One of the worst situations for a game title is when there is no new videos and no news from the developer coming out about it, like everything has fallen apart. It is difficult to say then if the project still exists or if it has been scrapped. These days there are lots of such productions. They were quite interesting, potentially big hits, but sadly lost in action.
Among these games, while some may yet come back and actually make their market debut, others will regrettably be tossed in the trash. In this article, we are going to introduce 10 forgotten games that were indeed looked like interesting title while they were announced.
10- The Last Night
You don’t often see an indie game make such a showing at E3. This was the case with the pixel-art, cyberpunk production The Last Night from new studio Odd Tales. The dark atmosphere was just pouring out of the trailer unveiled at Microsoft’s conference. We should remember, however, that this was in… 2017. More precisely, five long years have passed from that time, during which Tim Soret, the game’s lead designer, did not provide us with any new material.
The developers have reportedly undergone a series of problems in the meantime, not least legal issues related to their project. Just last year, Odd Tales studio claimed that we would find out more about The Last Night in 2022. But we are already in the last day of 2022, the major trade shows are behind us, and we are still in the dark about the game. Is it going to stay in the list of most interesting forgotten games? We will have to wait and see.
9- Deep Down
Back in 2013, Deep Down made a big impression at the presentation announcing the PlayStation 4. The Capcom behind the project was expected to develop an action-packed production, likely similar to the soulslike genre. Later on, however, the game became quiet. Ba, the Japanese publisher stopped reporting anything.
What’s interesting is that last year Jason Schreier had an interview with Shawn Layden, former head of the PlayStation brand. The man himself admitted that he had no idea what happened with Deep Down. Perhaps someday this mystery will be solved. One thing is for sure and that is the fact that Deep Down will stay in the list of forgotten games forever.
8- Everwild
This is one of the few games in the list (perhaps even the only one) that we know something about. By something, in this case, we mean any information about why we’ve been awaiting specifics since the announcement, which happened at the end of 2019. Back then, Rare showed a beautiful trailer presenting a fabulous game. About what? It was hard to say even then. An open world for single player, for co-op or maybe a Sea of Thieves-style Game as a Service?
This is something even the developers themselves were probably not aware of. Everwild has gone through development hell and concept changes. Everything seems to have been ironed out and the game, under the leadership of a new lead designer, will pick up momentum, hopefully get out of the list of forgotten games. Nevertheless, Gary Napper has been working at Rare only since the end of last year, so many indications are that we’ll have to wait a little longer for specifics.
7- In The Valley of Gods
Has Valve killed a potential hit for fans of narrative games? Plenty of evidence suggests so. The team of Campo Santo, developers of the fantastic Firewatch, had announced their new title at The Game Awards in 2017. The team was later purchased by the developers of Half-Life, which began the troubles. There was first a lot of talk about mandatory relocation of employees, and later the team was engaged in work on Half-Life Alyx, thus relegating In The Valley of Gods to the sidelines.
Some Campo Santo employees last year even deleted the information that they were currently working at Valve on this adventure game. Could this mean the end of this project and adding it to the list of forgotten games? We hope not. Firewatch demonstrated how much these developers can afford.
6- Unknown 9: Awakening
This is a typical project that you can describe in one sentence – a great teaser trailer, followed by several years of silence. Unknown 9 was announced in 2020 and immediately captivated with a beautiful trailer dripping with mystery and oriental atmosphere. Many gamers then expected specifics on what exactly the game is going to be.
But unfortunately, the developer (Reflector Entertainment) and publisher (Bandai Namco) fell flat. Two years waiting may not be much, but the total lack of new information is worrisome. This is not to suggest that Unknown 9 has been cancelled. These situations sometimes happen. All the same, there is no denying that the project has been lost. Hopefully it will be revived as soon as possible and won’t be on the list of forgotten games!
5- Abandoned
The marketing masterpiece. As Abandoned was so enigmatically announced, lots of fans started to find a new Hideo Kojima project in this game. As time passed, however, it turned out that this beautiful scenario will not turn out to be true. Abandoned is an independent title from Blue Box studio. But what specifically is it? That’s what we no longer know.
There was supposed to be a special application on the way, that should explain something, but it did not. So, as time went by, people stopped talking about Abandoned in the context of Silent Hill, and began to talk about the developer’s numerous ongoing controversies and unclear activities. To this day, we haven’t even known a piece of the gameplay. So what happens next with this hit in the list of forgotten games, nobody seems to know.
4- Pragmata
It was another project from Capcom and was once again showcased for the first time at the Sony conference. However, this time it was 2020, and the game itself is supposed to be multiplatform. However, that’s the end of the differences from Deep Down. Pragmata soon impressed with its original ideas and powerful atmosphere straight out of a Hideo Kojima production. Not surprisingly, many gamers have been waiting for gameplay from Capcom’s big new brand.
After all, such things don’t happen often. But unfortunately, two years have passed, and the game is avoiding all trade shows and conferences by a wide margin. So what happened to this hit in our list of forgotten games? Similar to Unknown 9: Awakening, it’s hard to sound the alarm. These situations happen, although they are not welcomed by gamers. So Capcom, maybe it’s time to show something more?
3- Beyond Good & Evil 2
A whopping six years have passed since the announcement of the sequel to the iconic Beyond Good & Evil (disregarding the first video from 2008). Why has it taken so long? The announcement of the game in the very early stages of development explains little. Presumably the project has been going through development hell, making a happy ending still a long way off.
However, perhaps the reason for the delays is the huge scale of the project and the high ambitions of the developers? This we do not know. Naturally, many people have put a cross on Beyond Good & Evil 2 along the way, although according to the latest leaks Ubisoft is still working on the game and is even conducting closed tests. So perhaps this particular title will finally go on sale at some point and we won’t get to add it to lists of forgotten games.
2- Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WwiMU2l9j8
Another follow-up to a cult game that has been missing in action. To begin with, Paradox had great ambitions for this project. They even launched pre-orders at one point. But everything changed in 2019 when we saw the gameplay. This one, to say the least, was a bit different from the standards of the time.
It was later discovered that the publisher had terminated the contract with the Hardsuit Labs studio, which was clearly not coping with such a large project. Who is therefore now responsible for Bloodlines 2? We don’t know. A new studio has reportedly already been chosen, but Paradox is constantly keeping details under wraps. Could this get out of the list of forgotten games and make its debut? We hope so!
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1- System Shock 3
A sequel to such an iconic series as System Shock has to be a big deal. Regrettably, the project is undergoing a lot of turbulence. Its first announcement took place back in December 2015. Unfortunately, the studio OtherSide Entertainment didn’t show any new footage since then. To make matters worse, there is other bad news.
According to Warren Spector, he announced that his team is not working on the game as of 2019. Curiously, the rights to it were sold to Tencent. While the Chinese giant will surely be interested in developing the brand, we don’t know if the project that OtherSide Entertainment has been working on for two years is in its plans. Thus, it doesn’t look too good.
