Action RPG

Shadow Of The Sun [XBOX/PS2 – Cancelled]

Announced in February 2003 via press release, Shadow of the Sun was meant to be the first title released by HotHead Studios (to not be confused with HotHead Games), a UK based studio formed after the demise of DarkBlack. The team re-utilized the technology created for Asylum (a cancelled first-person horror game that was being developed at DarkBlack) to work on a new original IP.

Shadow of the Sun was set in an alternate universe where players would take control of a Vampire Lord, who was sent to prison after an act of betrayal of a governing body known as the Council of Vampires. After hundreds of years pass by, the Vampire Lord would receive a vision of a beautiful human woman, encouraging him to escape and help her out. After escaping the prison, the Vampire Lord finds a helpless infant girl and takes her to a nearby human village, where she would presumably be safe.

shadowofthesunbeta01.jpg

Twenty years pass: the Vampire Lord receives another vision of vampires attacking a human village – which proves to be true soon after. After finding out the now-grown up girl has been kidnapped by the Council of Vampires, he swears revenge on them and goes on a rescue mission.

Shadow of the Sun was described in the press release as a first-person adventure game, where players would take control of a vampire and utilize a combination of weapons and special abilities (such as being able to mind control NPCs). You would fight a variety of enemies, such as human villagers, orcs, vampire soldiers and lords. Additional game content would be available through Xbox Live with downloadable campaigns and online multiplayer.

Shadow of the Sun took inspiration from Lord of the Rings for its visual artstyle. One of the members of HotHead Studios (Tony Charlton) said in an interview with gaming website HomeLan Fed that Shadow of the Sun had a “middle earth look and feel with a gothic undertone”. Locations the player would be able to visit include vampire prisons, peasant villages and terrifying castles.

shadowofthesunbeta03.jpg

The reason the game never came out was not revealed. The development team tried to negotiate with Octagon Entertainment but according to the team Octagon never made a serious effort. The title was never actively advertised on HotHead’s website, which instead focused on another product called Hyper Streetracing. The company would effectively disappear by the end of the year.

Founder Richard Beston would later join another UK studio, Pocketeers. He would work on art for the Nintendo DS versions of Need for Speed games between 2003 and 2006, before quitting the gaming industry altogether and becoming a tattoo artist.

Article by Thane Langdon, thanks to Dan for the contribution!

Images: 

Tears [PC – Cancelled]

Tears was cancelled RPG game being made by czech Visiongame in 1995. It was planned with 3D isometric view in a medieval setting.
Goal of the game was to make a revolution in your kingdom and become king. Developers made promises about high AI of characters in the game, and about many items to use. Each of game characters will be living daily life routines. Game was planned with many different endings.
Promises was made about high quality rendered animations and CD quality soundtrack.  

Daybreakers (Trilogy Studios) [Cancelled – Xbox 360, PS3, PC]

Daybreakers is a cancelled episodic time-traveling first-person RPG that was in development since 2006 by Trilogy Studios, planned to be released for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. The company was founded by game industry veterans who worked in such companies as Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive, RockStar Games and Vivendi Universal.

In Daybreakers players would have been able to explore different time-periods to find a solution to save our doomed world. The game was talked about by major websites such as IGN and Playstation Universe:

“The world is falling apart with war, disease, insurgency, and starvation rampant among humanity. The only hope lies with the Nexus Corporation, a U.S. funded group using volunteer convicts as experimental guinea pigs in an operation called “Project Daybreak.” Utilizing Project Daybreak, the Nexus Corporation studies time travel to find the means to cure the world of its problems.”

“Developed by Trilogy Studios, Daybreakers puts players in the role of undercover US secret operative Nolan Reeves who is asked to enter the world of the criminal underground, joining the Nexus Project and time traveling in order to find three escaped convicts. Upon returning from his task, Reeves finds that the only people aware of his mission, of his existence – have been killed. From this point forward he must rely on the ability to manipulate the relationships with those in the world around him: inmates, factions, and the corrupt officers and officials who permeate Nexus Island.”

“We would like to be the first team to truly monetize the online gameplay of first-person shooters,” Pole proclaimed. “It hasn’t been done. First-person shooters traditionally have not done a very good job of rewarding players. The way they reward players is that you run through a level, shoot everything on the level, finish the level, and you go to the other level and get a bigger gun. Our goal and our objective is to get a player a sophisticated and very detailed level of gameplay that hasn’t been delivered in first-person shooters by offering gamers a moment-by-moment reward system versus a level-based reward system. All these RPG elements that we mentioned will allow players to build upon their characters so they can see how well they are doing.”

“Instead of describing the game as an open world title, he told us that Daybreakers was a “dynamic world simulator“. He added that the game would feature more interactivity and more of a sense that the player’s actions have consequences in the game world. “I think that’s where games need to go, especially first person shooters,”

The first Daybreakers’ episode was planned for 2008, but the project quickly vanished and was never completed. As far as we know Trilogy Studios worked on a few social games before closing down around 2010.

Thanks to Dan for the contribution!

Images:

Videos:

 

Federation (Dimension Creative Designs) [PC – Cancelled]

Federation is a cancelled sci-fi action RPG / space exploration adventure that was in development by Dimension Creative Designs (Synthetic Dimensions) around 1996 / 1997, planned to be released on PC. We cannot find information about this project anywhere online, but thanks to Alex we saved a short preview that was published at the time in a Spanish magazine.

As many other canned space-adventures of the ‘90s the team conceived Federation as an overly ambitious 3D galaxy full of planets you could freely explore. We could imagine it as a mix between Mass Effect, Elite and Star Citizen: players would have been able to fly between planets, explore their continents, trade with their inhabitants and resolve various space-missions.

Dimension Creative Designs is mostly known for working on such titles as Corporation, Druid: Daemons of the Mind, Ed Hunter but as far as we know they never released anything similar to Federation and it’s unclear what happened to this lost game. If you know someone who worked at DCD please let us know!

Thanks to Alex for the contribution! 

Justice Unlimited (LucasArts) [Cancelled – PC]

Justice Unlimited is a cancelled superhero action RPG with gameplay similar to Diablo, that was pitched by LucasArts around 1997. We would imagine it as a top-down 2D adventure, exploring modern-day cities and the suburbs taking the role of different superheroes to hunt down criminals, level-up and collect rare loot. While the game was never officially announced, some details and artwork were shared in the book “Rogue Leaders – The Story Of Lucasarts”:

“From 1997 to 1998, LucasArts worked on a game concept meant to challenge Blizzards’s popular Diablo RPG game. The entire concept was essentially  “Diablo, except with superheroes” recalls LucasArts designer John Stafford. Lots of concept art and story were generated for the game, but no work was completed on a game engine, and the idea was shelved.”

Images: