lots of people are going to scoop that up.

 

[SquirrelPants]

I'd like to write it in the way Yahtzee wanted to; where it was really taking the piss out of him instead of having him be the almighty cool character.

Also, another thing I'd pay for: overhaul the engine Forever runs on to work like Duke 3D, rebuild the entire game in the Forever engine. That'd be pretty wonderful.

 

[MorsePacific]

To be perfectly honest, I wouldn't bother resurrecting it. I like it when games can pass into gaming history. I'm not exactly begging for them to stop rebooting things and making sequels for the sake of originality, but some things aren't worth it.

I guess if I had to help bring it back I would have to try to bring more of what made Duke back. Duke Nukem was a hit back in a time when what it did was outrageous and virtually unheard of on the gaming scene. A new Duke would have to stop pretending it was designed as a serious game. A pastiche of over-the-top action heroes isn't serious and at the core that's what Duke was.

We'd have to do away with a lot of the newer gaming conventions they shoe-horned into Forever. No recharging health. I was always a fan of health packs to begin with. No weapon limit. I know its supposed to enforce a little more difficulty, but it detracts from what the game was meant to be; a hilarious, first-person murderfest to rival things like Serious Sam.

I'm not sure how exactly anyone could bring back the way Duke was characterized, however. Things in Duke Nukem 3D that were shocking back then have very little effect on a lot of gamers these days, the largely desensitized lot we are, and Forever ended up resorting to some borderline disturbing scenes to try to bring back the shock factor. It wasn't funny, it was just, well, disturbing.

 

[ScrubberDucky]

How would I revive it? Simple: Take the piss.

I think the problem with DNF was that it tried too hard. It tried to be a colossal epic that would stand out in time as being legendary and a remarkably amazing sequel which is, frankly, hard to NOT do when you're dealing with a game which is basically the biggest urban legend that exists within the gaming culture.

What they SHOULD have done is make it an upgraded, current-gen game in the same vein as the original Duke Nukems. Health bar, tons of stupidly overpowered, ridiculous weapons that are fun to use, unrealisim, all that good crap. I definitely think adding in some of the better aspects of the modern era would be good judgement, though. Things change for a reason, as many are quickly learning.

Add in a bunch of silliness, parody, stupidly-cliche'd machismo and everything Duke is known for. But for christ's sake, don't try and play it straight. Take the piss. Make fun of Duke. Make fun of everything. Break the fourth wall. Make it a funny, old-fashioned shooter with no pretenses towards seriousness, drama, or story. Make it fun, stupid, violent fun.

I hope that that's what they'll be doing for the next game, which I actually look forward to being released, just to see what it'll do. I think they learned their lessons with DNF, and there's definitely a lot of potential left in Duke, if done right.

 

[JochemDude]

How would I revive it, I wouldn't I would release a HD authentic remake, with very user friendly mod tools. Like map editors, advanced editors, texture editors, etc. I would try to build a solid community behind it and pay people by buying and copyrighting custom maps and releasing them with as Map Packs which would be free for 'active' community members and a small fee for non-members (think in the 1 buck a map style).

I think the vital part to any game is too make it so that fans will continue to be interested in your product and have the feeling they can be involved with it aswell.

 

[Wintermoot]

I would atlest keep the old mechanic of keeping a bazzilion guns instead of a two weapon system.
also rebuilding it from scratch might also be a good idea.

 

[Fanta Grape]

Get bulletstorm and make the plot about Duke Nukem. Change the mechanics to be more of a run and gun shooter, and add a crap load of jokes. Like, a LOT.

That would be a perfect game.