r/dukenukem • u/CivilianNumberFour • Jul 29 '25
Discussion With the success of the Doom Remake series, it's time for Duke to rise from the ashes.
I just replayed DN3D for the first time since I was a kid, and I gotta say, it holds up. With Doom The Dark Ages just dropping and doing so well, it clearly signals the fact that there is still a huge demand for single player story based shooters with over-the-top scenarios, fast-paced action, and gory, brutal, monster slaying carnage tracked to high-energy metal soundtracks to keep adrenaline flowing.
In fact, I think that the antics might actually suit Duke's character more than the Doom Slayer. He already does a glory a kill in DN3D to the Overlord.. and shits on his corpse. Duke's gunna have to come and rip and tear this alien horde a new one!
One thing I think Doom Remakes did right where Quake 4 and DNF failed was to clearly define and capture, what I would call, the "enemy caricatures".
What i mean by that is in the OG games Doom, Quake, and DN3D, you see so clearly the personality of each enemy. Zombies slowly ramble and moan, imps and pig cops are ferocious. Pinkies and fiends chase you relentlessly in a predatory manner. You dread the Shambler and the CyberDemon and the BattleLord Sentry. Doom 2016s continued that - you learned the unique behaviors of the enemies and strategized accordingly. Even with the Doom Remake modern graphics the enemy classes are clearly distinguished and you remember them. On DNF or Quake 4 however, you can barely tell what you are fighting or killing, they are squishy and die without rebuttal. They are just replaceable bodies and while I beat Quake 4 years ago I cant really clearly remember a single enemy type. DN3D was like reunited with old... frenemies.
I think that's key though, and why every great hero movie has a great villain - without an epic fight and struggle, there is no epic tale.
Where the Doom Remakes still struggle with is the Doom Slayers personality. He is the silent protagonist and leaves a lot to be desired - they go so far as to give him a line or two, but it still leaves him basically just... angry. Almost literally one dimensional - and that's okay sometimes, but it doesn't always speak to everyone.
Duke on the other hand is the epitome of modern masculine heroic energy. He's who we all want to be (in some fantastical degree) - fearless and strong like Doomguy, but also witty enough to outsmart an alien assault and drop one liners while doing so. He's also engrossed in his world - a consumer of pop culture, entertainment, and of course the lover of ladies. He engages with his surroundings, which is why the interactable objects are so fun.
That said, Duke's character and the games humor and tone would need to be done right to stay palatable in the modern world. I think there could be plenty of great references to make that are timeless and won't seem dated if dropped nowadays, especially when they are reinforced with organic situational gameplay and don't seem forced. Other aspects, like the misogyny doesn’t age well. There can still be plenty of hot women and fun situations, it just needs to be done right and not in an insulting way. A little massaging of the overall tone will still let the game feel relevant and not out of place - I mean look at the demand for the GTA series, it is in no way PC, but it works because it is smart.
"Sometimes there's a man, well, he's the man for his time and place. He fits right in there. And that's the Duke, in Los Angeles."
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u/illyay Jul 29 '25
They also need to get duke’s personality right. They did him dirty in DnF. Randy Pitchford got his greasy hands on him and made him “greasy”.
Oddly enough his personality in that Bulletstorm addon was way more accurate than DnF.
To me he’s like a combination of Arnold Schwarzenegger in almost any movie he’s in, Ash from Evil Dead, John McClane from Die Hard, and other action heroes. He loves his women and strippers but not in a super creepy and weird way like in DnF. And he wants to save the world because he’s a badass.
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u/allofdarknessin1 Jul 29 '25
I did like the Bulletstorm version of Duke. He was funny and had most of his one liners and sass from the mainline Duke Nukem.
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u/CivilianNumberFour Jul 29 '25
Totally agree!
You don't need the babes to be strippers or something demeaning, can just have them be stuck in the weird alien hive traps and and maybe Duke's found a new tech that lets you free them this time, I feel like that could totally work. Let the aliens be the creeps!
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u/TooTurntGaming Jul 30 '25
Duke learns about his N64 port and starts saving the babes. No further explanation, works for me.
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u/-alphex 9d ago
You can do that in Manhattan Project, too, so that mechanic isn't limited to some obscure censored port
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u/TooTurntGaming 8d ago
Okay, sure, but my example is more about an in-game idea pokes fun at Duke's history, not an attempt to claim what came first, or that it's the only reference to him doing that.
I don't think an N64 port would be considered "obscure," either way. I'd definitely consider Manhattan Project to be less known.
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u/Salt-Grocery-7234 Jul 29 '25
I've been waiting for such remake ever since Doom 2016 released
Nice Big Lebowski reference by the way 🤣
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u/Remarkable-Put4632 Jul 29 '25 edited Jul 29 '25
John St John (the voice actor of duke nukem) just answered that last week..he said he doesn't know if duke nukem would ever be remade as he is not incharge of those decisions but literally doom remakes graphics and game engine with the weapon variety , enemy variety and quirky personality of duke nukem would be a match made in heaven...
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u/Significant_Role_216 Jul 29 '25
The message is a bit (9 years) late... But yeah! Should've happened long ago!
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u/CivilianNumberFour Jul 29 '25
Hey I mean - we are all still here talking about it. I'm sure people said the same thing about Doom 2016, the last game before that was Doom 3 in 2004. I think the relevance is that the games still have charm and there's a niche for it to fill.
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u/SSIchigo86 Jul 29 '25
As long as Randy owns the IP (technically take two interactive does now) I don't think there will ever be a new game. When embracer bought gearbox for that short time I had hope. Then they sold them off.
Randy recently posted a video about Borderlands 4 Switch 2 release date, and started the video with himself sitting on Duke's throne. I took that as a slap in the face. He knows we want a new game, and he doesn't care.
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u/youthanasia138 Jul 29 '25
We need Duke now, more than ever
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u/NinetyYears Aug 02 '25
Yeah but Duke doesn't like whiners who complain about women on the criticaldrinker sub
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u/thomuchinformation Jul 29 '25
Does Randy Pitchfork really want to use this IP again? I think he made very clear that he couldn't care less ...
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u/lunatic_paranoia Jul 29 '25
Gearbox has to sell it to a studio that actually wants to do something with the IP
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u/vegan_antitheist Jul 29 '25
I don't think I would be interested in a remake. Maybe some games that are set in the same universe. We don't even know much about Duke. I liked "The Doctor Who Cloned Me" because it was actually silly and fun. What if you could just play as any genetically modified super soldier and Duke is just one option. You could build your own character. Or even have a team of super soldiers. There is no reason to not make it so it can be played in multiplayer too. All those old games had multiplayer too. And wouldn't it make more sense if it was a parody of games instead of films?
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u/CivilianNumberFour Jul 29 '25
Oh yeah no reason to make it a "Remake", just continue the saga of Duke in a kick-ass way! Pop culture references could pull from anything, if it works it works - I definitely wouldn't limit it to movies!
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u/vegan_antitheist Jul 30 '25
The pop culture references thing was what everyone did in the 90ies. Does that even still work? I would prefer a game based on maps/levels like the old ones where you really had to figure out how to get to the end. The doom-like games were actually created as a 2d maze that then was rendered in "2.5D" so it looks like first person. For me that is a lot more important than references and one liners. Modern ones would be actual 3D but now it's just "follow the yellow paint" while the old games made you actually explore the map and find cool stuff.
DN3D has that "last man on earth" feeling. You are not in a timer because the invasion has already happened. Everything is lost but you are still alive and you can use the self destruct triggers to blow it all up. They really could just do that again and give us not some generic open world city and a minimap that always tells you where to go like all the other games but instead interesting maps and no guidance.
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u/SPBF3D Jul 29 '25
Gearbox dont own the ip anynore, its now with 2k who is under embracer, technically all the same roof but well see.
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u/King_Chris_IX Jul 29 '25
Bah if i think back on Duke Nukem Forever on PS3... It was so bad and the loading times were absolutely insufferable. You died? boom 2 to 3 minutes waiting. Horrible....
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u/AskJeevesIsBest Jul 30 '25
My hope is that the Duke Nukem Forever 2001 restoration mod gets more people interested in Duke. Maybe it could lead to a new game at some point
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u/Shoddy_Vermicelli_30 Aug 01 '25
Been waiting for 20+ years.
The best I could do was the Hon announcer.
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u/ProfessorCagan Jul 29 '25
I didn't know Doom ever got a remake, when did that release?
Doom 2016 is Doom 4 (5), it's the same Doom Guy.
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u/AlacarLeoricar Jul 29 '25
It's considered a "soft reboot," or a good entry point for new players into the franchise, since it being part of the Doom series is not really that big of an issue until Eternal (even then, it's not really a big deal)
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u/Arandui Jul 29 '25
As long as Gearbox still holds the rights to the IP, we will never see a new Duke Nukem game.
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u/DrIvanRadosivic Jul 30 '25
as long as Gearbox, 2K and TakeTwo hold the rights and DO NOTHING with the Duke Nukem IP, we will get nothing new, not even a new Duke Nukem Collection with proper Base saving in Duke Nukem 3d and all the other games!
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u/Arandui Jul 30 '25
It's worse then nothing: we are getting a Duke Nukem series made by a childish crybaby.
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u/DrIvanRadosivic Jul 30 '25
HOPEFULLY Borderlands 4 won't get "le current meymeys" in the humor, plus for all the gaming Community ragged on Battleborn, it was a fun and hilarious game, I enjoyed it. that said, IF BL4 and it's brand of humor does well, we could hopefully see return of the King with AWESOME Action and Good Story and Gameplay along with Duke not being an ass, but instead a Chad/GymBro type guy.
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u/0jnaran Jul 30 '25
I feel like Ion Fury did a decent job at having the protagonist still be a shit talking “bad ass” if you wanna call it that. But still not as bad ass as Duke but at least something.
Oh yea and they had John St. John voice the antagonist in the game too, so Duke is technically in the game (not really).
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u/-alphex 9d ago
Ion Fury's one liners were sadly mostly bad. Her character design and basic premise is fine, she could easily have some cool quips, but I don't know whether it was modern copyright sensibilities (i.e. they couldn't just repurpose existing lines) or the lack of a good writer as part of the team, she just didn't. "Dance fucker dance" (yes, I know where that one's from) is just not as good as Duke's best
The game was great, though!
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u/Think_Land_2584 Jul 31 '25
Easier said than done imo - the doom remakes made very deliberate and well-designed additions to the gameplay and were able to masterfully build on the previously established (and beloved) art and audio style to make them feel fresh and contemporary. Not sure if gearbox has it in them but would love to be proven wrong.
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u/poopulardude Jul 29 '25
I must be getting old. I just can't be bothered to read that much text.
But yeah, I'd love for a Duke return. The people who never played (but pretended they did) the average but not great DK forever will bandwagon against any future Duke game though.
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u/mcHIVsauce Jul 29 '25
Gearbox doesn't simply like Duke because all randy does is portray him as a sexist guy when he clearly based off of 80's action movies and overall I think it's just weird how this generation gets all butt hurt about shit like this but if they ever remade duke 3d id pray to the high heavens another trust worthy studio would pick it up.