https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiZHM1CLVy8
Over several of the many years the Duke Nukem 3D follow-up was in development, Gearbox was working on a prequel called Duke Nukem Begins – an origin story detailing what I’m sure would provide a rich background for the character. A studio called Janimation was hired to make a movie starring Duke Nukem Begins in 2008, before the game was eventually shelved and canceled due to a legal dispute over the character.
The video was directed by Gregor Bunchatz, who also served as a designer for the original Doom games and Rise of the Triad. Punchatz previously leaked some of this footage in 2019 and has now decided to upload it in full: “Since it’s still a piece I’m proud of, I’m releasing it 13 years after it was created. The entire team that has worked with me deserves to see this released in the wild. I hope this performs. Somehow reviving this version of the game by showing the world how great it would have been…”
This model depicts Duke Nukem Begins as a four-player co-op third-person shooter in which Duke wields dual pistols and shotguns and uses a pig’s arm as a combat weapon. He also has some of Duke’s memorable 3D weapons, the slasher and the ejector, but it’s strange to see Duke in third person. I think the series started out as a 2D platformer, so there would be no reason to keep the FPS, and it would have been hard to end up worse than Duke Nukem Forever.
–
