From their PAX South booth this year, 3D Realms (Duke Nukem, Shadow Warrior, Ion Fury…) announced a new project for 2020: Kingpin: Reloaded, a remastered version of 1999’s Kingpin: Life of Crime. Arriving later in 2020 for Microsoft Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Sony PlayStation 4, and PCs, Kingpin: Reloaded updates the original Quake II engine with 4K resolution, ultrawide monitor support, controller support, and an Enhanced graphics mode.
Kingpin: Reloaded takes place in a retro diesel-punk setting where monorails and dirigibles are both common modes of transportation. The player steps into the shoes of a no-name thug left for dead after a savage beating at the hands of Nikki Blanco, The Kingpin’s top lieutenant. From there the player embarks on a bloody trail of vengeance to not only take down Blanco and The Kingpin, but ultimately replace them.
3D Realms has gotten pretty masterful in wringing graphics updates from old engines.
The original Kingpin: Life of Crime had the unfortunate timing of being released during one of Congress’s regular witch-hunts blaming violent media for all of society’s ills. As such, there was a fair bit of controversy surrounding the game’s use of violence and profanity which let to a number of retailers refusing to carry the game. It proved to be the last title by developer Xatrix Entertainment, Inc. (Cyberia, Redneck Rampage), and the source-code to the game was assumed to have been lost until resurfacing in 2014.
“Kingpin doesn’t get the recognition it deserves, due to unfortunately releasing in an era when games were blamed for societal problems,” said Frederik Schreiber, founder of 3D Realms. “We have the privilege of giving it a second chance for people who never heard of it, and sprucing it up for diehard fans yearning to go back to a life of (simulated!) crime.”
Choose your weapons. And everything else.
The new Kingpin: Reloaded will also feature a No Violence mode which removes the gore while preserving the game’s profanity-laden plot and voiceovers. The game was not playable at 3D Realms’ PAX South booth, but was displayed prominently on TVs around the booth. Fans wishing to keep up-to-date with the latest developments in the game should check out the official Kingpin: Reloaded website and the official Twitter, Facebook, and Discord.
