Fans Complete the Best Unreleased Version of Legendary Shooter
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.
- Their modification is called Duke Nukem 2001 Restoration Project and has recently reached version 0.2.
- In the leak, most of the maps were completely unplayable.
- The authors reworked many of them so that they could be played comfortably - in these levels, among other things, bugs were fixed and missing elements were added.
- Currently, the first chapter of the campaign has been completed, and the creators are working on more maps.
- Multiplayer has also been restored in the latest version.
The best Duke Nukem Forever
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.
- Duke Nukem 2001 Restoration Project - download the mod from our FTP server. (the authors have given us permission to host a mirror)
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.
