It’s no big secret that a great many games undergo changes during development, especially from original conception. By change we’re talking about a lot more than just a graphical downgrade, and more to do with mechanics, art direction or even entire concepts. Often these changes result in a completely new game from what was first conceived, and that can leave audiences pretty mixed as some may grow attached to the initial revelations, especially if gameplay was shown.
While there are dozens of stories out there of games that were completely reinvented during development and emerged as different animals upon release, in this feature we’re focusing on five modern examples, a number of which may still be fresh in the memory. However a few of the stories here may have slipped under the radar or some of the facts may have been lost on the average person. Nevertheless, we feel it’s pretty interesting to explore these games, especially since a number of them turned out great irrespective of their monumental changes.
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Metal Gear Rising Revengeance
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is one of the most dramatic stories we have in recent history. After the stellar Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots was released, legendary creator Hideo Kojima was coming up with ideas for another game. An original concept featured The Boss (Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater) and her Cobra Unit as main characters, but the lack of experience from the younger staff in charge and the lack of Kojima’s personal involvement resulted in that idea being scrapped. One team member suggested turning it into a sidestory focused on Raiden, and thus the idea for Metal Gear Solid: Rising was born, which was the debut name for the title. Metal Gear Solid: Rising was initially meant to be official series canon, covering the events which led to Raiden becoming the cyborg ninja in Guns of the Patriots, taking place after Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.
The game was officially announced at E3 2009 at the Microsoft press conference, but without any gameplay footage. It was a teaser video showcasing cyborg Raiden in a more crude form than his Guns of the Patriots appearance, along with the tagline “Lightning Bolt Action”, replacing the famous “Tactical Espionage Action” tagline the Metal Gear Solid series has been famous for. It was a play on the fact that Raiden in Japanese means “thunder and lightning”. Kojima himself would serve only as the executive producer on the game, but nonetheless fans were intrigued. The game would use a brand new engine as opposed to the one in Guns of the Patriots, and people were itching for gameplay. That came at E3 2010, where our tits were blown clean off by the first trailer for the game which started out as a cinematic but included exceptional-looking gameplay at the end.
The most interesting aspect of the game was the teased “hunting stealth”, where instead of previous MGS games where you stayed out of sight to prevent alerts, in Rising you would be stalking your prey. Below is the first trailer for the game, which still brings tears to our eyes.
After its E3 2010 debut, however, the game faded off the map. Problems began to arise with staff, as during late 2011 it was announced that the game’s lead producer had been replaced. Furthermore Kojima Productions was finding it difficult to design the game around the cutting concept. Strangely the game was quietly cancelled in late 2010, and Kojima looked to Japanese developers in order to create a ninja action game. Thus, after a meeting in early 2011 with Platinum Games, Kojima requested the creators of Vanquish and Bayonetta to work on Rising. At the Spike Video Game Awards in December 2011 Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance was revealed, which couldn’t have been further from the original concept if it tried. It was loud, insane like an anime and action-packed, with characterisation completely different to the source material.
It was discovered that Platinum Games had requested a change of setting in order to have less creative restrictions. This led to the stealth element being discarded, and the game no longer being a canonical part of the Metal Gear Solid series (hence ‘Solid’ being dropped from the title), and rather an alternate sidestory. The title change was a bit of a funny story, as Kojima Productions used the word “Revengeance” as a play on the fact that the studio wanted to “to get revenge or vengeance on the original failed Metal Gear Solid: Rising project” while “Rising” represents Raiden’s character. The plot and game itself were designed to be accessible to those who had not touched previous Metal Gear games.
Below you’ll find the Spike Video Game Awards trailer, which shows the reborn game world’s apart from its original reveal.
Revengeance was still a critical success and a hit with gamers, but it’s doubtful that any Metal Gear Solid fan wouldn’t still feel some sadness when viewing the original concept, as it certainly seemed to be a terrific one. However only the development staff would know why it wasn’t working and why the change needed to happen, but nevertheless it will go down as one of the games we were most sad to see changed, even if the final product was still a great game.
Spec Ops: The Line
Spec Ops: The Line is a game championed for its amazing narrative and deconstruction of the military shooter genre. However you wouldn’t be blamed for not knowing about its rather weird history prior to release, and that’s not even taking into account how different the final product was from the initial reveal. If you didn’t know, Spec Ops games were actually a thing before The Line made its debut. Several Spec Ops games released in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but perhaps due to questionable quality and too many releases the series was met with low sales and poor reviews, leading to a halt in production of any future games.
In 2003 publisher Take-Two had it in their financial results that Rockstar Games, in particular Rockstar Vancouver (imagine that) was working on the franchise, however in 2004 that project was canned. Between 2005 and 2009 however the game was completely invisible and forgotten, and all we knew was that Take-Two Interactive had the rights to the name. Finally in December 2009 Spec Ops: The Line was officially revealed at the Spike Video Game Awards, but would you believe that it’s actually the ninth game in the series?
The trailer below is the game as it first appeared, strongly reminding us of the Uncharted series and boasting a dark tone and exceptionally high quality visuals and physics.
Despite the buzz it created the game again faded, perhaps partly due to the release date being scheduled for 2011. But when we got a new trailer for the game in November 2011, it looked nothing like its former self, and one would assume that budget constraints had forced a knockdown in the visuals. But in addition to that the game was hugely different stylistically, and a lot brighter in colour tone compared to the dark and broody first reveal trailer.
It’s interesting to note that the gameplay mechanics of Spec Ops: The Line are actually based on a game developer Yager pitched to 2K, but they were rejected. 2K wanted Yager to create a Spec Ops title, and gave them no restrictions on the game other than that it had to be military themed. Below you’ll find the 2011 trailer which depicts a vastly different game.
The game was eventually only released in June of 2012, and while it saw incredibly high praise for its narrative and setting, criticism was levelled at its low-key gameplay and tacked-on multiplayer, which had been created by a separate developer and never part of Yager’s vision for the game. In fact Yager had some pretty strong words for it, with lead designer Cory Davis stating that it had been included “at the detriment of the overall project and the perception of the game.”
He further said, rather bluntly and without mercy:
It sheds a negative light on all of the meaningful things we did in the single-player experience. The multiplayer game’s tone is entirely different, the game mechanics were raped to make it happen, and it was a waste of money. No-one is playing it, and I don’t even feel like it’s part of the overall package – it’s another game rammed onto the disk like a cancerous growth, threatening to destroy the best things about the experience that the team at Yager put their heart and souls into creating.
This is relevant because perhaps the forced inclusion of multiplayer resulted in other areas of the game suffering, particularly the gameplay as the initial trailer seemed to have it all together.
Killzone 2
Guerilla Games’ Killzone 2 is famously (or infamously) remembered for its E3 2005 trailer which depicted an unbelievable game graphically ahead of its time, which hardly looked like gameplay. However SCEA’s at the time Vice President Jack Tretton stated that the footage was not pre-rendered but “is real gameplay everybody’s seeing out there”. A number of days later Phil Harrison, SCE Europe’s Vice President of Development, stated in an interview that all game footage at E3 2005 for PlayStation 3 titles were “running off video” which was “done to PS3 spec”. Subsequent interviews however eventually dropped some of the bullshit and revealed that the 2005 trailer was a “target render”, which meant a pre-rendered video showing the developer’s goals for the finished product.
Below you’ll find that famous first trailer for Killzone 2 at E3 2005.
However at the GDC 2007 Guerilla Games emerged guns blazing, unafraid to show off Killzone 2 with a bunch of trailers, including extended game footage in future weeks. The game was certainly a long way away from release, but was already fast gaining a reputation for the most beautiful game on console. While the 2007 footage looks dramatically different to the original E3 2005 yet significantly closer to the final release, there are still some aesthetic and atmospheric differences, particularly with the lightning booms on Helghan. Take a gander at the 2007 footage to see how the game looks completely brand spanking new compared to that alien E3 2005 footage.
The game eventually saw release in February of 2009 to much critical acclaim and great sales. In addition it’s a fine example of a game that actually went on to look better than what was shown in 2007, as it was arguably crispier and more vibrantly coloured. Nevertheless, it’s still fun to watch that E3 2005 trailer just to see how games can evolve and change so dramatically, and we suppose as further warning to always be cautious of the trade event that is E3.
Splinter Cell Conviction
Splinter Cell Conviction is a story many may not be aware of due to the slight bit of development hell it went through. The game was originally announced in May of 2007 with a trailer. It has since become famous for “Hobo Fisher” as the trailer depicted a rugged and fully-bearded Sam on the run. It looked like something inspired by the Bourne movies, as Sam had to blend into the environment, improvise on the spot and engage in fast-paced hand-to-hand combat using whatever was available in the environment. As a result the game appeared less stealthy than previous Splinter Cell games, but no less tactical and a bit more intense. Few could say it didn’t look interesting at least.
The game was set to launch in November of 2007, but it missed that date. That’s when the game disappeared off the map, and only in May 2008 it was reported by Xbox World that Splinter Cell: Conviction was “officially on hold” and had been taken “back to the drawing board.”.
Below you’ll find footage from the early reveal of the game, which depicts the Bourne-style nature of the game as well as the combat.
Ubisoft didn’t officially confirm whether the game had been taken back to the drawing board, but the company did announce the huge delay to the 2009-2010 fiscal year. It was to be at E3 2009 that the game resurfaced, equipped with a completely new visual style and with no Hobo Fisher. It looked action packed still, but one would argue more typical. The “new” Conviction had been in development since early 2008, and Ubisoft said that “the gameplay has evolved a lot” and “the visual direction is simply much better.”
Behold, the “new” Conviction, which funnily enough still differed from the final product, especially with this particular level.
The game was meant to release in November 2009, but received yet another delay to Q1 of 2010. A February 23 date was given, only for the game to be delayed again to April, where it finally released. The result was a good game, albeit one that divided audiences especially among the Splinter Cell fans. It felt too far apart from the roots, and that monochrome colour scheme at set points in the game certainly didn’t help win over fans.
Fuse
Fuse is a 2013 game that perhaps would go down as the worst thing associated with fun-loving developer Insomniac Games. It was to be the first time that Insomniac published under someone else other than Sony Computer Entertainment since Universal Interactive Studios, and in this case it was EA. Interestingly enough it was also to be the first time Insomniac would actually own its IP, and who would have thought such a disaster would have emerged out of it?
In 2011 at E3 during EA’s press conference a colourful trailer for a game called Overstrike, which looked every bit what we’d expect from Insomniac Games, the famous developers of Ratchet and Clank and the Resistance series. It was a four-player cooperative focused game which featured a band of four characters whose sanity was perhaps questionable at best. If you don’t remember Overstrike, it would be best to watch the trailer below and let it tell the full story.
The game disappeared off the radar after its E3 reveal, and it wasn’t until the end of August in 2012 that it resurfaced. Except this time something was extremely wrong. Overstrike was completely unrecognisable, and it had even been rebranded with a new name: Fuse. To be brutally honest we struggle to recall a more off-putting trailer for a game in recent history, especially when considering how this game started out. As Fuse the game looked artistically dull, the fun and easy-going nature had been stripped away for something serious and broody, and it looked like little more than a modern action game ticking the required checklist. The reactions were almost unanimous among us: Fuse was not something we wanted to play.
Now in fairness Fuse wasn’t the only time Insomniac deviated from the expected. Its Resistance series was pretty serious business as well, and it was a surprise hit of high quality. However Fuse begged cynicism, because the easiest conclusion to jump to was that Insomniac had all these fun and awesome ideas and then in stepped the mean old blank-faced EA execs to shut them down. Many gamers held it against EA, and thousands probably still do.
But was it all EA?
In a lengthy interview with Joystiq Insomniac president and CEO Ted Price detailed how Overstrike became Fuse. The cynical among us would perhaps say that he’s covering for EA, and maybe it’s true. We don’t know. What we do have is the explanation that was given. It basically boiled down to Insomniac realising that Overstrike wasn’t quite working as far as gameplay was concerned. The core idea of a four-player shooter where each co-op player had a unique role in combat was workable, but there was something problematic about the execution. Originally Overstrike was centered on using the characters to work together in stealth situations, but according to Price the play between characters wasn’t satisfying enough.
“At the time, when we showed Overstrike in 2011,” Price said, “we weren’t where we needed to be with the weapons. We had some cool concepts on paper and in the video, but ultimately, when we started playing the game, the weapons lacked heft, they lacked impact, and they lacked that fun factor that we believe is at the core of every one of our games.”
That train of thought led to Fuse, and the game’s focus on the secret, alien element incidentally called “fuse”. You can read the full interview at Joystiq for all the details on how the game changed.
One of the more interesting things to know is that according to Price “Fuse is actually the least changed of all of our IPs.” Ratchet and Clank was originally a third-person, M-rated adventure game called “Girl With a Stick.” The game had whacked up elements like divine intervention and a complex martial arts system, but it wasn’t fun, which led to Insomniac canning it and thus Ratchet and Clank was born. Similarly Resistance went through major changes as well. “It started out as a game set in the far future, where you were fighting a race of lizard-ish beings,” Price said. “And the story involved time travel, space travel, it was a space opera, essentially.” Insomniac then decided to add a dose of World War 1 or 2 before settling on the alternate timeline.
Fuse is definitely a video game we’d be happy to forget, as both its critical reception and sales were very underwhelming. At least Insomniac Games went on to redeem themselves with Sunset Overdrive, which is funnily enough stylistically similar to Overstrike.
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