Duke it out in D.C.

 

Overview

Duke it Out in D.C. is both Sunstorm Interactive's first Duke Nukem 3D expansion pack and the first official third party expansion pack for the game. It would later be bundled with the game as the " Duke Nukem 3D Kill-A-Ton Collection." The storyline entails President Bill Clinton being kidnapped by the aliens and Duke being called in to rescue him. The expansion is set within Washington D.C., takes the player through a variety of famous landmarks and in the time since its release, has maintained polarized opinions amongst the Duke Nukem 3D community for its sometimes expansive and non-linear maps.

The expansion would contain the first commercial work of noted Build engine level designers Charlie Wiederhold (later hired by 3D Realms to work on Duke Nukem Forever and a major reason for the release of the Shadow Warrior source code) and Robert Travis (who would work on more Build engine expansions than any other level designer and who designed 80% of the maps in the expansion).
 

Levels

The expansion consists of one new episode comprised of nine levels and a secret level.

• DUKEDC1.MAP - "Hell to the Chief," Duke starts off on the lawn of the White House and has to blast his way through to look for the President.
• DUKEDC2.MAP - "Memorial Service," begins outside of the Lincoln Memorial and continues through a secret bunker underneath.
• DUKEDC3.MAP - "Nuked Files," initially starts off in the streets outside of the FBI Headquarters and then progresses in and through.
• DUKEDC4.MAP - "Smithsonian Terror," a massive, sprawling, somewhat non-linear level that incorporates the museum with three large exhibits to explore.
• DUKEDC5.MAP - "Capitol Punishment," again, Duke is required to work his way through the back alleys of D.C., drop down into the sewer, and worm his way on up into the now-destroyed Capitol building.
• DUKEDC6.MAP - "Metro Mayhem," a large three-line subway map.
• DUKEDC7.MAP - "Brown Water," Fight through the sewers of D.C.
• DUKEDC8.MAP - "Dread October," a submarine pen complete with a full size submarine to battle through.
• DUKEDC9.MAP - "Nuke Proof," battle the Cycloid Emperor deep underground in a nuclear hardened bunker.
• DUKEDCSL.MAP - "Top Secret," the government's secret warehouse of evidence. Stumbling on the time machine catapults Duke forward and backwards in time to different periods. 

Reception

Jeff Sengsack of Gamespot pointed out the lack of any new music, enemies, or engine enhancements but praised the quality of the level design and its low price ( link). GamesDomain reviewed the expansion as part of the Kill-a-Ton collection and similarly praised its level design for being "superb" ( link). In the years following its release, the expansion's levels have caused split opinions amongst the Duke Nukem community as some find the levels (in particular, "Smithsonian Terror") to be too large and frustrating ( link).

Derivative Projects

NightFright currently maintains the Duke DC High Resolution Project, which seeks to replace the low resolution textures in the game with higher quality substitutes. In addition, higher quality OGG-format music has been implemented, replacing the previous MIDI music. With the DukeDC HRP, the theme song changes to, "Hail to the Chief".