If we could wield the power that Elizabeth could in Bioshock: Infinite, if we could open a tear into another dimension and see what games people were playing, we might just see some of these cancelled games. Our curiosity can get the better of us sometimes, however, and sometimes a game is cancelled for the right reasons. Take a look at our list and see which ones you wish you hop dimensions for, and which ones you are happy to let lie.
Batman: Gotham by Gaslight
Picture the thick swirls of fog, caught in the moonlight, sliced through by the leather wings of the prowling bat. The grappling hook whisks you from the soot-stained slums up to the city’s Gothic spires and gargoyles, and from there you hunt your prey.
Brian Augustyn’s one-shot comic of the same name served as the inspiration for what might have been a saving grace for THQ. The now-defunct publisher didn’t acquire the rights from Warner Bros. either because they weren’t able to seal the deal, or they didn’t think it worthwhile at the time. Day 1 studios (now swallowed up by Wargaming Chicago-Baltimore), the developer responsible for the F.E.A.R series was set to helm the project.
As early footage demonstrates the game’s mood was sublime, with Gotham serving as a stand-in for Victorian London, complete with the aforementioned fog and, of course, gaslights. Images released of the game contain some very nice little touches: Batman uses a flash-light (the idea of this being a cutting-edge gadget is perfect for the time period) there is a dedicated slow-motion button, and there is a throw grenade command (smoke grenade of course – nothing lethal). The game would have followed the comic’s plot, with Jack the Ripper making a gruesome pilgrimage to Gotham and crossing paths with the bat – one of the greatest unsolved cases is fitting for the world’s greatest detective no? It would also have paid homage to Sherlock Holmes, one of the many inspirations for Batman’s character as a genius detective.
Now that Arkham Knight has rounded off the excellent series, and Rocksteady has bowed out, perhaps it’s time for WB Interactive to blow the dust off this old gem. Certainly it would be a fresh take on things given how perfectly Rocksteady captured Batman as we already know him.
Whore of the Orient
Ah, Team Bondi, we hardly knew ye. L.A. Noire was one of the more intriguing, flawed, and wonderfully risky games to come out of the last generation. It made up for its shortfalls with a loving attention to period detail, a lovely period in itself, and the nodding, winking pen of a writer that made homage his business. But it wasn’t so long after L.A. Noire was released that we started to hear some gruesome things about Team Bondi. Poor working conditions, corporate controversy, and inner turmoil marred the release of an excellent game. That nodding, winking writer turned out to be a lying, whip-cracking bully, and Rockstar – the only thing keeping both Bondi and L.A. Noire afloat – severed all ties with the Sydney-based upstart.
Then there was Whore of the Orient. The title raised several questions: how was this studio carrying on after the claims of such unethical working conditions? Where were they getting the money take on such an ambitious project? Who would publish this intriguing prospect after Rockstar cut ties? Well Kennedy Miller Mitchell bought out Bondi completely and began a merger, and Warner Bros. interactive were attached to publish.
The game was set to use the same stunning motion scan technology as L.A. Noire did, and was set in Shanghai in 1936, the so-called ‘Paris of the East’, where anyone could go without a passport. A port-in-a-storm scenario akin to Casablanca, the city was filled with corrupt labour officials looking to suppress communism at all costs, the presence of the international police force, and a notorious gangster named Big-Eared Du who ran the entire show. The game would have been something like Bondi’s take on the underrated The Saboteur. The following footage you are about to see was leaked, and displays an action-oriented set piece.
As you can see, it packed a livelier cover-and-shoot mechanic than L.A. Noire, and a more action-packed setting that hasn’t been done in gaming yet. Whore of the Orient is one Eastern promise we are very sad to see broken.
Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun
As a Legacy of Kain fan, it is ambivalence that greets you when you delve into the depths of Climax Studios and Square Enix’s cancelled Dead Sun. The game served as a reboot of sorts, set within the established world of Nosgoth, but not featuring the colourful cast of characters that made the original series such a cult classic.
The game was set to follow the journey of two new protagonists: Gein, an amoral vampire, and Asher, a human that loses his family and embarks on a quest for vengeance. As is usually the case with singularly and selfishly motivated quests, the fate of the world would come to hang in the balance.
That gameplay video was shown as a vertical slice to people at Square Enix, who had various concerns over what the game would end up being. The ambivalence comes in when at first we are presented with the prospect of a new Legacy of Kain game – something that feels like water in the desert after so much time has passes – but then manage to get a decent look at what Dead Sun was going to be.
Although some of the ideas behind the game looked cool enough, it was clear that it wasn’t going to change the world. It also became clear that Square Enix – as development went on to the later stages – was far more interested in creating an easy, accessible action-adventure, than it was in creating a new Legacy of Kain game. Many of the designers working on the project expressed dissatisfaction with how it was turning out, everything from the game’s meaningless title, to its empty use of an existing IP was grating for those that actually wanted to develop a proper sequel. It was doubly frustrating for the series’ devoted fan base. Perhaps this one was quite rightfully canned.
Daredevil
When Sam Raimi’s Spiderman reinvented the superhero film and ushered in the era of superhero films that we now live in, it seemed inevitable that a slew of great superhero games would follow. This didn’t happen. Sure, we ended up with likes of Spiderman 2 and…well that’s just about it actually. Due in part to the fact that most of the games were developed to tie-in with films – and so were in many cases rushed out – there wasn’t a game that really capitalised on the potential of the genre. That wouldn’t happen really until Arkham Asylum some while later.
The Daredevil game could have been a solid effort, the sort of thing that shares shelf space with the first or second Spiderman games and… well, again that’s about it. Being developed by Nevada-based developer 5,000 feet, the game was caught in a rock and a hard place between Marvel and Sony – with both companies exerting pressure on the small studio and stretching the game in a tug of war. One studio wanted a game that was true to the character’s comic origins; the other wanted the game to have a grind mechanic akin to the popular Tony Hawk games. I’m not joking about that last one; Sony really did want to incorporate a contrived grind mechanic to cash in on the pro skater vibe going around at the time – shameless.
Unseen 64 captures in detail here the multitude of reason the game ended up languishing in development hell. It isn’t pretty actually – there’s drug abuse and everything!
Let’s be realistic: we aren’t missing out on game-changer here, but with Daredevil being a firm fan-favourite, and with video of the game actually looking pretty good, it’s a shame that this one didn’t see the light of day. Particularly noteworthy was the fact that the eponymous hero’s billy club actually attached onto real aspects of the environment, something that 5,000 feet were very proud of, and something we wouldn’t see until Spider-Man 2 achieved the feat. Famously the first Spider-Man game had webs attaching to the sky, which was particularly amusing during one section that took place above the sea. Also of note, was the ‘shadow world’ a filter where players could see the world as Daredevil himself saw it, complete with enemy heartbeats through walls – this is basically a precursor to ‘detective vision’, a mechanic that in some form has found its way into most triple-A action adventure games now.
Silent Hills
It was always going to be on here wasn’t it? A recent entry into the book of the dead, and one that seems as though it was made to be cancelled, the prospect seems far too perfect to have ever actually existed. Spanish auteur and horror master Guillermo Del Toro teaming with Japanese auteur and video game master Hideo Kojima for a survival horror game starring Norman Reedus. Silent Hills looked incredible. It used the titular setting that had been home to some of gaming’s darkest nightmares, and the hype surrounding the game reached a fever pitch with the release of P.T.
P.T. (playable teaser) scared the bejesus out of any who dared download it. It paved the way for a Silent Hill game that would have rejuvenated survival horror – a genre grown stagnant in the wake of too many action-leaning Resident Evil games, not enough innovation, and little large studio support. Everything seemed right with the world…for a time.
Then Konami and Kojima severed their ties, and that was essentially the end of it. The collapse of Konami’s relationship with Kojima was total and fast; Metal Gear Solid V only just scraped its way out into the world before Kojima left for good. Konami had spoken with Cliff Blezinski at one point, who had turned down the offer to work on the game. Konami issued a statement about the game’s development saying “it would not continue”. That was that. Horror fans were crestfallen, as were Kojima fans, Silent Hill fans, Del Toro fans and those converted by P.T.
The cancellation has paved the way for Resident Evil 7, which is taking a similar direction to P.T. and bringing survival horror home again. To say nothing of Kojima’s new Sony-backed studio, who unveiled their first game Death Stranding at this year’s E3, also starring Reedus.
So there we have it, five games which, for better or for worse, didn’t see the life. It will always be intriguing to open one of Elizabeth’s tears and peer into another world, one in which people are playing Silent Hills, Whore of the Orient, and all manner of other games denied to us. Still, some things die for a reason.
