The recent announcement that Konami had shelved its planned reboot of Silent Hill came as a massive blow to fans of the venerable scare-’em-up franchise and gamers alike. Sadly, the writing has been on the wall ever since Hideo Kojima had a massive falling out with his bosses at Konami HQ, resulting in the rebranding of Kojima Productions and the removal of all reference to the studio on its products and websites—including Silent Hills. Not long after, Konami confirmed it was removing the game’s demo, P.T., from the PlayStation Store, pretty much sealing the project’s fate. Sure enough, the official cancellation came soon after.
Of course, Silent Hills is the most recent game in a long list of gaming casualties on PlayStation platforms over the years, and it got us thinking about some of the projects that ended up on the cutting room floor. When you look back, there were quite a few standout games that never saw the light of day, and more importantly, looked like they were shaping up rather juicy to say the least.
Here’s six canceled PlayStation games that were destined for greatness.
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SILENT HILLS
There’s no two ways about it: the loss of Silent Hills was a tough one to take on the chin. Aside from the fact it was a reboot of one of gaming’s most iconic franchises, the demo, P.T., proved that it was shaping up to be one of the scariest games in years—and that was all thanks to the talent backing the project. Yep, Hideo Kojima teamed up with Guillermo del Toro, two of arguably the most talent chaps in their respective fields, and God only knows what they would have come up with for the final product. The pairing was easily one of the most intriguing of its kind, and we’ll be lamenting Silent Hills’ loss for a good while yet. The addition of Norman Reedus of The Walking Dead fame, an actor who has proven himself both highly versatile and sought after, was the icing on the cake. As Reedus said, we’re super bummed over the whole thing.
EIGHT DAYS
Developed by SCE London Studios, Eight Days takes us back nearly a decade to the dark days of when PS3 still cost an arm and a leg, and Sony was struggling behind in third place in the console wars. Despite this, the future looked bright in regards to new IPs, with Eight Days being one of the most interesting concepts. As the title suggests, the game was to take place over the period of eight days, and, most interestingly, would feature a real life clock. That is, if you played the game at night, the game would also reflect this. Not only that, but you could pick from two distinctly different characters, one ‘good’ and one ‘bad,’ each one featuring a unique storyline. This concept would have seemed brilliant even today, but to think Sony was working on this back in 2006 and abandoned the project—partly due to the lack of an online component, of all things—has us weeping quietly at night.
RESIDENT EVIL 1.5
Eh? But didn’t we get the utterly brilliant Resident Evil 2, you ask? Yes, we did, but even 18 years since its cancellation, Resident Evil 2’s prototype, the colloquially dubbed Resident Evil 1.5, looks amazing and we can’t help but wonder how the series would have panned out had it seen the light of day. Believe it or not, Shinji Mikami’s original concept for RE2 actually featured a host of then-innovative features that didn’t make the final cut for the final product. Aside from more gore and zombie models, RE1.5 included body armor, new weapons, a shooting range, grenades, not to mention a whole new storyline, featuring a more contemporary take on the R.P.D building. The most interesting of all, however, is the addition of Elza Walker, a student and bike aficionado who replaced Claire Redfield, sister of the original game’s Chris. Not only that, but Brian Irons, the chief of police, Ada Wong, Robert Kendo and others featured in different roles, while Marvin Branagh, the infected cop Leon meets in the final game, played a much larger role. We also caught a glimpse of an all-new cop in the form of Roy, a friend of S.T.A.R.S. operatives Chris, Joseph Frost and Forest Speyer. With Umbrella having already been shut down and the surviving characters from the first game hospitalized, we can only imagine how RE1.5’s story would have taken the series. Something tells us it may not have survived as long as it has, but the gameplay looked brilliant, and some of the ideas cut makes the final version of RE2 look quite tame in comparison. We miss those fat zombies. Sob.
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THE GETAWAY
Another casualty of SCE London Studios, The Getaway was shelved alongside Eight Days, and it’s yet another title we think would have probably pulled in the punters and reinvigorated the franchise. Up until that point, The Getaway had a slightly patchy reputation, and it was a series that we felt never really lived up to its potential—until we saw that those stunning PS3 tech demo screens of the new London-based adventure fill up our screens back in 2005(!). Sadly, it wasn’t to be, but we’re confident Sony’s Blighty-based code house could have come up with the goods. With PS3 packing some serious horsepower (at least, that was the case back in 2006), the game world could have been fully realised and expanded, and the AI vastly improved to offer a living, breathing representation of the U.K. capital full of trigger-happy gangsters, flash motors, and stunning visuals. More importantly, had the game been a success, it could have spawned a massive first-party series for Sony that could have continued to this day on PS4. Sigh.
THE FIXER
The brainchild of British-based Climax Studios, who would go on to develop the likes of Silent Hill Origins and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, The Fixer was an ambitious-looking action-RPG announced for PS3 back in 2006. Not much was shown on the game, although what we did catch a glimpse of looked great: slick, gun-based combat featuring some brilliant action set pieces, and a super cool protagonist to round things off. Unfortunately for The Fixer, Sony decided to scrap its publishing deal with Climax, which meant that the game ended up on the cutting room floor. Third-person action games are hardly a rarity these days or even back in the PS3 era, but The Fixer look set to differentiate itself from the pack with an interesting ‘Nerve’ mechanic, and we’re disappointed it never got the chance to shine. Plus, check out that lush Middle-Eastern location!
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WHITE COUNCIL
This fantasy-RPG based in the realm of J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings was in the works at EA Redwood Shores for PS3, PC and Xbox 360—and boy, did it look sumptuous. Featuring a massive world to explore, gamers could place as one of the main races—dwarf, elf, hobbit or man—and embark on a series of story quests, or opt to explore at their leisure, taking in the sights at everywhere from Hobbiton to Mordor. The AI was also said to be particularly advanced, and players would strive for the ultimate goal of becoming a hero allied with titular White Council. It’s shocking to think that EA dumped this in favor of the awful LotR: Conquest, and given the patchy history the series has had in terms of video game adaptations, The White Council sounded like one of the best marriages in years: an open-world playground ala Elder Scrolls set in the iconic realm of Middle-earth. This would have been a stunner, no doubt about it, and probably would have given Shadow of Mordor a run for its money.
What canceled PlayStation games would you liked to have seen materialize? Give us a shout in the comments section below!