My Top 10 Saddest Game Cancellations

Being a gamer at heart, the cancellation of a title you follow is truly one of the saddest things that can happen. Most of the time, it involves a slow fade into obscurity until one day you randomly come to think; “whatever happened to this game?”. Then you look it up on google, and are met with the headlines: Name-of-cool-game CANCELLED, everyone involved fired (presumed dead), and studio buried under a mountain of debt!

Recognize it? I sure do, so here are my top 10 saddest game cancellations that I feel were and are a real loss for the gaming community. However, it should be noted that the cancelled projects I picked for this list are games that personally resonated with me. Titles that had my eyes on their development—that for one reason or another were scrapped. It’s not a list of the most objectively important games, or some such, except for me (and maybe you), that is!

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1) X-COM: Alliance
Let’s start with a real heavy hitter: X-COM: Alliance. This one goes straight back to my youth, when I spent many hours in the bathtub reading about all the fantastic games coming in the future in the magazine PC Gamer (when it was good). Being a big X-com fan already, X-COM: Alliance caught my attention immediately.

And man, did it look awesome, with the information provided sounding cool. The story seemed to be a great continuation after X-com: Terror of the Deep, now with humanity becoming the “aliens”, so to speak, establishing themselves as a space-faring species. Mankind, rightfully so, sends an expedition to Mars to go through the ruins of Cydonia. But as luck will have it, seeing as Mars is a terrible place filled with dangers and extraterrestrial mysteries, the human expedition gets sucked into an ancient portal that teleports them to an unknown region of space.

It just comes off as incredibly intriguing—being whisked away to an unknown world in the X-com setting, but now, for the first time, seeing it all from a first-person perspective. And that’s not all, doing it with a squad that, like the older games, will level up, and become better as they succeed in missions. It’s a real shame this one got cancelled, because I think X-COM: Alliance could have been something truly special.

There are some funky leaked alpha versions you can download from My Abandonware, but I never got it to work. I think it might be best to just let this one rest—to have the disappointment eventually fade away, becoming a faint, bitter memory. For a bonus, check out the incredibly moody intro for the game here!

2) Tiberium
Now, this is also a rough one. Tiberium was reportedly 99% complete, but for some reason the suits over at Electronic Arts decided it didn’t meet “the company’s quality standards”—like that ever hindered EA before, which has me suspecting other things were at play here. This is also strengthened by watching the leaked videos with gameplay, as it seemed pretty awesome already, clearly meeting FPS-standards at the time.

Tiberium was supposed to be a squad-based FPS, set shortly after Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, depicting a second scrin invasion. What was cool here, beyond the squad-leading and alien blasting, was that the lead would be none other than Ricardo Vega, the main character from the Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars book. It would have been awesome to actually continue the story of this character, since the book now serves as a tie-in with no real purpose. The established cast is never again seen in this universe, which is a huge waste to me.

The game could have been crap, of course. It’s impossible to tell, considering EA’s statement, but from the leaked footage, it looked very entertaining. Tiberium would probably have been seen as just another drop in the sea of sci-fi shooters (to some, at least), if it was released. But having an FPS set in the masterful Command and Conquer franchise crumble into dust like this stings something fierce in the Tiberium-infested old pump. What a waste all around! 

3) Dreamland Chronicles: Freedom Ridge
If X-com: Apocalypse wasn’t ambitious enough for Julian Gollop and his team—here comes Dreamland Chronicles: Freedom Ridge. Switching the action from 2D-sprites, to a full 3D world with destructible environments, in which you can see in this old grainy video from some long forgotten convention. This is years before Silent Storm‘s extensive destruction engine, which is pretty damn impressive, I must say.

Dreamland Chronicles wasn’t going to be set in the X-com universe, but the game would share many features: tactical turn-based combat, and a global strategy level. Ring familiar? The camera would move in 3D to show dynamic cinematic moments like when things are blown up and lizards getting shot in the face. This might also ring a bell, but this is years before it was an actual thing in Xcom: Enemy Unknown by Firaxis.

Having the enemy be based on dinosaurs, as the lizard people Saurans is genius, since it plays into every foil-hat wearing conspiracy guy’s wet dream—just like myself. This is another game lost to the ether that would probably be considered a classic nowadays. Instead, we got Phoenix Point at a later date as Gollop’s “magnum opus” that shares some of these features, however, with only half the passion of what this project oozed.

4) Aliens: Crucible
Long before Obsidian Entertainment became a passionless slop-making development studio under Microsoft, they released a few legendary RPGs like Fallout: New Vegas, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, Mask of the Betrayer and Alpha Protocol. They were experimental in design, but unfortunately buggy with questionable programming concerning performance, and some mechanics.

Judging by the leaked and released footage of Aliens: Crucible, this game would be no different. Yet, myself and many others would often turn a blind eye to these issues that plagued early Obsidian releases, seeing as the writing would always be excellent. World-building, characterization and plot remain unmatched to these days, involving legendary writers like Chris Avellone and George Ziets.

I see no reason Aliens: Crucible would be any different—on top of that, being set in an awesome franchise that sadly has seen some awful movies and shows as of late. While the early footage looks a tad janky, I get the feeling we lost something genuinely good here, and it’s a shame the publisher (SEGA) at the time never asked them to take up development again. In space, nobody hears your despair!

5) StarCraft: Ghost
Boy, this is another cruel one. StarCraft: Ghost looked like an awesome third-person action-stealth game set in Blizzard’s gritty StarCraft universe. Like a few other games on this list, it would be the first venture into a “boots-on-the-ground” experience for a close-up view on the franchise—to experience the terror of the Zerg from a first-hand perspective.

Like many other cancelled games, footage has been saved, which shows a fun third-person action (with stealth) game style that was typical of that era. You know the deal, tight corridors, the slaughter of many, humans and aliens alike, without a bloated open world to drain the fun. In other words: a tight experience with nice pacing, making it a perfect opportunity in design to tell an engaging story.

The ghost operative Nova, who you were supposed to play, was interestingly enough not forgotten by Blizzard. Way down the line, when StarCraft 2 was still popular, a mini-campaign of sorts was released with Nova in the lead, called StarCraft II: Nova Covert Ops. It’s nice to see the dangerous femme fatale wasn’t lost in space and got to star in her own expansion, but honestly, I would rather have seen StarCraft: Ghost come into fruition. Alas, it was not to be.

6) Eternal Darkness 2
Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem was a real gem from back in the day that was exclusively released for the Gamecube. Somewhat of an oddity—releasing a tight Lovecraftian horror title like that on Nintendo’s family orientated machine. Nonetheless, it might have been locked to Gamecube, but it still saw widespread play, as horror and survival horror enthusiasts like myself were ready to offer sacrifices to Shub-Niggurath to be able to play it.

And so it went, the first one became legendary, a true must-play title—so when Eternal Darkness 2 was announced it was met with cultish ecstasy. Sadly, the blood sacrifices were not enough, and the developer, Silicon Knights, had to close its doors before shipping it out. Primarily thanks to the soul-destroying lawsuit against Epic Games over Unreal Engine 3, centered around the Xbox 360-exclusive RPG Too Human.

Denis Dyack, the president for Silicon Knights, tried to revive the game through a spiritual successor called Shadow of the Eternals with the help of Kickstarter—but it was not meant to be. Too little, too late, I assume. Looking back now, it’s a shame, as both the legendary game and a pretty good studio would face its own elder god in the chaos that followed that fatal lawsuit. R.I.P.

7) Splinter Cell: Conviction (Original Concept)
This one is a little different, since Splinter Cell: Conviction is a real game, and a pretty good one at that. However, the original concept for the game and story was very distinct, and when I saw the initial leaked presentation for the first time, I was mesmerized.

You would still play as the legendary Sam Fisher, but after the happenings in Double Agent, Sam would now be a hunted man—on the run from the state, hence the hobo look (it fits him, though!). Instead of the usual hiding in shadows to strangle mercs working for the wrong side of America’s interests, you would now brawl with cops and hide within the crowds, much like our hooded friend in Assassin’s Creed. All to hunt down corrupted Third Echelon agents and clear your name, with a very similar vibe to the movie The Fugitive.

If you watch the leaked video, it’s clear this version was unique, with a heavy focus on physics and dynamic hand-to-hand combat. Now, while Conviction was a good game, I can’t help to think this version would be even better, and maybe even more memorable than the Conviction title we got. It was once again not to be, but at least we got a game this time that continued the Splinter Cell franchise—so, not a total dud!

8) Star Wars 1313
Star Wars 1313 was supposed to be the Star Wars game for grown-ups—an intense action-adventure game in the style of Uncharted, set in the criminal underworld of Level 1313. Sounds too good to be true? Yes, sadly it was, as when Disney laid their anti-Midas fingers on the franchise, they decided to kill the development at LucasArts. It looked so damn good, too, especially if you enjoy “cinematic” third-person action adventures now and then. Check out the fabulous E3 demo here!

The premise and story of the game seemed interesting as well, as you would be playing a young Boba Fett, stepping into his early days as a bounty hunter. And as you might know, bounty hunters in Star Wars are the antithesis of the Jedis, which meant—for once—you wouldn’t be playing as one. Maybe you would even be hunting them? That would be something!

Unfortunately, Disney took Star Wars in a totally lame and horrible direction—so gritty, grown-up titles like Star Wars 1313 never stood a chance. Another one for the graveyard, in this unfair galaxy of ours (not that far away).

9) Nuclear Union
Nuclear Union was supposed to be a post-apocalyptic RPG set in an alternate timeline where nuclear war erupted after the Cuban missile crisis—instead of peacefully ending in a non-destructive way when everyone wisely lifted their fingers off the big red button in real life.

What initially got me hooked was the trailer that showed a cool bleak setting in post-nuclear Russia, built in the GEM engine—a tech I knew well from countless hours of brutal combat in Men of War. Another thing this wasteland adventure trailer reminded me of was the legendary game Stalker, but now in an engine that allowed for full and total destruction. My attention definitely peaked!

Real life eventually caught up with the publisher, 1C Company, due to rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine, where the developer Best Way were located. We all know how this conflict escalated, which sadly doomed the game—now just another casualty in the ongoing tragedy between the nations. Luckily, neither Ukraine nor Russia has turned into a nuclear union just yet. 

10) Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans
Blizzard game number two on the list. Warcraft Adventures was going to be a 2D hand-drawn point & click adventure title that was supposed to tell the tale of Thrall; a young orc that was raised in captivity who would eventually escape and unite the fractured Horde. Sounds familiar? It sure does for me, since it’s essentially the campaign for the orcs in the classic RTS Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos.

The story found redemption later, becoming the backbone of another beloved game. However, back in the day, I thought this title appeared absolutely fantastic, and I looked forward to a more detailed aspect of the Warcraft franchise—getting a view of the action with a magnifying glass (sort of). Also, at that point in time, having an orc as the lead was certainly something unusual, which caught hold of my curiosity, as well. 

As with the rest of these games on this list, Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans was not to be. However, a beta was leaked to the net, which fans patched into a semi-functional build. You can find a playable version of it over at The Collection Chamber, if curious. I have not played it myself, but it’s probably something I should do at one point or another, since it’s one of those games from my youth that had me yearning to play. Hey, it was Warcraft, after all!

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And that’s all from me this time around. There are countless other cancelled games out there that showed potential, but these titles stood out to me as something special, or could have been, at least. Many more games will join their fate in the future, but that’s for another top 10 article!

Thanks for reading.

– Thomas