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Crystal Dynamics

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is a third-person adventure game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Eidos. It was released for the PlayStation and PC in 1999 and for the Sega Dreamcast in 2000. Soul Reaver entered development alongside Blood Omen 2: Legacy of Kain in 1997 and focused on puzzle solving instead of Blood Omen 2’s action.

Initially, the game was set to be released October 1998. The secondary release date was then made January 1999. Due to the game still remaining unfinished. It was granted a final delay of approximately 7 months which then, the game went gold in July 1999 and subsequently got released August 1999.

Unfortunately, these delays occurred because the game wasn’t progressing quickly enough in terms of asset creation to fulfill their original vision for Soul Reaver. Several interviews suggested the designers noticed they had an overly designed game thus had no option but to remove certain areas of the game.

Some removed areas are known as:

Under City
“Turel’s Territory”(Must confirm the exact name)
Mountain Retreat

Amy Hennig stated that the development team split the original, much larger plans in two after realizing that they had “over-designed the game”. This decision explains Soul Reaver’s cliffhanger ending and the appearance of originally planned material in later games. Despite the split, Hennig explained that the team left unused components in Soul Reaver’s game engine to avoid unforeseen glitches that might have arisen from their removal. [Infos from Wikipedia] This is why certain reavers are accessible even though they are not actually obtainable on the retail version.

As we can read in this interesting article from The Lost Worlds, many items, weapons and areas were removed / not used in the final game, as the Amplified Force Projectile & Possession abilities, The Amplified Reaver and The Ariel Reaver weapons, Five additional Reaver upgrades and the The Mountain Retreat area. You should check the Lost Worlds article for more informations, it’s really well done!

Thanks to John Doom for the contribution!

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Alpha: July 1998

Alpha: January 1999

Beta: 12th May 1999

Beta: 28th June 1999

M2 / 3DO, Others

Cyber Clash [3DO – Cancelled]

monokoma

23-05-2009

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Cyber Clash is a cancelled action game that was in development by Crystal Dynamics for the 3DO. We would have play the role of a cyberspace hacker, to combat into virtual arenas with a tank-alike vehicles, in first person view. A 2 players coop mode was planned too and every vehicle available was able to morph into 2 different forms, with unique close and long-range weapons. A video preview of the game was even added in the “Sample This!” 3DO CD Demo, but in the end Cyber Clash was never released for unknown reasons.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution! Scans from EGM #64 and GamePro #67.

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Playstation, Sony

Ghost Rider [PSX – Cancelled]

U64 Staff & Contributors

11-04-2008

2 Comments

Ghost Rider is a cancelled side scroller action game based on the comic series of the same name, that was in development in 1995 by Neversoft Entertainment and it would have been published by Crystal Dynamics for the original Playstation. 15 levels were planned, but the game did not even reach the alpha stage. As we can read on the Playstation Museum:

A demo was created to showcase the 3D environment engine, lighting effects, algorithmically generated fire routine, algorithmically generated chain mechanic, and the developer’s ability to capture the mood and feel of the licensed character. […] While it is true that Crystal Dynamics did reorganize, someone within the organization tried to save Ghost Rider and pitched a plan and budget to senior staff. According to an unnamed source, it was turned down as they thought it would have to be true 3D to succeed (ala Gex 3D).

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