With Call of Duty XP taking place as this is being written, there's an abundance of Call of Duty related news that has started making its way out to the public. While the big name of the event is, of course, Modern Warfare 3, there was at one point a third-person CoD game being developed by Sledgehammer Games. The developer, who ended up working with Infinity Ward to make Modern Warfare 3, has opened up about what a third-person Call of Duty game would have been like.
The focus of the year for both Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games is releasing Modern Warfare 3 to the public, but before Sledgehammer was brought on to work on MW3, they were tapped to start working on a Call of Duty game that would have been a third-person action-adventure. A very far cry from what the series has been known for, but Sledgehammer had plans to make it amazing.
A third-person Call of Duty game could have done some good to revitalize the franchise and get it away from just being a first person shooter, albeit a very popular one. In fact, a great example of a third-person action-adventure shooter is the Gears of War series. With that in mind, let's see what Michael Condrey of Sledgehammer Games has to say about the the ill-fated project.
"There are a lot of fans out there who enjoy games like Uncharted, so you can imagine that genre meeting a world-class franchise."
"We had a prototype together that was pretty compelling, and it looked really good. The opportunity to work on the biggest thing in the industry with ... Infinity Ward, that's demonstrated that they know how to do exceptional software, was just an opportunity we couldn't (pass up)."
The team worked for six months on a build that was subsequently shelved. Unfortunate, but having the studio connected to a guaranteed blockbuster must have dropped the sadness factor significantly.
Condrey makes the comparison to Uncharted, which is definitely the bar to meet when it comes to creating a great third-person game. It would be incredibly interesting to see what Sledgehammer Games could have created if they were able to stick to their original plan. Maybe a higher emphasis on stealth? Definitely some cover-based shooting, and who knows, maybe a protagonist who isn't just a floating gun (Alex Mason of Black Ops excluded).
Don't forget to check out the official multiplayer trailer for Modern Warfare 3 and see what the collaboration between Sledgehammer and Infinity Ward is bringing to the table. For the more cooperatively minded folk, Spec Ops also makes a return and is shown off in this trailer depicting Survival Mode.
Modern Warfare 3 releases November 8, 2011 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, Wii, and DS.
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