Scivelation is an obscure third-person shooter that spent years in development hell under TopWare Interactive and Black Wing Foundation. The project was first unveiled in October 2009, when TopWare announced the title alongside an interesting overview of its premise. As originally reported by IGN:
“Set in the distant future, Scivelation’s universe is a world born out of the ashes of conflict and misery. An oppressive global dictatorship, known as the Regime, has risen to power after the aftermath of the Apocalypse; aggressively seeking out and eliminating any opposition to their tyrannical government. With this capricious, dystopian reality as a backdrop, the player will take his or her place amongst the ranks of the resistance, waging war throughout the furthest reaches of the globe in this action-packed battle for freedom and survival.”
Beyond these early press releases and promotional trailers—which largely recycled the same high-level plot summary—TopWare Interactive released very little public information. Actual gameplay footage remained virtually non-existent.
Surprisingly, the game’s official product page remains live on TopWare Interactive’s website today. The listing on the website outlines the core mechanics and introduces its two primary protagonists:
Mikhael Ivanov :
Captain of GRN, Mikhael is a decorated veteran of the Tribulation War. Due to injuries sustained in combat, much of his body is made up of Zionetric implants, improving his combat skills and allowing him to evolve above the level of a simple soldier.… and Elisha Amano :
A former geneticist for the Regime, she joined the Resistance to justify her guilt for having worked on the Omega sequence of the Ascension program, a project aimed at creating a genetic panacea with the aim of curing human mortality. This program, however, was used by the Regime for much darker purposes. Elisha not only brings a brilliant scientific mind to the Resistance, but also his research…”
Now onto the gameplay features:
- Double play – Move solo or evolve with others through the different levels. As a team, characters support each other using various special mechanics and abilities. The feeling and importance of teamwork should not be underestimated, as it represents the heart of Scivelation’s main campaign.
- Augmentation and genetics – Both characters have synthetic abilities, one thanks to his very powerful Zionetric implants, and the other thanks to his modified genome. Each improvement and mutation forces them to renounce their humanity… This battle is fought as much outside as inside themselves.
- Special skills– Characters can project holograms, be unleashed, slow down time, activate shields, deploy turrets and much more… A number of special abilities are available for each of the two main characters.
- Scattered events and territories – From the heights of London to the ruins of Moscow and beyond, the free city of Prague and Vienna, the pre-war city lost in time, all roads lead to the Secret and Underground Archives of Bethlehem. Experience a futuristic sci-fi experience with Scivelation.
- Not a second of respite – Knowledge is key to the Scivelation storyline. A story-rich world was created to give the game a level of depth never before seen in the TPS Action/Adventure genre, usually reserved for RPGs.
- Futuristic sounds – Atmospheric, sharp and apocalyptic: all these feelings were mixed with classical music, orchestrated and composed by American heavy metal legend John Moyer of the world-famous band “Disturbed”.
- Cinematic experiment – Over an hour of cutscenes for an even more realistic gaming experience.
While these concepts looked promising on paper, TopWare never released concrete gameplay footage beyond a handful of screenshots. To add salt to the wound, the project suffered numerous delays: initially scheduled for a 2010 release, it was pushed to 2011, and eventually delayed to Q1 2014, with TopWare aiming to target PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.
That target passed without a word. Following the release of Renoir in 2016, Black Wing Foundation suddenly vanished too, which ultimately meant that Scivelation was done for. Today, the project exists only as a mere publisher listing, a pre-rendered trailer, and a small collection of promotional assets you can check below.
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