Kingpin: Reloaded - remaster of Kingpin by 3D Realms

[agris]

any word on this, or is it dead?

 

[Baron Dupek]

They started too many projects without sufficient resources and manpower. One or 2 projects would be the max for them at the current state.
Oh wait, you can't do that in game developement. You can't send people to speed up work on other projects like in other jobs.... welp

 

[laclongquan]

NO progress, I dont think~

 

[randir14]

Last news update on Steam was "Kingpin Reloaded delayed to 2021". That says it all.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Just like everything else announced by 3D Realms, it's in limbo and probably not gonna be finished.

 

[agentorange]

Just like everything else announced by 3D Realms, it's in limbo and probably not gonna be finished.

at least this proves there is some good left in the world

 

[Infinitron]

Wow! Coming December 5th:

 

[randir14]

Cool, I thought it was dead.

 

[Roguey]

"Remaster" in the sense that they had to redo the entire game in Unity.

 

[schru]

Also, what is it with the big $ signs? I'm guessing that not-3D Realms thought that players can't be expected to check every corpse for money, but the Phantom Fury demo has interactive containers that have to be used to open them first and then the player has to aim and use the items inside to open them. The action of checking killed enemies for items in Kingpin felt like a nice touch of realism and these huge glowing $ signs are completely out of place.

Apart from this, it seems like the only would-be improvement in this remaster is what looks like AI-upscaled textures, which can only barely be made out in the trailer. So that's what remasters are going to be now?

 

[Roguey]

Apart from this, it seems like the only would-be improvement in this remaster is what looks like AI-upscaled textures, which can only barely be made out in the trailer. So that's what remasters are going to be now?

I don't care about graphics, the perk of this is supposedly rebalancing it so it doesn't play like garbage.

 

[schru]

Apart from this, it seems like the only would-be improvement in this remaster is what looks like AI-upscaled textures, which can only barely be made out in the trailer. So that's what remasters are going to be now?

I don't care about graphics, the perk of this is supposedly rebalancing it so it doesn't play like garbage.

While the combat had problems with enemy animations that didn't quite correspond to all their actions and other problems of this sort that made the experience rather awkward, I don't think that fixing those problems or rebalancing various factors can improve the game in a very meaningful way. Its problem is that while the initial area held a lot of promise, having a sort of open-ended survival feel where it seemed like the player was supposed to initiate fights when it was necessary or served some purpose, the game soon turned into a very straightforward and unimaginative shooter.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Also, what is it with the big $ signs?

It looks like one of those huge messy mods that you installed incorrectly but instead of a bunch of giant yellow ! it's a $. Whatever it is, it's a fucking EYESORE.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

I remember buying a copy of this on sale for my 20-something nephew and he was so inexperienced with PC games (his most advanced games up to then were PS1, but mostly NES, I think) that he couldn't even figure out how to get inside the first building in the first half of the first level. Needless to say he ragequit.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Wait, what's the difference between the original graphics and the remaster? I don't see it.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Sharp knees textures
That's it
Combined with low-energy trailer it looks like messed up job nobody wanted

 

[Lyric Suite]

I remember a promo of this game on the main gaming magazine in Italy (TGM) where they talked about visual innovations like see through chain link fence lmao. That's the extend of my experience with this thing.

Since it's based on the Quake engine, i can only assume the shooting part must at least been decent.

 

[udm]

I remember a promo of this game on the main gaming magazine in Italy (TGM) where they talked about visual innovations like see through chain link fence lmao. That's the extend of my experience with this thing.

Since it's based on the Quake engine, i can only assume the shooting part must at least been decent.

Problem with the game is that most guns are hitscan and enemies have near instantaneous reaction and pinpoint accuracy, and on top of that, you never know who's hostile and who isn't. Also, later enemies are very bullet spongey and do not get stunned even if you shoot them, even with the most powerful weapon (HMG). So it creates a situation where if you're playing on anything but the lowest difficulty, you need to savescum a lot, else you might shoot up an innocent and/or trigger the entire room of people.

I still had a lot of fun though lol.

 

[schru]

I remember a promo of this game on the main gaming magazine in Italy (TGM) where they talked about visual innovations like see through chain link fence lmao. That's the extend of my experience with this thing.

Since it's based on the Quake engine, i can only assume the shooting part must at least been decent.

It's on the Quake II engine, and in this case the developers didn't seem to have a complete grasp of it, as NPC reactions and movement feel poorly implemented. The shooting is so-so, but it feels nicely down to earth early on. The more interesting parts of the game are the open-ended hub design, inclusion of non-hostile NPCs who can be traded with or antagonized, and the design of the setting, which was done by Viktor Antonov just before he was hired by Valve to work on Half-Life 2. So for those who wanted to see some of that darker version of City 17 from early concept art, the locations in Kingpin are rather similar.

 

[toughasnails]

The game was ace when it comes to its depiction of urban decay, and also the uncanny out-of-time feel of its world - early to mid century Noirland at first sight yet filled with anachronistic elements (sort of reminiscent of Dark City).
And the difficulty early on contributed to it, everything feeling rough and hostile. How vunerable you are without firearm, and even then. Remember the rats in then sewers early on? Never did the sewers in a FPS feel so unpleasant to be in.
So it was a quality atmosphere porn even with all the jank.

 

[Roguey]

Apart from this, it seems like the only would-be improvement in this remaster is what looks like AI-upscaled textures, which can only barely be made out in the trailer. So that's what remasters are going to be now?

I don't care about graphics, the perk of this is supposedly rebalancing it so it doesn't play like garbage.

While the combat had problems with enemy animations that didn't quite correspond to all their actions and other problems of this sort that made the experience rather awkward, I don't think that fixing those problems or rebalancing various factors can improve the game in a very meaningful way. Its problem is that while the initial area held a lot of promise, having a sort of open-ended survival feel where it seemed like the player was supposed to initiate fights when it was necessary or served some purpose, the game soon turned into a very straightforward and unimaginative shooter.

Problem with the game is that most guns are hitscan and enemies have near instantaneous reaction and pinpoint accuracy, and on top of that, you never know who's hostile and who isn't. Also, later enemies are very bullet spongey and do not get stunned even if you shoot them, even with the most powerful weapon (HMG). So it creates a situation where if you're playing on anything but the lowest difficulty, you need to savescum a lot, else you might shoot up an innocent and/or trigger the entire room of people.

I still had a lot of fun though lol.

^ that sounds like it's worth fixing

Though since they had to remake the game anyway maybe they should have marketed it this as a remake to justify a greater overhaul of the design.

 

[schru]

Apart from this, it seems like the only would-be improvement in this remaster is what looks like AI-upscaled textures, which can only barely be made out in the trailer. So that's what remasters are going to be now?

I don't care about graphics, the perk of this is supposedly rebalancing it so it doesn't play like garbage.

While the combat had problems with enemy animations that didn't quite correspond to all their actions and other problems of this sort that made the experience rather awkward, I don't think that fixing those problems or rebalancing various factors can improve the game in a very meaningful way. Its problem is that while the initial area held a lot of promise, having a sort of open-ended survival feel where it seemed like the player was supposed to initiate fights when it was necessary or served some purpose, the game soon turned into a very straightforward and unimaginative shooter.

Problem with the game is that most guns are hitscan and enemies have near instantaneous reaction and pinpoint accuracy, and on top of that, you never know who's hostile and who isn't. Also, later enemies are very bullet spongey and do not get stunned even if you shoot them, even with the most powerful weapon (HMG). So it creates a situation where if you're playing on anything but the lowest difficulty, you need to savescum a lot, else you might shoot up an innocent and/or trigger the entire room of people.

I still had a lot of fun though lol.

^ that sounds like it's worth fixing

Though since they had to remake the game anyway maybe they should have marketed it this as a remake to justify a greater overhaul of the design.

Why don't you play the original version and see for yourself? I think the first section of the game is very much worth recommending, as it is and I would even worry that the remaster might make it less interesting if the difficulty gets lowered.

Last time I tried it, it was compatible with dgVoodoo and things like changing the internal resolution while preserving a larger HUD from 640x480 worked. The gamma was better with the Glide renderer, so I'd recommend that option instead of the standard OpenGL renderer.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

It would be nice if the "remaster" removed the hitscan enemies (the most annoying I've ever played in a game - second would be Blood - and replaced it with the projectile-based combat of Arcane Dimensions which to me is the peak single-player FPS experience (a pleasant surprise this late in life).

 

[Avonaeon]

Those dollar icons look so out of place (And they show them in the original as well in the side by side for some reason). It does look like they got rid of the bloom from the first screenshots they posted, thankfully.

 

[udm]

schru toughasnails yeah you guys hit the nail on the head, the game has very neat atmosphere and that's why I revisit it every once in a while.