The Duke Nukem 2001 Restoration Project, a mod whose ambition is to complete the unreleased version of this FPS, considered the best incarnation of the game, is thriving.
Duke Nukem Forever is one of the most disappointing sequels in the history of the FPS genre. What was released was tragic, but the project was not doomed to failure from the start.
It was rebooted several times in its long development cycle, with the most promising incarnation of DNF being the one that existed around 2001. This release was leaked online some time ago. It is, of course, severely incomplete, but a group of fans decided to modify the project to make it playable.
The ambition of the developers is to recreate what Duke Nukem Forever could have looked like, had the 2001 version not been abandoned. The authors are basing their work on the video footage and screenshots released at the time, but they are also supplementing it all with their own ideas - for example, in order to make all the maps form a logical whole, the modders had to develop a new story. Work is also underway on an improved renderer.
The result is great. Already this first chapter easily surpasses the version that eventually hit store shelves, so we're keeping our fingers crossed that the developers will succeed in completing their project.
It is worth mentioning at the end that this is not the only project trying to save Duke Nukem Forever. Another mod is being developed in parallel, called Duke Nukem Forever: Enhanced, which significantly improves the final version of the game that debuted in 2011, as well as introduces changes to the gameplay that make it more like what was offered by Duke Nukem 3D.
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Author: Adrian Werner
A true veteran of the Gamepressure newsroom, writing continuously since 2009 and still not having enough. He caught the gaming bug thanks to playing on his friend's ZX Spectrum. Then he switched to his own Commodore 64, and after a short adventure with 16-bit consoles, he forever entrusted his heart to PC games. A fan of niche productions, especially adventure games, RPGs and games of the immersive sim genre, as well as a mod enthusiast. Apart from games, he devourers stories in every form - books, series, movies, and comics.