Sometimes even the most promising titles never see the light of day. These are five of the most ambitious games that shouldn’t have been canceled.
Keep in mind that this article is written completely from the perspective of a gamer, a consumer of products. While there certainly may have been countless justifiable reasons that these titles were canceled, we, as gamers, wish that these five ambitious games were never canceled.
Sleeping Dogs 2
United Front Games was working on a sequel for the brilliant Sleeping Dogs and it was supposed to be a rather ambitious game featuring two protagonists.
You would switch between both Wei Shen and another policeman named Fang. The game was to be set in the Pearl River Delta in China. They even planned many interesting mechanics like choices that affected the gameplay.
Unfortunately, development was abandoned in 2013 and Sleeping Dogs 2 never saw the light of day. But still, many fans of the underrated first game hope for a sequel even today, however unlikely it may be.
Star Wars 1313
A list like this wouldn’t be complete without Star Wars 1313. This game was incredibly ambitious and large in scale. 1313 and many other LucasArts projects were unfortunately canceled back in 2013.
A trailer for this game, in particular, was released. This E3 trailer showed off impressive graphics, great action-packed scenes, and superb third-person combat. It was a story that featured Boba Fett.
Honestly, the more I speak of this game, the more I hope that someday, it will release. But that’s very unlikely. You’ll have to settle for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
Silent Hills
Many of you have probably heard of this game before. A much-awaited sequel to the Silent Hill games, Silent Hills was being developed by Kojima Productions before it was canceled. You may have even played or seen the playable teaser P.T. that showed off a tiny part of what Silent Hills may have offered.
Many famous and popular figures like Guillermo del Toro and Norman Reedus were set to collaborate on this project alongside Hideo Kojima. Reedus and del Toro eventually reunited with Kojima in the development of the brilliant Death Stranding.
What really rubs salt in the wound is how del Toro later made a Twitter post saying that even the legendary horror mangaka Junji Itou may have collaborated on this project. Indeed, if Silent Hills wasn’t canceled, it had the potential to be an extraordinary horror game.
To many fans’ pleasure, Konami announced a game called Silent Hill f in 2022 alongside several Silent Hill games in development. It’s a successor to Silent Hills.
Half-Life 2: Episode 3
The last entry of the episodic Half-Life 2 chapters was never released and there has never been a third entry in Valve’s history yet. Because of the cliffhanger ending of Episode 2, the third episode was highly anticipated.
But in the end, Valve canceled it, apparently because of issues with direction and some other issues. In any case, Half-Life 2: Episode 3 would’ve really been a much-needed episode to conclude the brilliant game.
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Patriots
This project is what eventually laid the groundwork for the development of Rainbow Six: Siege. But Patriots was supposed to be a story-driven game instead of being fully online.
In Patriots, you would again play as a member of the Rainbow squad, this time tasked with investigating and stopping a terrorist group named “the True Patriots”. The story was to have themes about morality among others, as well, and it’s really a shame that it was never released. But at least we got Siege.
