Conan: The Dark Axe was a fun action-adventure game based on the iconic Conan franchise. You played as the legendary barbarian as he slashed and clashed with enemies of all sizes, and rose victorious like he always does. Unlike the 2007 Conan game, this one didn’t play like a copy of God of War or Devil May Cry. It felt unique with all its pros and cons. Looking back, this game excelled in several areas over the 2007 Conan iteration by THQ.
Below, we can see a couple of beta images and concept artwork showing some of the changes.
Before it became known as Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, the game was originally titled ESPionage. In its early beta builds, it looked and played quite differently from the version that eventually hit the store. This was largely because Midway began showcasing the game while it was still in its alpha phase.
The game was indeed shown at E3 2003, where it was featured under the ESPionage codename. Thanks to footage and media from that event, we can catch a few rare glimpses of what the game looked like during its early development.
While the game was officially scheduled to release on the GameCube, that port was eventually cancelled.
Jet Li Rise to Honour was a fun beat’em up released exclusively on the PS2. The project began when Sony was exploring ways to bring action-hollywood cinema experiences to the small screen, and it happened that Jet Li fit their goal. After a few calls and discussions, Jet Li decided to give the project a kick (or a punch)
From the images and videos below, we can notice a handful of beta differences that have, unfortunately, gone undocumented for a few years now.
Images:
Beta changes:
Different jacket
Different character HUD (it went through two iterations)
Some different attack moves
Gun pointer was changed twice
The Fei & Huang brothers look different
The guy shooting you early in the game is different here
Different bike colours (blue in this instance)
From the pre-final build, a different HUD can be observed with green circles. It is unknown what their purpose was
Videos:
This video shows the pre-beta footage gameplay of Jet Li Rise to Honour.
This video, on the other hand, is very important as it shows the following beta changes:
Jet Li isn’t wearing a jacket
Different Jet Li fascial textures
Different attack animations (a bit slower)
Different HUD once again
The Fei & Huang brothers are different here
Chueng Mo Pao wears different clothes, and so does Jet Li (White jacket)
Van Helsing is an awesome action-adventure game where you get to play as the titular monster hunter Van Helsing himself. The game plays similarly to Devil May Cry, Ghost Rider and many action games released during that time. Before launching in 2004, we can observe tiny beta changes from the images below.
Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams is the fourth mainline instalment in the Onimusha franchise, developed and published by Capcom. This instalment revamped the combat of the previous trilogy, introduced a new main character, a new RPG system, and a different direction altogether. However, before being released to the world, the game underwent several changes. One of which I think should have remained.
Images:
Differences:
Different stance when absorbing souls
Soki can charge up his sword to execute a powerful attack (just like in the Onimusha trilogy)
Visible HP bar on top for your companion
Requiem (Sword of Purification) once had a separate magic bar
Different lock-on stance
An online co-op feature was once planned, but wasn’t really implemented
Videos:
Differences:
Unused Requiem attack move
Different Ohatsu and Tenkai fascial
Different transformation (bright green flames)
Cutscenes were originally all in CGI
Ban Danemon soldiers are regular Genmas
The Issen attack lacks special effects (usually, the screen blurs for a few seconds, and your surroundings turn dark)
Faster Issen attacks
Marcellus appears as a boss briefly in the promo trailer
Unused battle stage (It is possible that it was part of the Test of Valour missions, or a boss)
Slightly different save portal (Likely uses one from Onimusha 3: Demon’s Siege)
Soki is able to charge his weapon (similar to Onimusha 3)
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