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[Iced]

Looking for examples of games that underwent significant changes during their development. A good example I feel is Resident Evil 2, which started like this:

And ended up like this:

This thread isn't restricted to graphical changes, but those are obviously the easiest to show. Especially curious to see stuff before the 32-bit era, but please post anything good!

 

[John Kowalski]

There was that one tweet suggesting that Infinite's release story was only 6 months old.

 

[Traumnovelle]

Splinter Cell: Conviction was heavily delayed and radically altered from its initial reveal.

 

[Deleted member 47027]

Team Fortress 2 and Borderlands had huge art style changes. TF2 much moreso.

 

[Manu]

Obligatory Dark Souls 2 post

 

[donkey show]

Pre Resident Evil 4 > Devil May Cry

 

[DrArchon]

The poster child for corporate meddling:

was of course:

 

[nynt9]

Destiny was significantly revamped the month before its release, no?

Also Resident Evil 4, hook man.

 

[KojiKnight]

Looking for examples of games that underwent significant changes during its development. A good example I feel is Resident Evil 2, which started like this:

And ended up like this:

Especially curious to see stuff before the 32-bit era, but please post anything good!

While RE2 definitely got scrapped and remade... those screenshots don't really show that huge of a difference aside from main character. I think a better example is RE4, which went through multiple very striking redesigns that were shown.

 

[Iced]

While RE2 definitely got scrapped and remade... those screenshots don't really show that huge of a difference aside from main character. I think a better example is RE4, which went through multiple very striking redesigns that were shown.

I likely should have posted some screens showing how many zombies were originally meant to be on screen at once in RE2 - everything was very low-poly to accommodate the numbers. I'm at work though and wanted to get this post up in a hurry. RE4 is a great example, though! Probably takes the cake, actually.

 

[cheechwizard]

Pretty much every game I've worked on.

 

[CengizMan]

Super Mario Sunshine. There is a video somewhere with a radically different looking game.

 

[antitrop]

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 switched from realistic visuals to some kind of faux cel shading less than two months from its release this month.

 

[jonno394]

From this

(Conkers 12 Tails)

to this

(Conkers Bad Fur Day)

 

[Magwik]

The poster child for corporate meddling:

was of course:

Why did you have to remind me

 

[bjaelke]

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/behind-borderlands-11th-hour-style-change/1100-6253257/

 

[DunpealD]

Why did you have to remind me

You prefer the Lily Bergamo to Let it die example?

 

[Oreiller]

Okami's artstyle changed quite a bit.

 

[Sorcerer]

Malice

A game showcased to prove how graphically powerful the original Xbox one could be.

Game disappeared for a while, came back as a multi platform game that was nowhere near the level of graphics promised.

A heart-breaker for me.

 

[Lurgan1337]

Borderlands. It was just a sci-fi shooter. And then they used cel-shading

 

[TheJollyCorner]

Looking for examples of games that underwent significant changes during its development. A good example I feel is Resident Evil 2, which started like this:

And ended up like this:

Especially curious to see stuff before the 32-bit era, but please post anything good!

As much as I love the final RE2, I really liked that cold, blue aesthetic and small town police station look of the original. Reminded me of the police station in the original Terminator or Assault on Precinct 13.

 

[lazygecko]

All of id's original shooters. Wolfenstein 3D was originally going to be more of a stealth game where you had to hide corpses and stuff, but they thought it slowed the game down too much. Doom was originally going to have an ingame plot with an actual cast of characters and AI-controlled teammates. Quake was going to be a RPG mainly designed around melee combat with a hammer.

 

[Grisby]

Lots of RE games go through changes.

RE4 has those famous videos with Leon and ghost hook man.

 

[rhandino]

Okami comes to mind...

 

[thechristoph]

Okami might have been pretty interesting to play in a realistic world... but what do I know; I haven't played it yet.

 

[Skyward Sheep]

Dinosaur Planet

Aside from the jump from N64 to GC, it ent from being a brand new IP from Rare to being a mediocre Star Fox Zelda clone.

 

[Iced]

As much as I love the final RE2, I really liked that cold, blue aesthetic and small town police station look of the original. Reminded me of the police station in the original Terminator or Assault on Precinct 13.

I never thought of it that way but YES! Totally.

 

[Tame Deity]

Dinosaur Planet

Aside from the jump from N64 to GC, it ent from being a brand new IP from Rare to being a mediocre Star Fox Zelda clone.

fucking Tricky

 

[Borman]

Malice

A game showcased to prove how graphically powerful the original Xbox one could be.

Game disappeared for a while, came back as a multi platform game that was nowhere near the level of graphics promised.

A heart-breaker for me.

Malice was originally a PS1 game. A good one at that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYTvVBPTGPU

 

[Sephzilla]

Borderlands was a lot more generic looking before they went and stole the entire art style of Codehunters.

 

[Stone Ocean]

Okami's artstyle changed quite a bit.

Okami comes to mind...

Okami without the sumi-e visuals just feels wrong even though that was a cool prototype

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

Okami without the sumi-e visuals just feels wrong even though that was a cool prototype

I would still like to play it though. Could be interesting.

You can't really tell what art style they are going for in that picture though. It could look like a painting or something.

 

[Whom_Gods_Annoy]

The X-com FPS then TPS that was announced back in 2011 I think. A lot of backlash that it was nothing like the original games, then it got stuck in development hell. X-Com: Enemy Unknown came out so they scrapped their goo monsters for almost the exact same aliens as EU, called it "The Bureau" and turned the game into Mass Effect.

 

[ResidentDante]

Wasn't Bioshock supposed to be a secret nazi science lab?

 

[Tizoc]

Does this not count?

 

[AmyS]

D2 on Dreamcast.

Totally redesigned & overhauled from the unreleased, unfished M2 version.

.

 

[Garlador]

Metroid Prime

They tried making it a third-person adventure game, but they were having serious issues with the controls and camera. Ultimately, it was decided to make the game the first-person experience that put players behind the visor that went on to win, like, all the awards ever.

 

[Horns]

GTA 3 was originally planned for Dreamcast.

 

[Pizza]

Rayman Raving Rabbids can suck a dick clean off in hell.

 

[stuminus3]

Too Human springs to mind. Went from a PS1 to Gamecube and ended up on Xbox 360. The original game is completely different from what was actually released.

http://www.unseen64.net/2008/04/11/too-human-playstation-1-cancelled/

 

[AmyS]

GTA 3 was originally planned for Dreamcast.

Damn, I never knew that.

 

[sixteen-bit]

that gen7 SSX reboot had a change in tone , right?

 

[Whompa02]

GTA 3 was originally planned for Dreamcast.

omg that face...and that body...

 

[Mr-Joker]

Pokémon Gold and Silver design was overhauled.

 

[Iced]

Metroid Prime

They tried making it a third-person adventure game, but they were having serious issues with the controls and camera. Ultimately, it was decided to make the game the first-person experience that put players behind the visor that went on to win, like, all the awards ever.

I've NEVER seen that image before. Good find!

 

[blame space]

That image was like my religion for 2 years.

 

[Accoun]

Not graphically, but S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has been heavily streamlined because the development took so long and in the end THQ sent their person to take over it and forcibly make them actually finish it.

 

[loki 16]

Rise was supposed to be a Xbox 360 kinect game before it became an Xbox one game.

 

[Kain]

Tales from my ass, but after getting half-way through MGSV: MGSV.

 

[SoundPulse]

Ocarina of Time underwent a lot of changes over the course of its development and is pretty much the poster boy in my mind.

Here's a brief overview (with some fan speculation thrown in for good measure) of how it changed over the years.