world war 2

Unknown Heroes (Mindware Studios) [PC – Cancelled]

Unknown Heroes is a canceled World War II Role-Playing Game developed by Mindware Studios, around 2005-2006, for the PC.

Very few information are currently available for this game. It was first mentionned in September 2008, on the Czech website Visiongame during an interview of Mindware’s lead designer Nikola Matoušková while talking about another cancelled project, Voodoo Nights:

V.G.: Not so long ago, Voodoo Nights was remembered in an article about canceled projects. No one really showed interest in such an interesting game?

N.M.: Many people showed interest, many publishers were even enthusiastic. But as I said before, pushing a new IP address is nearly impossible these days. Especially for a small business in the East. There were a lot of negotiations going on, but in the end, it all kind of fell apart. After a while, one of our main stakeholders came up with the game Army of Two, which had an almost identical concept. Interesting coincidence. And we had more of those irons in the fire, for example the very promising WWII epic RPG Unknown Heroes. There, too, all the negotiations kind of burned out in a weird way. Now I’m still waiting for another big publisher to unexpectedly release this game.

Years later, a low resolution gameplay video was published by one of the folks from Visiongame, showing what looked like a tactical squad based Third-Person Shooter:

During their existence, Mindware had another project that got canceled with their MMOFPS Mindhack.

If you know someone who worked on Unknown Heroes and could help us preserve more screenshots, footage or details, please let us know! 

Sniper (1C Company) [PC – Cancelled]

Sniper is a cancelled World War II First-Person Shooter developed by 1C Company in 2005, exclusively for the PC.

Very few information are currently available for this title. According to Gamepressure, the game took place in 1942 during the infamous battle of Stalingrad, as we play Russian sniper Vasiliy Zaitsev.

Sniper, which is apparently a codename for the project, was briefly mentionned by its developer at E3 2005 where a trailer was apparently shown. The game totally disappeared after that and was never mentionned again. Only a few screenshots and a potential cover art are, to this day, available to remember its existence. We can speculate that something didn’t work as planned and 1C Company had to pull the plug for this pretty obscure title.

Oddly enough, 1C Company (now Fulqrum Games) is still around today, but was always more a publisher than a developer. The studio has, for instance, its own video games retail chain, similar to GameStop, located in 22 cities inside Russia, named 1-C Interest.

If you know someone who worked on Sniper and could help us preserve more screenshots, footage or details, please let us know!

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Wehrwolf (Electronic Paradise) [PC – Cancelled]

Wehrwolf is a cancelled World War II First-Person Shooter developed from 2003 to approximately 2006 by Ukrainian studio Electronic Paradise and published by Discus Games, only for PC.

Wehrwolf was officialy announced in February 2004. By the time, here is what we could read on the old defunct website about the game:

Wehrwolf is a first person 3D action-adventure game. It has two modes: singleplayer and multiplayer game. The style of the game is similar to the styles of Call of Duty and Medal of Honor but with up-to-date graphics.

  • Wehrwolf is creating on the basis of its own 3D engine having both indoor and outdoor. The main features of the engine are as follows: unlimited landscapes, realistic water, natural growth and other objects, dynamic light, soft shadows, animated clouds, interactive weapons.
  • The scenario of the game bases on the real episodes of the Second World war. The action takes place in the outskirts and inside the German top-secret military facility Hitler’s field headquarters Wehrwolf.(note: Wehrwolf – armed wolf, Werwolf – werewolf) not far from Vinnitsa. Even today this facility is covered under the curtain of mystery, secrets and myths. Until now Wehrwolf is one of mysterious and undiscovered places in Europe.
  • The player will have to act as a member of soviet special assignment squad “Victors”(this squad really existed during the Second World War), which was dropped deep beyond the enemy lines for diversions and to uncover the mystery of Wehrwolf…
  • There are to be 15 singleplayer and 5 multiplayer levels, 25 kinds of infantry weapons, more than 10 different kinds of vehicles, 20 kind of heavy equipment.
  • 3D models of Wehrwolf bunker, villages and Vinnitsa of the 1940’s are being specially recreated for the game. 3D model of the weapons are created using real infantry weapons of the Second World War, which were neutralized on the military factory. The weapons in the game are as follows: PPSh-41, PPS-43, MP-40, PD-27, RPD-44, MG-34, Mosin riffle, Tokarev riffle, TT and revolver. Real Soviet and German military equipment were bought to recreate real textures in the game: uniform, helmets, flasks and others.

Shortly after its reveal, GenGamers was able to get an interview with Electronic Paradise’s director Sergei Melikhov, describing more about the game:

GG: When did you start the development for your game Wehrwolf and how many people are working on it?

SM: We started the development in September 2003. Our team consists of 6 people.

GG: Have you been inspired by other games or movies?

SM: We were inspired by Medal Of Honor, Call Of Duty, I.G.I. 2 and Return To Castle Wolfenstein.

GG: Is Wehrwolf a typical shooter or will you implent interesting gameplay variations?

SM: Wehrwolf is not a typical shooter. We plan to add some adventure & stealth elements. The player will need to use his tactical skills to complete small missions, looking for the most suitable decisions. These tasks will have various salvations.

GG: How long will it take to finish the game?

SM: We plan to finish it by the middle of 2005.

GG: And what´s up with the mod community? Will they be able to create their own levels?

SM: We started the creation of the separate level editor. The players will be able to create their own levels and characters with its help.

GG: What kind of music will you include?

SM: We ordered musical compositions with war theme for the game. The composer is rather famous here in Ukraine and in England: Alexander Sparinskiy. We think there will be about 10 musical themes.

After that, the game occasionally showed up in the media through various screenshots as well as 2 gameplay videos, but wasn’t released in mid-2005.  Thereafter, it seems that the project was put on hold and Electronic Paradise has instead developed what would be their only game: Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel, released in 2007 in Russia. We can assume that something didn’t work out as planned for Wehwrolf and its developer had to refocus on a more economically viable project. Electronic Paradise disappeared completely after that, as well as Discus Games, rather modest in its published games.

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