The title is self-explanatory. What games were there that got announced and you were immensely looking forward to, but never saw the light of day, getting cancelled at one point or another?
I´ll start it off with a couple of my regulars:
Whore of the Orient - The spiritual successor to one of my all-time favourite games, L.A. Noire, meant to be set in 1930s Shanghai. Sadly died alongside Team Bondi, and it´s an utter shame. The setting is immensely interesting, unique and full of untapped potential, especially for the kind of detective game that L.A. Noire is (and which we haven´t seen since). It´d be great if Rockstar (or someone) picked it up, but it´s probably unlikely to happen…
Agent - Rockstar´s “infamous” Cold War spy game that never made it past the announcement and a few concept arts, yet still has an official website and is listed on Rockstar´s site. Which kinda makes me hope that maaaybe it´s not entirely cancelled and they´ll revisit the project and even make it one day… (at which point it at least wouldn´t be a PS3 exclusive as originally planned) Cold War games are a rarity, especially proper espionage ones (wink wink Project 007), and for someone like me who loves this kind of setting, it hurts…
East vs. West - A Hearts of Iron Game - I enjoy Paradox´s grand strategies, and would absolutely love one set in the Cold War period (duh). This third party-made (and Paradox-produced) HoI3 “conversion” has so far been the only full-fledged attempt at one, but sadly got cancelled during development (somewhat functioning builds are available, but they are incomplete in way too many ways and don´t provide the proper experience one would want). Retrospectively, I´m kinda glad it didn´t happen, since I don´t think HoI3 is an ideal platform to set a CW game on (too warfare-centric). Paradox have since deepend and played around with their games a lot more, so I´m hoping they will eventually do a proper, worthy CW one.
Aliens: Crucible - One of the many sad stories related to Obsidian-made RPGs (alongside the persisting lack of an Alpha Protocol sequel, them not working on another Fallout, and stuff related to the KotOR series, which I haven´t played yet). While we eventually got a fantastic Alien game in the form of Isolation, Crucible seemed to have quite a few interesting mechanics and it´s a shame it never got made.
Silent Hills - Do I really need to write anything about this one?
Up until three years ago, this list would´ve also included STALKER 2, but that has since been resurrected and will hopefully come out later this year or the next one.
Honorable mention goes to Prey 2 I guess. I haven´t played the 2006 original yet (planning to), so I didn´t even know about this planned sequel until I was reading about Arkane´s 2017 “reboot”, and while I´m not big on sci-fi games, the open-worldish bounty hunter concept looked cool (and yeah, the trailer was slick).
I don’t remember a lot of stuff about it but someone has to mention Battle of the Sith Lords so I might as well.
T’was a Star Wars game centered around Darth Maul (kinda) and Darth Talon, being developed by the excellent Red Fly Studios. They were eventually told via email the project was cancelled. They tried approaching EA a few years later but nothing came of it. The CEO formed a new studio called Marching Cube, and a lot of employees migrated.
The rest part of MGS V: The Phantom Pain, lol. I know that this game was not cancelled, but it is still unfinished. Hope this counts too.
I’ve seen cut files and some concepts some fans restored from the archives and jeez. I’m really mad. There should’ve been even those colour blind mechanics from BB trauma. And all we just got is a cropped game
The Developer at the time Free Radical Design went into administration and was bought by Crytek over 10 years ago i think. Since then Crytek are trying to find ways themselves to go out of business. I dont have much hope left.
Ah yes, the infamous Episode 51, Chico alive, usable Battle Gear… Yeah, that one still hurts…
I mean the gameplay in MGSV is (thankfully) absolutely stellar and is reason enough to love it, but the cuts (no, I don´t believe the lack of Kingdom of the Flies is an intentional reference to Moby Dick) still hurt. Sadly, unless Kojima somehow ends up with the franchise again, I doubt they´ll ever add it in… (boy was I pissed earlier this year when a 3+GB update for the game suddenly showed up and it just turned out to be a legal terms update…)
Which reminds me, gotta go check whether some punk who has nothing better to do with his life hasn´t invaded one of my FOBs again…
It does for me. I was actually thinking about including/mentioning it as well. Probably would´ve been better than the (garbage) Conviction that we got in the end.
PS: I love that they used the music from Double Agent in the end.
Despite the fact that the plot itself was cut off, the key points are still in the game. At least it’s enough for chronology understanding. And, of course, we have “online” element. I’ve spent a lot of time infiltrating other player’s bases. The game (and the franchise itself) is still one of my favs.
And yeah, unlikely smth will change. Well, this thread is partially about it
I don’t think it ever got much beyond registering trademarks and maybe some early brainstorming, but I would have loved to have gotten Chrono Break.
Chrono Trigger was a masterpiece and Chrono Cross, while not perfect, was a beautiful game with one of my favorite scores. A third game on improving hardware would have had so much potential.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Oblivion Lost, the original concept for Shadow of Chernobyl that was too ambitious and risky for the time.
The entire map would be populated with mostly mutants and only about ~100 human NPCs that the player would have to work with and even compete with for finding the best artifacts and gear in the Zone and finishing the game before the player does.
Half-life 2, once again during development, the game had a darker tone, the effects of the Combine on Earth being more visible with them draining the oceans and sucking the oxygen for resources and enslaving humanity and turning them into a mindless working force and soldiers for their empire.
Fallout 3 (Van Buren). Before Bethesda getting their hands on the IP, there was already a F3 in the works which completely got scrapped.
Sam & Max: Freelance Police, it simply died because the genre was dying (at the time). I enjoyed the Telltale ones but they don’t come near to Hit the Road. They’re a bit too sterilized.
A Vampyre Story 2: A Bat’s Tale, an obscure point and click game which I’m a sucker for (get it). It died because of financial problems that the first game also had issues with.
Indiana Jones, this is the third time Bethesda makes a game in a series that has a canceled game. Coincidence?..
This was the most intriguing Star Wars game to be announced in newer time, as much as I love force users. It would have been refreshing to play as Bounty Hunter, sadly I never got the chance to play the Jango Fett Bounty Hunter PS2 game. So when this game was announced I was as excited as ever. I still hope to see 1313 rise from the underbelly of Coruscant and some day get released. Sadly I don’t think that will happen.
and the cancelled Darth Maul game
It was more of a concept then a game in it’s own right, when they began working on it, it had no story team, they where simply told to make a Darth Maul game. I would have loved to see what it developed into and what it could have been. I hope to see a spiritual successor in the form of the next Jedi Fallen Order. Playing as an Inquisitor hunting down Jedi seems like a loads of fun and a good way to resurrect Star Killer as a character, but balancing him out a bit.
nah, i quite liked it too, which is odd given my feelings towards absolution.
not what i really wanted from sc but i enjoyed it nonetheless, especially co-op. clearing rooms was very straightforward but it felt great. very tightly put together. i’m glad they brought that faster-paced stealth action into blacklist - second best game in the series - as an optional playstyle.
having said that, the beta looked like they were going a bit more sandbox and social stealth (like hitman), which i would’ve vastly preferred if they’d managed to find a way to make it work.
Silent Hills. It pains me that this was not only to be the first Silent Hill game in a decade, but also one that returned back to SH’s original roots. The early demo was a one of a kind experience and it’s a major bummer we didn’t get a full release.
This one especially makes me sad. I loved playing Timesplitters when I was younger and remember the rumors of a 4th one being in the works. The character designs are still to this day some of my favorites.
Ha, tell me about it. They had everything. From big stone things to little apes, monsters, fish in tanks and ginger bread men. The variety they had!
The game modes were superbly done. I had fun long after i finished the main game. In fact way more. I remember they had cheat codes in the game. One was for human gun sounds. This had me in tears, everyone running around making these stupid sounds. This was absolutely hilarious. Good times.
The variety they had!