Video games get cancelled all the time. Some are announced with much fanfare and then never heard of again. Sometimes we are fed with information bits about a game until we hear of its demise through some publisher’s conference call. They give us reasons like the game did not meeting quality standard or that it did not fit it’s roadmap for the future. Whatever be the case, we will always wonder about that particular game that caught our fancy, whether it was destined to die an early death or have been something truly special had it released. Here are some games we think deserved to be played.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned
The thought of another movie licensed game is usually met with a collective groan by most gamers. Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned was an action RPG in development by Propaganda Games. Set in an open world, exploration, hand to hand combat and ship combat were to be at the core. Though the title was set in the same universe as the movies, the events of the game were to take place before the films and would feature a completely original plot. Moral choices, character building and a huge world to explore; all the traditional RPG staples were to be present with the additional advantage of taking place in a fresh setting which was the high seas. Sea combat was also a fundamental element with fully realised and atmospheric ship battles. Imagine scenes straight out of the movies minus Captain Jack Sparrow’s crazy antics. The world of the game too was filled with hidden caves, trade routes, bustling towns and more. According to the developer the title would have lasted about 100 hours including all the available side quests. All in all, it seemed to be one of the most promising movie licensed games coming out this generation. Then in the October of past year, Disney announced without giving any definitive reason that the game was canceled.
Tiberium
Tiberium, a first person shooter was announced back in the beginning of 2008. Running on the Unreal Engine 3, it was set in the Command & Conquer universe which focused on blending single player combat with tactical squad combat. It aimed to take the FPS experience deeper into strategic combat by letting players control multiple infantry, armour and air squads through the game. Letting you control up to 4 squads at a time, it also set itself apart from the weaponry it put at your disposal. Instead of giving you weapons for different situations, your primary weapon in the game was the GD – 10, a transforming weapon that adapted itself from a standard assault rifle to a powerful grenade launcher. The game was meant to be frantic and fast-paced. The gameplay videos definitely showed enough to let us understand that this was a game of massive potential. Then came news that the game had been delayed into 2008 and beyond. Finally, the cancellation announcement echoed in September 2008 for quality reasons. It must have certainly been a difficult decision as the game was already two years into development before proclamation and what little had been revealed showed great promise.
Steven Spielberg’s Project LMNO (Codename)
Steven Spielberg announced in 2005 that he had signed a deal with EA to produce 3 games for the company. A respected movie making talent along with the resources of a big studio like EA could conceivably produce some video game magic. While we did see Bloom Box come out of this partnership, what we were most looking forward to was LMNO (code name), a game that followed a former special agent and robotic girl on the run. Players would take the role of the ex-agent, and their interactions with the girl will decide what powers she developed and how she chose to use them. LMNO was a relationship focused title and the plan was to make Eve a character who would react and evolve depending on how the player treated her. One of the riskiest ideas for the game also was to make it a highly repayable 2 to 3 hour title instead of the standard 12 hour game. The game was infused with a new type of combat, movement, an experimental length, replayablity options, and various other ideas, all within a grand story. It is mind boggling to think of the possibilities had these ideas come to fruition. EA has since decided to move away from unproven ideas like LMNO but EA was quoted as ‘maintains its relationship with Steven Spielberg’ so we may yet see the ideas that defined LMNO materialize into future games.
Starcraft Ghost
Starcraft Ghost was a stealth action game that first began development in 2002 at Nihilistic Software to be released on then current generation platforms. Nihilistic ended its work on the game in 2004 and development moved to Swingin’ Ape studios. At E3 2005, the game was announced again and given a 2006 release date. The change of developer also led to major updates to the game. While the previous version was only set in the Starcraft universe, the new storyline was written to tie in more closely with the RTS game and slated to take place just after the events of Starcraft: Brood War. The game was demoed at various events in 2005. You played as Nova, a ghost in First and Third person views. Classic Starcraft vehicles could also be used to deal with enemies. Also under development was a full multiplayer experience. The visuals of the game were great for the time and it seemed like the title was finally set to deliver a great experience that can be expected with a company like Blizzard overseeing the production. However despite these advances, the game could not be delivered on time and with advent of the next generation consoles, development was indefinitely postponed.
B.C.
B.C was a game that was under development by Intrepid Studios, a satellite studio of Peter Molyneux’s Lionhead Studios and set to be released in 2004. Set in a fictional prehistoric world, players took charge of a tribesmen group and were tasked with guiding them up the evolutionary ladder. Standing in the way of progress were rival tribes as well as prehistoric creatures like dinosaurs brought forward in time. There were various tasks that players needed to do to ensure progress like discovering fire, learning to build an enclosed space to protect against carnivores and repopulating the world. The world you played in was a fully functional ecosystem. All the major decisions that you made directly affected it. For example, killing of all the meat eaters in an area would leave your territory overrun with herbivores. B.C as we knew it was shaping up to be one of the most innovative and daring games to be released. When Peter Molyneux announced that development on the game had been halted, it came as a major surprise as the game was thought to be almost complete and the development team at Intrepid had even begun to talk of plans for the sequel.
Many of the cancelled games were usually quite ambitious right from their conception and some would probably have lived up to their ambitions if they were given more time and resources. Video games are also business ventures at the end of the day and sometimes when creative pursuits and business goals don’t align, we as gamers can only dream about what masterpieces they could have been.