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[Orpheum]

I kind of dig it. However the Mass Effect vibes i get from this are undeniable, would have been interesting to see what they had in mind for this (for sure not too much since it got cancelled).

Still a shame though, i'd love for SM studios to make another big substancial new IP besides God of War, really hope so once GoW ships.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Bummer to have a project canceled but I'm not seeing anything terribly exciting in the concept art.

 

[Corpsepyre]

If they are to make a new IP again, I want them to create their own mythology. They can do it. Have it set in a fantasy centric region, but make it wholly original.

 

[Jashobeam]

not sure but didn't Sony cancel this game after spending like 50+ million on it? just going by the concept art i don't think it should have been greenlit in the first place. Looks very generic to me with ugly ass characters, those fish aliens look fugly as hell.

 

[Nightengale]

If they are to make a new IP again, I want them to create their own mythology. They can do it. Have it set in a fantasy centric region, but make it wholly original.

They already have a fantasy setting even if it's limited by the concept of God mythologies...

They should try something new soon but I dunno if fantasy again is the right approach. Mechanically it should be different to challenge the team.

 

[daveo42]

Looks like a real bizarre take on Mass Effect. Still surprised it got canned. Seemed like it could have been cool.

 

[nelsonroyale]

I dunno it seems like a mish-mash of too many things, can't get a clear picture of what they were after.

I feel that as well, and yet I would still be interested to see what they produced. SSM, given their technical chops could produce something that probably got close to the concept art. What the heck would it actually look like?

 

[msdstc]

Destiny might have been a factor, but the fact that Days Gone exist means that's it's a negligible factor in a longer list of reasons that can be summed up with "game was a mess that failed milestones over and over"

Also, no, it wasn't cancelled in favour of God of War. Santa Monica was set up for a two game studio that was going to make this and GOW simultaneously but the cancellation of this meant this project got cancelled and replaced with NOTHING.

Well there are a few things that set this apart from something like days gone.

1. Days gone is an open world zombie survival horror, how does that really compare to destiny, which is an fps MMO focused on raids? One is a space sci-fi, the other is a zombie horror game.

2. Destiny and this game were scheduled for a similar time period, where days gone is/was not

3. The fact that it was so similar to destiny caused the disarray because they tried changing the core of the game which lead to it being a total mess supposedly.

Sony allegedly didn't want this game to look like a cheap knock-off version of destiny and get swallowed up in the hype. If I remember right they dropped something like 50 million into this project so they didn't want it to be a failure.

 

[Roboculus]

There's some neat looking concept art here. I especially like all the sea monster designs. Shame that things didn't work out.

 

[PSOreo]

I'm sure someone has said this already but my first thoughts when seeing the concept art was; this looks like a "dark n' gritty" 'Horizon: Zero Dawn' meets 'Destiny'.

 

[Illucio]

I like the fantasy artwork for the game.

Actually take out the humans/guns and this would had made a interesting fantasy game.

This game just doesn't feel like a shooer to me. I hate everything to do with the humans from their designs to their guns. But. I give them a thumbs up for diversity.

 

[B.O.O.M]

All over the place. The Gun Knee lady and some of the creatures look cool tho. Hope they use them in one of their future games.

 

[Kayant]

Right seeing this makes me not believe the destiny rumour. As it's been said project seems all over the place based on the art expect maybe if this was done after it was retooled otherwise apart from both being Shooters maybe and Fantasy there really doesn't seem to be any similarities here. Looks cool though would have been nice to know more about it hopefully the trailer that was said to be done for E3 would leak someday.

 

[Skux]

Yeah the art lacks a sense of identity. Looks like Aliens and a bunch of other sci-fi tropes you can find anywhere. It also skews to the darker/horror side of things which would dampen its mainstream appeal.

 

[Muninn]

not sure but didn't Sony cancel this game after spending like 50+ million on it? just going by the concept art i don't think it should have been greenlit in the first place. Looks very generic to me with ugly ass characters, those fish aliens look fugly as hell.

Where did you hear that price? I seriously doubt it. If so they done fucked up, and I cannot even believe they let it happen. Jesus, Evo couldn't even stick around after selling 2 million for fuck's sake.

 

[Pandy]

Aaaaaand the thread is officially shitted.

I thought it was a funny response to the 'Only Sony trust their devs with new IP' thread.

The art is fine. A bit generic. Put me in mind of a 'mature' Mass Effect.

 

[Chobel]

Well there are a few things that set this apart from something like days gone.

1. Days gone is an open world zombie survival horror, how does that really compare to destiny, which is an fps MMO focused on raids? One is a space sci-fi, the other is a zombie horror game.

2. Destiny and this game were scheduled for a similar time period, where days gone is/was not

3. The fact that it was so similar to destiny caused the disarray because they tried changing the core of the game which lead to it being a total mess supposedly.

Sony allegedly didn't want this game to look like a cheap knock-off version of destiny and get swallowed up in the hype. If I remember right they dropped something like 50 million into this project so they didn't want it to be a failure.

Nightengale means that Days Gone is similar to The Last of US (I think) an yet it's still in development.

 

[SliceSabre]

While the concept art does look nice, of course it would these are pro artists. Outside of that I'm not seeing all that intriguing here. I'm getting Destiny/Mass Effect vibes but at the same time I can't but think "this feels like generic far-side of the galaxy sci-fi stuff'.

 

[Nightengale]

If the 50 million rumour is true, then it will explain why the ENTIRE core development team of this project got laid off.

It would mean that at the stage where it would had been cancelled initially, either the project champion or team put their necks on the line to convince management that with extra time or money, they could get out of their current slump and bring the project's to a stage where it can be a product worth fronting the full cost of.

The first God of War got developed under a similar situation.

The studio leads for SSM told Shu (head of WWS America at the time) that they believed in the project but they need more time/money than initial amount to bring the project to finish line, and Shu agreed, but with Shannon's neck on the line if project failed.

Obviously GoW was a huge success, so nobody lost their jobs that day.

But this game clearly didn't even make it to the starting line.

 

[Melchiah]

It's both epic and funny, with its two set of eyes, and three heads and mouths, with tentacles coming out from one of them, that seems to smile.

I like the creature design, but not that much some of the characters, which just seem pretty generic space troopers to me. The triple barrel shotgun in the knee is funny though.

 

[RocknRola]

The "fish people" look pretty darn cool actually! But I can't make much more out of it. Shame it got cancelled.

 

[Poyunch]

It looked alright. Kinda messy at times tonally and sometimes generic but maybe they didn't get far in polishing the art direction.

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

Why does every cancelled game look so good?

What game? It's a collection of drawings.

 

[SolidSnakex]

Who wants to bet that one of the reasons they cancelled it was that it was similar to Destiny and there was no way in hell they could compete.

I'd say the chances are pretty slim. Given that this was an internally developed SSM project, it would've had a big budget. It was also a game that spent years in development and was being developed by one of their premier studios. But they're going to can it in part because of some multiplatform third party game that they have a co-marketing deal with? Nah.

A much more likely scenario is that the project just wasn't coming together no matter how much time or money that it was given. This would also explain why Sony never announced it. And keep in mind that this is a generation where Sony announces games rather early, but this is one that they felt that they shouldn't announce at all.

 

[Nightengale]

I'd say the chances are pretty slim. Given that this was an internally developed SSM project, it would've had a big budget. It was also a game that spent years in development and was being developed by one of their premier studios. But they're going to can it in part because of some multiplatform third party game that they have a co-marketing deal with? Nah.

A much more likely scenario is that the project just wasn't coming together no matter how much time or money that it was given. This would also explain why Sony never announced it. And keep in mind that this is a generation where Sony announces games rather early, but this is one that they felt that they shouldn't announce at all.

And anecdotally, according to DemonNite, the first thing that was intended to be revealed for this project, if it didn't get cancelled... was a CGi trailer.

That would mean the project was in a stage where even getting a vertical slice reveal or in-engine reveal wasn't likely, and Sony likes their gameplay reveal/in-engine reveals this gen.

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

That's a cthulu sea monster with a fake brontosaurus head on it? Like bait for something bigger?

A game that shall not be named on GAF

Spoiler

Metroid Other M

used this idea to great effect. It had a creature that looked like a giant herbivore - a sort of tail-less brontosaurus - and when approaching it from behind to attack you'd be greeted with a huge toothy maw that could swallow you whole - the actual head.

 

[Servbot24]

This looks weird. But not the good kind of weird.

A kind of "yeah, not surprised this was cancelled" kind of weird. Looks like a mish mash of just a bunch of shit.

Gotta agree with this.

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

Guys I'm pretty sure if 100 million was invested in this project it developed a little bit further than this concept art.

 

[maverick40]

Looks like Destiny meets Horizon.

No wonder they cancelled this with Hozion being developed too,

Such a pity

God Of War looks incredible and will Sony/Santa Monica a lot of money

 

[Kinyou]

Some of the stuff really reminds of the "Black science" comic

 

[Corpsepyre]

Bardem and Rourke though.

 

[Drek]

Guys I'm pretty sure if 100 million was invested in this project it developed a little bit further than this concept art.

I don't know where you're getting 100M from but from release schedules and information we do know:
- Asmussen and other lead design people moved to this following God of War 3, concurrent with the development of GoW: Ascension.
- Ascension released in March of 2013, this wasn't cancelled until late 2013, and Asmussen left in early 2014.
- Barlog is the lead on the new God of War, his return to Sony wasn't even announced until August 2013, so the game was non-existent up to that point.

So we have some portion of SSM on this project since 2010 and basically the majority of the studio on this project throughout all of 2013.

Yet it never got to the point where we even saw a trailer. $50M or $100M seem like BS but it sure wasn't a cheap diversion for Sony proper.

 

[Fbh]

Some of it looks good, some of it looks bad, lots of it looks kinda generic and uninteresting.

If it was cancelled it probably means that it wasn't really comming together in terms of gameplay and / or game mechanics. So it's hard to say much based on the art alone.

 

[kamandi]

Didn't really like it.

 

[Melchiah]

Some of the stuff really reminds of the "Black science" comic

That looks interesting. Is it worth a read?

 

[Corpsepyre]

I don't know where you're getting 100M from but from release schedules and information we do know:
- Asmussen and other lead design people moved to this following God of War 3, concurrent with the development of GoW: Ascension.
- Ascension released in March of 2013, this wasn't cancelled until late 2013, and Asmussen left in early 2014.
- Barlog is the lead on the new God of War, his return to Sony wasn't even announced until August 2013, so the game was non-existent up to that point.

So we have some portion of SSM on this project since 2010 and basically the majority of the studio on this project throughout all of 2013.

Yet it never got to the point where we even saw a trailer. $50M or $100M seem like BS but it sure wasn't a cheap diversion for Sony proper.

it was rumoured that they were working on a teaser trailer for E3 the year it was cancelled.

 

[Bulby]

Im sure these images are an unfair representation.

But it looked to be lacking any real indentity.

 

[Coulomb_Barrier]

That looks interesting. Is it worth a read?

Rick Remender also wrote Low: Delirium of Hope and judging by that, avoid Black Science, because the general writing in Low is shockingly bad. I wanted to get my money back. Also the artwork is poor and confusing although BS has difference artist.

 

[dr_rus]

Im sure these images are an unfair representation.

But it looked to be lacking any real indentity.

Yeah, I don't like the images either, looks way too generic to me. Like, is that Master Chief there? And this definitely looks like Destiny.

 

[Melchiah]

Rick Remender also wrote Low: Delirium of Hope and judging by that, avoid Black Science, because the general writing in Low is shockingly bad. I wanted to get my money back. Also the artwork is poor and confusing although BS has difference artist.

Ah, too bad, it looked interesting. Thanks for the info.

 

[Team Andromeda]

As always MS defense force quick on the draw.

Sorry I'm a fan of SONY. I'm not a fan of utter bias to one platform. It's not just MS or SONY that shut studios or cancel games

 

[Servbot24]

Sorry I'm a fan of SONY. I'm not a fan of utter bias to one platform. It's not just MS or SONY that shut studios or cancel games

Every studio cancels games. For every cancelled game that gets leaked, you can rest assured there are literally hundreds more canceled ideas at various stages of development that don't get leaked. There's nothing wrong with it at all, in fact it's a good thing.

The problem people have is when a game is officially announced at a big press event and then cancelled a year later after people actually buy the console with the expectation of playing that game.

 

[HMD]

I'm glad I saw these, it doesn't look appealing to me to be honest and I'm not upset about the cancelation anymore.

 

[Atanascovich]

nothing of value was lost

 

[jmaine_ph]

Wow that looks dope to me. Definitely a different pallet from what we usually get from modern Sony IP

 

[firelogic]

I'm not feeling the concept art. Parts of it look cool but others look really out of place like a weird mish mash of multiple games. The humanoid character designs aren't very good either. If what's here was actually the game, I can see one of the reasons why they cancelled it.

 

[lukeskymac]

The art looks a bit unfocused. I have trouble believing that all of it is from the same project.

Yeah, if the rest of the game was as all over the place as the art, then the cancellation was for the best.

 

[HellofaMouse]

doesnt look like horizon at all.

is it still the reason this game was cancelled as far as we know? being too similar to horizon?

 

[DrD]

Guys I'm pretty sure if 100 million was invested in this project it developed a little bit further than this concept art.

It had 2 playable demos made with limited resources according to the lead level designer on the project.

 

[Nightengale]

doesnt look like horizon at all.

is it still the reason this game was cancelled as far as we know? being too similar to horizon?

The closest thing we have :

Darkside was definitely an interesting concept. RPG mechanics, customization, vehicles, post apocalyptic open world...things just didn't come together, milestone reviews failed. Trying to get that action-melee combat working with guns wasn't easy.