Beta + Cancelled FPS Video Games - Page 11 of 68

Daikatana 2 is the cancelled sequel to John Romero‘s first and most ambitious FPS since his departure from id Software and the founding of Ion Storm. This sequel was in development with the help of Human Head Studios while Ion Storm was still working on the first game (as told by Romeron at PC Accelerator magazine), but no screenshots nor artwork were ever shown to the public before its cancellation.

It seems development on the sequel started in early 1998, when no one imagined that the first Daikatana would take so many years to be released, nor that it would bomb so hard when published. Former Human Head developers shared memories of the project in interviews and articles published by Eurogamer and GamesRadar:

“We first met John when he was the producer on Heretic and Hexen, so when we left Raven we thought, who better to work with than John Romero! Initially Ben Gokey called him up, told him the story, and he asked us to work on Daikatana 2. Of course we jumped at the chance.”
“Ion Storm funded us enough money for a few living expenses and some new equipment. This in turn meant that we would be using the Unreal engine, and that was extremely exciting.”
Unfortunately by this time Ion Storm was already in decline, Daikatana was becoming a running joke, and Eidos were starting to wonder where all their money was going. Hiring an external studio to develop a sequel to a game that was nowhere near complete was one expense which they could do without. And so, “before we knew it the project was canceled and we were on our own again”.
Human Head would live to fight another day though. “When Daikatana 2 was canceled, Epic was incredibly nice and let us use the Unreal engine even though we didn’t have any contracts with any publishers.”
One of Prey’s concepts even came from past projects that Human Head had worked on. The idea of wall-walk boots originally came up during initial work the studio did for Daikatana 2. That game never happened, and after that, Human Head started talking to Epic about handling Unreal 2. One of its ideas for that project: yup, those wall-walk boots. Human Head didn’t end up doing Unreal 2 either, which was Prey’s gain. “Fast forward to Prey, we were like ‘Alright, we would love to be able to do wall-walk boots,'” Rhinehart says. “So I’m glad that we finally managed to get that particular tech in the game.”

The first Daikatana was postponed several times due to constant technical problems, forced engine changes and internal disagreements in the team. In 2000 the game was finally released and under the hooting of the press, it failed in sales and Ion Storm Dallas disappeared the following year. Human Head Studios later worked on Blair Witch Volume II: The Legend of Coffin Rock and Rune.

If you know someone who worked on Daikatana 2 and could help us preserving some artwork, screenshots or files from this lost game, please let us know!

Thanks to Josef for the contribution!

Images:

Others, PC / MAC, Playstation, Saturn, Sega, Sony

Mythos (DigiFX Interactive) [Cancelled – Playstation, Saturn, PC]

monokoma

28-08-2021

No Comments

Mythos is a cancelled first person shooter set in ancient Greece that was in development by DigiFX Interactive around 1996 / 1997, planned to be released on PlayStation, Sega Saturn and PC. Players would take the role of an ancient Greek demigod who had to rescue the land from the clutches of Hecate, the evil goddess of the underworld.

As we can read in their original press-release:

15 unique magical weapons to acquire by exploration and combat. Lightning bolts, Magical spears, Fireballs, and transformation spells all at your command!
Fully texture mapped 3D rendered world. Randomly changing environments of land, air and sea!
12 unique levels in which to walk or fly around in real time. Each with an awesome boss monster with which to do battle!
Mission types include: Search and rescue, total demolition, escort and defend villages.
Unique DAY AND NIGHT missions add a totally new unique gaming environment! Real world time simulations start in the day and progress into night!

Unfortunately DigiFX Interactive closed down in late 1997 due to financial issues. When the team was disbanded they were also working on other canned titles such as Mission to Nexus Prime and Kaiju.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

Others, PC / MAC

Dark Hermetic Order (Intelligent Games) [PC – Cancelled]

monokoma

22-07-2021

No Comments

Dark Hermetic Order is a cancelled first person action adventure game that was in development around 1996 by Intelligent Games as a sequel to Azrael’s Tear, planned to be published on PC by Williams Interactive. The team was mostly known for such titles as Imperium and Dune 2000, but unfortunately many more of their projects never saw the light of day (Bloodline, Flying Circus, Conjure, King of Wall Street, Deadline News, Cops & Robbers). In Dark Hermetic Order players would take the role of a secret agent with magic powers, who infiltrates a strange cult to eliminate their leaders.

Some details about the development and cancellation of DHO were shared online by former IG’s employee Jason Redway:

“After the release of PGA European Tour Golf and the subsequent course discs Jason moved on to a project that was already in progress with Intelligent Games. This project was called Dark Hermetic Order (DHO) and was underway for Williams Interactive. It was a follow-up to the recently released Azrael’s Tear and would be Jason’s first commercial product utilising his 3D skills. Using 3D Studio, Jason created several rooms and became a senior member of the team over the year that followed. Unfortunately during a management re-shuffle at Williams Interactive DHO was cancelled and work stopped. During the next year Jason worked on several prototype projects and some cancelled demos including Subbuteo, Need For Speed 2 and Flying Circus.”
“Previously we had a 3D adventure game (Azreal’s Tear), a golf game (PGA European Tour) and the recently completed Waterworld – this one was the closest that we had experience of combat strategy gaming. Initial ideas were that we would use the 3D engine we had produced Azreal’s Tear and the recently cancelled Dark Hermetic Order to create the first realtime 3D RTS. With this brief I was tasked to create a short atmosphere setting video that we would present to Westwood.”

A single screenshot from Dark Hermetic Order was published in a few gaming magazines such as PC Player Germany, but we hope one day someone could find footage or even an early prototype.

Thanks to Alex for the contribution!

Others, PC / MAC

Sin 2: Reborn (Ritual Entertainment) [Cancelled – PC]

monokoma

18-07-2021

No Comments

Sin 2 (AKA Sin Reborn) is the cancelled sequel to Ritual Entertainment’s 1998 FPS, which was pitched around 2003. The team created an early prototype demo using the Doom 3 engine, but they did not find a publisher interested in funding the project. From the available footage it seems the game’s antagonist wanted to mutate every human in the city, you could use the physic engine to destroy the environment and block / damage enemies, and you could drive around in vehicles.

Some details were also published on the old Ritual Entertainment’s website:

“In Summer 2003, Ritual Entertainment created a publisher demo for Sin II in order to find funding for the project. Using next generation technology, Sin II was to be a full blown follow-up to Ritual’s 1998 action hit Sin. Unfortunately, no publisher had serious interest in backing the title, forcing Ritual to abandon the idea for the time being.
While the game is not currently in development, we are able to bring you two exclusive in-game screenshots from Ritual’s demo. Taken in a black test map, the screenshots show the new models for main character John R. Blade and villainess Elexis Sinclaire.
So why doesn’t Ritual just release the demo? The demo was created using an in-development third party technology. Until this technology is completed and officially available for licensing, Ritual cannot release any more media from the demo, or even disclose what technology was used.”

In the end Ritual Entertainment chose to work on an Episodic series of Sin games, and the original Sin 2 was finally canned. Unfortunately even Sin Episodes did not have much luck: of the 9 planned episodes only the first one was published before the company was acquired by MumboJumbo.

Thanks to Piotr for the contribution!

Images:

PSP, Sony

Switch (GRIN) [Cancelled – PSP]

monokoma

10-07-2021

1 Comment

Switch is a cancelled FPS that was in development by GRIN around 2006 (after they finished working on Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter for PC), planned to be released on the Sony PSP. It seems the game was officially announced by the company, and they wanted to launch it along with some kind of hardware add-on for the PSP. Not much information is still available online, but we know the game was set on a space base, following a sci-fi story similar to Alien.

Some Switch concept art was shown by the company at the time and a 3D model was shared online by a former GRIN artist. These images are preserved below, to remember the existence of this lost game.

In the end GRIN had many more canned games when the company bankrupted: Streets of Rage Reboot, Strider, Wanted 2, Tower, Final Fantasy Fortress.

Images: