Did Duke Nukem 3d really influence FPS genre?

[ReadOnly]

I mean... I don't see influence in today's FPSs.

The main evolutional thing was interactivity. It's pretty much forgotten in today's shooters. Ok, talking character kinda fall into that chategory, but that's all.

In the end, DN3d was just a fun game without any real influence on the future games... No?

[Klaus Kinski]

Absolutely no

[Mr. Pink]

5char

[Commando Nukem]

Yeah, uh, none at all. The game was basically a waste of time in all honesty.

[ReadOnly]

What the hell, people? I wasn't trolling, you know.

The main progressive FPS things about Duke3d were voice acting, interactivity and maybe non-linear levels. I'm not seeing any of those in today's games. At least not that frequently.

It's always Wolf3d, Doom, Quake, Half-Life and Halo as the main games that "Revolutionized" FPS genre to this point of their evolution. While Duke3d remains a really great game and stand off from games before and after him, I don't see his influence on games other than build-engine games. Ok, except Serious Sam or Prey most of the games abandoned the idea of a character making those monologuish remarks.

But still, "talking thing" wasn't the main feature of the Duke as a game. Interactivity was. And most of the time I don't even see the interactivity on the level of Duke3d which was released in 1996.

[Klaus Kinski]

So what? Developers shifted their focus, even lowered their standards. That doesn't mean Duke3D didn't influence the FPS or action genre in general. Just look at titles like that Matt Hazard game.

[blizzart]

Ok, except Serious Sam or Prey most of the games abandoned the idea of a character making those monologuish remarks.



What about Postal 2 and FarCry?

[ReadOnly]

So what? Developers shifted their focus, even lowered their standards. That doesn't mean Duke3D didn't influence the FPS or action genre in general.

Ok, developers shifted the focus. I'm not saying that Duke was bad or whatever. And I meant "influence" in a way games being made and their focus. Duke3d didn't do that.

Almost no major games uses Duke's main features. So, Duke3d could have been never made and it probably wouldn't change a thing.

Well, Postal 2, yes. Don't remember Far Cry, though.

[ReadOnly]

Ok, maybe I'm talking about gimmicks/features. Most likely Duke3d influenced many developers and gamers. But not in the way like using it's design decisions.

[Roger]

Duke 3D showed what could be done to make a game fun and immersing yet so many developers panned the ideas. They focus more on tactical shooting and retaining your stats, and they've sucked the life out of it. A lot of things shooters do these days, like holding two weapons and clipping the player's endurance, are just plain lame. They aren't fun. If I was in the mood for something like that I'd rather play paintball.

[soulmate]

Wasn't Duke the first fps ever where you could jump, fly around, swim/dive ? ..not to mention mirrors, which half-life still doesn't have today... okay, jumping and stuff is not a real invention, it was just a matter of time, but imagine a shooter without jumping nowadays :D (no swat and rainbow six don't count...)

[blizzart]

Wasn't Duke the first fps ever where you could jump, fly around, swim/dive ? ..not to mention mirrors, which half-life still doesn't have today... okay, jumping and stuff is not a real invention, it was just a matter of time, but imagine a shooter without jumping nowadays :D (no swat and rainbow six don't count...)

I´m not really sure, but I think you could also jump in Dark Forces before.

[Parkar]

It's hard to find that one (or two) things Duke Nukem 3D did that influenced the genera. It was one of the first when it came to a huge list of things but almost all of them seem so obvious today it's almost impossible to say how important Duke was in regards to them. Especially in terms of level design and player interaction. Just of the top of my head here are some random things Duke did very early that is somewhat common today.


Crouching.
Jumping.
Real life looking environments where each level was sort of of like a scene and could be described by a few words not just e1l2.
duct crawling.
swimming/underwater areas.
NPCs (very limited but they were there and not enemies).
Level interaction (Sure, not really pursued extensively by other games but some games have destructible walls, a machine or two you can activate etc)
"Tactical" weapons and items, trip mines holoduke etc.
Puzzle solving/alternatives to keycard hunt.

[ReadOnly]

Those are good examples Parkar. And Duke3d did those things in one game. My question has been answered. :)

[Phayzon]

In a stretched way you could probably say it also had weapons with alternate fires. Well, just the Shrinker did, but still.

[necroslut]

Also, reloading (even if it had been done before in System Shock I think, it wasn't common) and destructible environments.
And the monitors/cameras that let you see another part of the map.

[marioman360]

the expander, the shrinker, the security cameras, JUMPING, looking up and down, crawling, jetpacks, destructible environments and of course: Duke Can Talk.

I would say the DN3D did quite a bit as far as innovation is concerned.

[OttoMoto]

Duke did major influence.
But there were only two titles (after Duke3d release) with such level of gameplay - Unreal and Half-Life.
Those games are really epic.
And u feel uself as an epic hero at the end of those games - no other shooter can bring u such a feeling. Well maybe Halo and SiN r exceptions.
The're several shooters that pretends to be epic, like Crysis and GoW, but they fail. It's really hard to write down some epic scenario. It's really hard to expand the borders of player imagination, and put one inside the huge detailed world (not just couple of rooms, or just jungle and one cave). But still - those kind of shooters r based of Duke3D experience. And with all the power they got with modern engines - they can't be as good as a game of 1996th year. They just can't.
About the other shooters...well the're few of them with unique style, like MaxPayne. But except tactical simulators - all other shooters are just bad clones of Doom and Duke3D.
About quake. Quake was a stupid arcade game. Like Painkiller and SeriousSam in our times. When ppl compares quake and Duke3D it makes me laugh. Cuz i can't find anything else in quake, but shooting stuff. But it's still fun. But it's stupid.
Doom is different. Blood is different. Well maybe ShadowWarrior is stupid too, but i think it's meant to be so. Like RedneckRampage (wich is not so stupid by the way).
Well...Duke did major influence. Duke brought as "3D action", not just "First-person shooter". It's sad but the're no modern games wich can be called "3D action". Just shooters...

[X-Vector]

Those are good examples Parkar. And Duke3d did those things in one game. My question has been answered. :)

Dark Forces did most of these things (no diving, no hologram) a year before Duke3D.
It also had voice acting, cutscenes, objective based missions and more elaborate story elements.