Oblivion is a standalone total conversion for Duke Nukem 3D. It was created by Cedric "Zaxtor Znort" Lutes and released on February 5th, 2009. Oblivion does not require Duke Nukem 3D or Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition to work, though the EDuke32 source port is required and comes with the mod in the .zip file. Oblivion contains new levels, new graphics, a new sprite for the player's character (Zaxtor Znort, an anthropomorphic fossa), new enemies, a new opening sequence for the fourth episode, new ending cutscenes, new bosses, new weapons, new music, new sound effects, and new voice-overs. Oblivion also has OpenGL support.
Story[]
The Oblivion War is threatening Zaxtor's planet. Zaxtor starts off in his spaceship, the Spaceship Explorer 780-XH1, where a sphere is being kept in the ship's generator room. Zaxtor's ship ends up getting attacked and is eventually destroyed by the Organic Ship just as he gets into an escape pod, landing on Earth soon after. Aliens, robots, and strange creatures have plans to destroy the Earth, and Zaxtor must go through various locations such as forests and a temple to reach and destroy the Motherbrain (the boss of episode 1).
Once the Motherbrain is destroyed, Zaxtor goes to destroy the Organic Ship. After the Organic Ship explodes, Zaxtor goes to the Alien Asteroid and destroys a large device inside it. He then goes to the Empire Mother Ship to find the Evil Emperor; Zaxtor gets captured while exploring the ship, but manages to escape, kill the Evil Emperor, and destroy the Empire Mother Ship. The Alien Asteroid, upon the death of the Evil Emperor, was programmed to crash into Madagascar, resulting in the destruction of the rainforest that Zaxtor called home. Zaxtor, not knowing that the Alien Asteroid crashed into Madagascar, goes to Death Valley to find out about the Weapon Artillery (the boss of episode 2), a heavily armed vehicle that has brought down several cities, and destroys the Weapon Artillery.
Landing his ship, Zaxtor finds out he is in a stripper town that is near the Temple Of Illusions, and encounters a strange red sphere that attempts to kill him. While in the town, Zaxtor tries to get past an African anthropomorphic civet to get into a flooded cave, but is refused access until he destroys the Hell Base. Zaxtor finds and goes through the Temple Of Illusions, eventually confronting and killing the Lord of Illusions within it. Going into space once again, Zaxtor goes through the Hell Base and destroys it, causing a large explosion which the African anthropomorphic civet notices. After getting into his ship, Zaxtor crash lands in a desert near the Yellow Gem of Chaos, which ends up falling beneath the desert sand. Zaxtor goes under the sand and through an underground cave to get the Yellow Gem of Chaos. The Yellow Gem of Chaos is being held by the Evil Omen (the boss of episode 3); Zaxtor destroys the Evil Omen.
Zaxtor returns to the stripper town, though none of its inhabitants are anywhere to be found, and discovers aliens have invaded it. Zaxtor kills the aliens on the surface and goes into the flooded cave, eventually finding himself in the Lava Cavern. The red sphere appears and places Zaxtor into a maze, which he must then get out of to find the reactor core. Once he finds the reactor core, Zaxtor overheats it, resulting in an explosion filled escape out of the Lava Cavern. After relocating the keycard to enter his ship, Zaxtor flies it to the Ghost Mother Ship, a haunted spaceship. Zaxtor finds the core of the Ghost Mother Ship and destroys both it and the ship in the process. He flies his ship back to Earth, landing near Stone Valley, and soon discovers his rainforest home burning from the impact of the Alien Asteroid. Zaxtor finds what remains of the crashed Alien Asteroid and a large metal structure; he enters the metal structure and finds the Secret Underground Base. While in the Secret Underground Base, Zaxtor must find the thermonuclear reactor core. Eventually, he finds the thermonuclear reactor core and, by disabling the coolant which makes it overheat, causes a core meltdown, leaving him with a limited amount of time to escape the exploding Secret Underground Base. While on his way to a castle, Zaxtor reaches The Labyrinth and encounters the red sphere again, making him fall underground. After getting out of the castle, Zaxtor sees the red sphere again and destroys it. He must then get to The Floating Island by ascending a series of platforms and destroy a flying machine before he is able to reach The Floating Island. Zaxtor destroys The Floating Island's core and finds a pair of boots, allowing him to get into a parallel dimension known as The Other World. Zaxtor must go through a green maze and battle a series of enemies before he is able to reach a section of The Other World known simply as Chaos, named such as it is the deadliest location in The Other World. He eventually reaches a room with a number of portals, leading to various bosses that must be destroyed before the final portal can be opened. After going through a hallway leading to a teleporter, Zaxtor finds and destroys The Doomsday Project. After it is destroyed, a path is revealed that leads to two arch guardians. After killing the arch guardians, Zaxtor engages in battle with Galbaland (the boss of episode 4 and the final boss in Oblivion's story), his arch enemy, and kills him, ending the Oblivion War.
The Chaos Gem of Darkness, which was stored at the core of The Doomsday Project, is left irretrievable due to the explosive shock wave following The Doomsday Project's destruction. The Spaceship Explorer 781-XJ2 is created in dedication of Zaxtor's destroyed spaceship. The Blue Chaos Gem, Red Chaos Gem, and Yellow Chaos Gem are stored inside of the Chaos Gem security vault, rendering the Chaos Gem of Darkness powerless; the vault is immune to damage caused by magic, blades, lasers, and chemicals, and has a 512-bit anti-hack encryption. The stripper town is no longer threatened by the aliens thanks to Zaxtor's efforts. Once the fires that destroyed the rainforest have been put out, the citizens make the remains of the Alien Asteroid into a memorial park. A quantum singularity appears after killing Galbaland, which Zaxtor enters, causing him to reappear in the Indian Ocean. A helicopter notices Zaxtor, who is over 74 and 1/2 miles (120 kilometers) from Madagascar and has been in the ocean for an hour; a ladder is lowered, which he climbs up to get into the helicopter, and Zaxtor is flown back home.
Development[]
Oblivion started development on December 10th, 2003. The original version of Oblivion was finished on June 16th, 2004, contained the first episode (11 levels total; ten regular and one secret), and did not require a source port, such as EDuke32 or JFDuke3D, to work, though Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition was required. The second version of Oblivion was finished on December 27th, 2004, contained the first and second episodes (22 levels total; twenty regular and two secret), and required JFDuke3D to work. The third version of Oblivion started development on February 16th, 2005, was finished on May 13th, 2006, contained the first, second, and third episodes (33 levels total; twenty-nine regular and four secret), and required EDuke32 to work. The final version (the fourth version) of Oblivion was finished on January 23rd, 2009, contained all five episodes (53 levels total; forty-eight regular and five secret), and released on February 5th, 2009. Oblivion took over half a decade to finish development.
Weapons[]
- Mighty Boot
- Pistol
- Shotgun
- Chaingun Cannon
- Laser RPG
- Pipe Bomb
- Muddlelizer (uses a new sprite, replacement for Shrinker)
- Microwave Expander (uses a new sprite)
- Sonic Laser Devastator (uses a new sprite, replacement for Devastator)
- Sonic Laser Tripbomb (uses a new sprite, replacement for Laser Tripbomb)
- Petrify Gun (uses a new sprite, replacement for Freezethrower)
Episodes and difficulty levels[]
Oblivion features 53 levels.
Episode 1: Oblivion War Begins[]
- Spaceship Explorer 780-XH1
- Stone Valley
- The Rainforest
- The Rainforest II
- The Doom Base
- Scrapbrain I
- The Dry Forest
- The Military Station
- The Sea Temple
- Scrapbrain II
- Mystic Valley (secret, accessible from The Rainforest)
Episode 2: The Space War[]
- Battle Station
- Doom Omen III
- Organic Ship
- Alien Asteroid Part I
- Alien Asteroid Part II
- Doomsday Battle
- The Empire Mother Ship I
- The Empire Mother Ship II
- The Evil Emperor
- Death Valley
- Alien Biodiversity (secret, accessible from Doomsday Battle)
Episode 3: The Ultimate Doom[]
- The New Begining
- Temple Of Illusions I
- Temple Of Illusions II
- Temple Of Illusions III
- Temple Of Illusions IV
- Bizarre Zone
- Hell Base
- The Living End
- Portal Base
- The Lost World (secret, accessible from The New Begining)
- ???????? (secret, accessible from Temple Of Illusions III)
Episode 4: Back To Earth[]
- Lava Cavern
- Ghost Mother Ship
- Back To Earth
- Rainforest Fires
- Rainforest Fires II
- Secret Underground Base
- The Labyrinth
- The Floating Island
- The Other World
- The Doomsday Project
- Wrecked Ship (secret, accessible from Rainforest Fires II)
Episode 5: Arch Episode[]
- N/A
- Area-51B
- Alien Sactuary
- Aerial Tubes
- Death Dimension
- Kihntron!!!
- Escaping Kihntron
- Failed Mission!!
- Completed Mission!!
Difficulty Levels[]
- Easy (Piece of Cake replacement)
- Medium (Let's Rock replacement)
- Hard (Come Get Some replacement)
- Nightmare (Damn I'm Good replacement)
Power-ups and items[]
- Small Medkit
- Large Medkit
- Portable Medkit
- Armor
- Atomic Health
- Scuba Gear
- Protective Boots
- Night Vision Goggles
- Jetpack
- ZaxtorHologram (uses a new sprite, replacement for Holoduke)
- Steroids
- Access Cards
- Exotiko Infinite Chip (enhancer for the Chaingun Cannon)
- RPG/Devastator Enhancer Chip (enhancer for both the Laser RPG and Sonic Laser Devastator)
- Petrify Gun Enhancer Chip (enhancer for the Petrify Gun)
- Petrifyer Regen Chip (enhancer for the Petrify Gun)
Bugs[]
- The music will sometimes stop playing when reloading a saved game or when going to the title screen from the pause menu; what causes this is unknown.
- Levels may crash at random, though reloading a saved game or exiting and starting the mod again will usually remedy this issue.
- Entering the cheat code to show the entire auto map will cause some levels, such as Area-51B, to crash almost instantly.
Trivia[]
- Zaxtor Znort makes an appearance in Cedric Lutes' 2017 standalone Duke Nukem 3D total conversion The Invasion of Trequonia in the "Incarceration" level.
- Zaxtor is also appears in the standalone Duke Nukem 3D total conversion AMC TC, where he is one of the playable characters.