When video games get canceled it sucks; there’s no two ways about it. While there are some games that make it to store shelves with absolutely nothing new or interesting to offer, there are loads of great ones that even have built-in audiences that won’t make it to gamers. What’s a game you missed out on because it was canceled?
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8 ‘Eternal Darkness 2’
The critically-acclaimed Gamecube title Eternal Darkness provided an incredible experience for those who had the distinct pleasure of becoming immersed in it, but never went onto reach commercial success. Silicon Knights, the studio that created Eternal Darkness had made claims that they wanted to make a sequel as far back as 2006, and had planned on creating an Eternal Darkness game for the launch of the Wii U, but legal problems with Epic Games put a stop to that. Thankfully, Silicon Knights has launched a Kickstarter campaign with the aims to create a spiritual successor to Eternal Darkness called “Shadow of the Eternals.” That campaign can be found right here.
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7 ‘Sadness’
Sadness was a survival horror game set in the Ukraine that had a gothic visual style with black and white graphics and relied heavily on psychological horror over violent horror. It would have been released on the Wii and made use of the motion controller for movements such as wielding a torch or throwing a rope over a wall. It lacked a HUD and would have allowed players to adapt any environment item (such as a bottle or the leg of a wooden chait) into a weapon. If that sounds ambitious, it’s because it was. Sadly, the studio creating the game shut down after four years of development with never even a playable demo release.
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6 ‘Star Wars 1313’
Disney’s incorporation of the Star Wars IP caused this travesty: Disney shut down LucasArts, beloved game developer known for titles such as the original Sam & Max, The Secret of Monkey Island and the Jedi Knight series, who had been developing a game called Star Wars 1313 that was to be a mature action title placing players in the role of a bounty hunter. It’s a shame, this type of Star Wars title would have been a lot of fun.
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5 ‘Conker’s Other Bad Fur Day’
Conker’s Bad Fur Day was a hilarious, inappropriate, highly enjoyable game with comical voice acting, engaging music, colorful graphics and ridiculous (in the good way) game mechanics. It was begging for a sequel. Rare Games was working on it, but had to shift focus to another project after being transferred to the Microsoft camp after a buyout. Rare re-made Conker’s Bad Fur Day, which was released on the Xbox as Conker: Live & Reloaded with improved graphics and controls, but unfortunately, more censorship. Then, Rare tried again to develop a sequel, but Microsoft put the kibosh on that for apparently no reason.
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4 ‘Insane’
Guillermo del Toro’s Insane would have been a frightening adventure game from the mind behind Hellboy and Pan’s Labrynth. We can only assume that his unique visual style would translate to the gaming world as well. It was to be created by THQ (which, as we know, is no longer in existence), but was canceled in 2012 after two and a half years of development.
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3 ‘Prey 2’
Prey was an inventive and enjoyable first person shooter from 2006 that was unique in that players could shift environments (gunfights against alien invaders on the ceiling, anyone?) and use portals (yes, before Portal did it) to get through environmental puzzles and surprise enemies from all angles. Prey 2 was still a possibility for quite a while, but no one has heard anything about it in some time now, so we’ll have to assume that it’s not happening.
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2 ‘The Last Guardian’
ICO and Shadow of the Colossus are widely recognized as some of the finest PS2 games in existence. They are novel in their approach to game play mechanics and features impressive visual styles and environmental scope. The Last Guardian was set to be the third spiritual successor – capping off something of a trilogy – but has missed its release date year after year while its designer (who was the director of both ICO and Shadow of the Collussus) left the game studio. Simply put, it was to be a third person action-adventure with puzzle elements about a boy and his giant pet griffin who are trying to escape a large castle.
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1 ‘Half-Life 2: Episode 3’
While it’s not technically canceled, it has been six years since Episode 2 (the Half-Life episode series was meant to come out every year or so until completion) and Valve has been focusing hard on other properties, such as Left 4 Dead, Portal and the Steambox console. The game developer has been very tight-lipped about any further Half-Life work, so for now we’ll have to assume Episode 3 and further episodes (there have been rumors of a Half-Life 2: Episode 4: Return to Ravenhold) are canceled. No one knows why. No one understands why.
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