Before Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was even released a third-person game in the series was in development, until it was cancelled for good.
New details have been released about a 'scrapped' Call of Duty game that was being designed during 2007, almost five months before the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, the game that many believe begun the titanic rise of the Call of Duty series, up to where it is today.
However, via Vox Games, Creative Director Jason VandenBerghe has announced that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare wasn't the only title designed during 2007. Call of Duty: Devil's Brigade was intended to be a third-person shooter set in Italy, during World War II. Created by a small team of developers known - ironically - as Underground Development, the game was set to feature exploration, powerful squad mechanics, and a story based upon the super-athletic killers known as the 'Devil's Brigade'. The idea no doubt branched from the real life Devil's Brigade, known to be some of the hardiest and capable soldiers ever to have existed, whom infiltrated German trenches and wiped out hundreds of soldiers, Underground Development clearly had a similar goal in mind for the game. However, it was never meant to be.
The initial idea for the game seemed almost fool-proof; a team of brilliant designers, the financial backing from the behemoth Activision, and the support of original Call of Duty creators Infinity Ward. It was a match made in heaven for everybody involved in the process, however, just before the game was ready to enter it's final stages of completion, Activision announced it's merger with infamous World of Warcraft creators Blizzard Entertainment, and this caused troubles for Underground Development, who were ready to display their game to Activision, Lead Designer of the game Kyle Brink explains:
"As is normal in a merger, you do everything you can to clean up your balance sheet. A studio that isn't in full production on a title with major revenue attached to it, which is about to ask for tens of millions in development dollars, is a great candidate for closure at that point. Was this also a way to keep IW happy after they had just produced Modern Warfare and made a hojillion dollars? Perhaps, but nobody ever put it to us that way." - Kyle Brink, Underground Development
It would appear that during the merger with Blizzard, Activision considered Modern Warfare to be a more worthwhile bet than that of Devil's Brigade, and in doing so closed down the funding for the game. Shortly after the project was cut, Designer James Schomer gathered the team together and announced that it was very likely it wouldn't last much longer - sure enough, Underground Development disbanded shortly thereafter, with many of the big names who worked on the project going their seperate ways.
The project was never mentioned again by Activision - after all, it has rode the tidal wave of success granted by Infinity Ward and Treyarch ever since. Who knows what could have been for Devil's Brigade? It may very well have been the end of the Call of Duty series, or indeed it could've been just as successful as Modern Warfare was. VandenBerghe sums up his time with Devil's Brigade, and the reason he believes it didn't take off, in a single paragraph, and it is perhaps the best explanation we'll ever get of the game that was never meant to be.
"My dad had a great metaphor for this kind of work. He said, ‘You know, you pack your boat, you put all your food and fuel and everything you think you're going to need in there. You get your maps and charts. You pick your team. Then you put your boat out there and you raise your sails ... and sometimes the wind blows and sometimes you just sit there in the lagoon.' And we just kind of sat there in the lagoon." - Jason VandenBerghe on Devil's Brigade
Visit Vox Games to read all the details and interviews regarding the cancelled title, and check out some early screenshots of what could have been below.
What's your opinion on the cancellation of Devil's Brigade? Do you think it could've beaten the success of Modern Warfare? Let us know on the official Digital Warfare forums, or leave a comment below!
