It has been revealed that Rogue Squadron developer, Factor 5, was working on a Superman game due for release around 2009.
The game was cancelled in 2008 because of the financial crisis that killed off both Factor 5 and the game’s publisher, Brash Entertainment, but developer, Salvatrix, who previously worked on Rift and Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike, took the time to post a thread on Twitter and Reddit to give away plenty of previously unrevealed facts, images, and even videos from the cancelled Superman game.
Codenamed ‘Blue Steel’, the project has been mentioned in the past but few details have been revealed until now.
According to Salvatrix, the game would have offered large open maps at around 20-25 blocks spanning Metropolis, Smallville, the Fortress of Solitude, and Apokolips, rather than being a fully open-world game, with Superman able to fly around and fight “with foes more in his power range” than the usual “kryptonite and fighting robots” seen in other Superman games.
In 2007/2008, I was lead designer on a Superman game that was never released – because the economy crashed hard. It killed our publisher, our studio (Factor 5), and the game.
I have multiple unreleased games through my career, but THIS is the only one I mourn to this day…
— Salvatrix (@DevSalvatrix) July 13, 2021
Villains would include Darkseid, Livewire, and Doomsday with Salvatrix providing concept art of some of Factor 5’s plans. The developer also offered some insight into the process explaining that “everything here is blocky – by intent…when the art is more refined, too much feedback starts to focus on the art”.
The developer also posted a gameplay prototype video with updated assets to highlight how combat would unfold as well as show that General Zod would have been playable during the game.
The project was ultimately cancelled in 2008 despite initial plans for it to launch sometime in 2009 alongside Batman: Arkham Asylum.
Elsewhere, a Reddit user has posted a clip of a modern Superman game demo made in Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5 and co-op Batman game Gotham Knights has been delayed until 2022.
The post Unseen art and gameplay of a 2009 ‘Superman’ game has emerged appeared first on NME.
