History VideoGame / KingpinLifeOfCrime

In January 2020, Creator/ThreeDRealms announced a remaster of the game titled ''Kingpin: Reloaded'', co-published with Interplay and developed by Slipgate Ironworks. The remaster ''was'' due to be released in 2021 on PC, Platform/PlayStation4, UsefulNotes/XboxOne, and UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, but it missed that window. A final release date of December 5th, 2023 was announced at 3D Realm's Realms Deep 2023 game conference.

The game is available on both UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} and [[Website/GOGDotCom GOG.com]]. Bear in mind that playing the game in widescreen on a modern system involves altering the game's .exe file, which can cause conflicts with Steam's authentication procedure. A fan patch has been made to allow for widescreen resolution, with a separate Steam version of the patch to address the authentication problem.

In January 2020, Creator/ThreeDRealms announced a remaster of the game titled ''Kingpin: Reloaded'', co-published with Interplay and developed by Slipgate Ironworks. The remaster ''was'' due to be released in 2021 on PC, UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, UsefulNotes/XboxOne, and UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, but it missed that window. A final release date of December 5th, 2023 was announced at 3D Realm's Realms Deep 2023 game conference.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: All bosses have a lot more health and generally better guns than the regular mooks. This makes sense, given the survival-of-the-fittest nature of the game world.

* EarlyGameHell: This game does ''not'' have a pleasant start. Firstly, you start out with nothing but a lead pipe which does pitifully small damage. Secondly, for you push your luck with any of the people in the alleys, the entire Skidrow will zero in on you at once. And finally, the only weapon available to you at that point is a pistol (which requires you to sneak through two shotgun-wielding guards to steal the coil) which doesn't do too well against the insanely fast dual-wielding thugs guarding the entrance to the sewers.

* GangofHats: Gangs like "The Sewer Rats" battle for territory with "The Scorps" while the hero recruits hired thugs from crews like "The Joker Gang" to plow through them all of them.

* NintendoHard: This game is ''really'' hard, even by the high standards of its era. The resource management aspect of the game is particularly unforgiving of careless gunplay, especially in the early levels. It's comparable to its contemporary, ''VideoGame/SystemShock2'', except unlike ''System Shock 2'', you can't avoid most combats.

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: The 2023 remaster has a number of quality-of-life improvements to make the game less frustrating. Some notable examples include rats no longer damaging you by touch (instead ''you'' step on them and gib them), being able to walk through followers so they don't block you anymore, automatically picking up money on enemies instead of having to manually search their corpse, and followers no longer needing to be standing right next to you to transition to the next level whenever you cross a level loading zone.

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: The 2023 remaster has a number of quality-of-life improvements to make the game less frustrating. Some notable examples include rats no longer damaging you by touch (instead ''you'' step on them and gib them), being able to walk through followers so they don't block you anymore, and automatically picking up money on enemies instead of having to manually search their corpse.

** The majority of ''Kingpin'' bosses are based off existing movie characters. The first boss, The Jesus, screams out lines that are taken from the similarly-named character of Film/TheBigLebowski. Heilman is an homage to Film/DrStrangelove: he even screams the iconic ''"Mein Fuhrer, I can walk!"'' line during his boss fight. Moker is TheAhnuld. Blunt and Tyrone lift various lines from Film/PulpFiction. Finally, the Kingpin himself looks like Film/PulpFiction's Marsellus Wallace.

* UpdatedReRelease: ''Kingpin: Reloaded'' is a remaster of the game by 3D Realms, co-published with Interplay and developed by Slipgate Ironworks, scheduled for 2021. It will feature support for modern resolutions (the original game requires fan mods to run at anything other than basic 4:3), rebalanced difficulty, and assorted aesthetic enhancements.

** The majority of ''Kingpin'' bosses are based off existing movie characters. The first boss, The Jesus, screams out lines that are taken from the similarly-named character of Film/TheBigLebowski. Heilman is an homage to Film/DrStrangelove: he even screams the iconic ''"Mein Fuhrer, I can walk!"'' line during his boss fight. Blunt and Tyrone lift various lines from Film/PulpFiction. Finally, the Kingpin himself looks like Film/PulpFiction's Marsellus Wallace.

* BossInMookClothing: The boss of Chapter 6 (the Railyards) has no name and is indistinguishable from the regular goons found throughout the chapter. You only know he's a boss because he appears near the end, can take a ''lot'' more damage than the regular goons, and wields a rocket launcher.

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: The 2023 remaster has a number of quality-of-life improvements to make the game less frustrating. Some notable examples include rats no longer damaging you by touch (instead ''you'' step on them and gib them) and mission-critical followers having RegeneratingHealth to avoid softlocking yourself if they take too much damage.

* UnintentionallyUnwinnable:
** Being extremely careless with money or mission-critical [[NonPlayerCharacter NPCs]] can easily render the campaign impossible to complete:
** Typically, the story progresses at each location by visiting the local bar, and talking with a key character there. However, each bar has an entry fee of 10 dollars, meaning that if you don't have at least this amount in your wallet, you can easily get stuck and cannot progress further.

** You can also easily get stuck at the penultimate level of the campaign in Radio City if you don't have 60 dollars to buy the skytram ticket, allowing you to progress to the final area.

In January 2020, Creator/ThreeDRealms announced a remaster of the game titled ''Kingpin: Reloaded'', co-published with Interplay and developed by Slipgate Ironworks. The remaster ''was'' due to be released in 2021 on PC, UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, UsefulNotes/XboxOne, and UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, but it missed that window. As of 2023, there is still no release date.

* BoobsOfSteel: In the world of ''Kingpin'', all female characters are short-haired, fight and swear just as good as their male colleagues, and have clearly visible secondary sexual characteristics. About 95% of the male characters, on the other hand, fit the WorldOfMuscleMen trope.

* WorldOfMuscleMen: Most male characters are built like linebackers and even the fat ones have giant muscular hands. Female enemies, at the same time, all have BoobsOfSteel.

* ArtificialBrilliance: Compared to other games of its era, ''Kingpin'' has remarkably good NPC A.I. Both enemies and allies can navigate the entire level relatively intelligently instead of being limited to a single area (like in VideoGame/HalfLife), and are reasonably maneuverable in combat instead of just standing and firing. Injured or outmatched enemies will even run off and hide, or run to another area to look for reinforcements. They can even climb ladders or leap from ledge to ledge, which was quite a feat in its day. Overall they behave a lot like a multiplayer bot, and in fact the A.I. was written by the same guy who made the [=EraserBot=] for ''VideoGame/QuakeII''.

In January 2020, Creator/ThreeDRealms announced a remaster of the game titled ''Kingpin: Reloaded'', co-published with Interplay and developed by Slipgate Ironworks. The remaster is due to be released in 2021 on PC, UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, UsefulNotes/XboxOne, and UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch. As of 2023, there is still no release date.

In January 2020, Creator/ThreeDRealms announced a remaster of the game titled ''Kingpin: Reloaded'', co-published with Interplay and developed by Slipgate Ironworks. The remaster is due to be released in 2021 on PC, UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, UsefulNotes/XboxOne, and UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch.

** The game is ''loaded'' with foul language, so much so that it's a lot easier to count the characters whose dialogue contains no swearing than the ones who constantly spout expletives.

* NoNameGiven: The player character. Most have given him the FanNickname of "Thug".

* EqualOpportunityEvil: Of all the people in this game, Kingpin and his Lieutenants are this. The enemy gangs under the payroll of Kingpin consist of a variety of different ethnicities, with Caucasian, African-American and Asian enforcers all taking on Thug. Moreover, we frequently run into female enemies as well, indicating that a sizable portion of the organization's manpower consists of women. Interestingly, the trope is also avoided by the game's VillainProtagonist: while Thug can pay off a hooker in Poisonville to distract some well-armed thugs (and thus, avoid a firefight with them), and helps out Bambi, Steeltown's female bartender by rescuing his brother, he can never actually recruit any female characters to fight alongside him. All available guns-for-hire are male.

* BlackComedy

* UnwinnableByInsanity: Being extremely careless with money or mission-critical [[NonPlayerCharacter NPCs]] can easily render the campaign impossible to complete: