Footage has surfaced from the cancelled Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun, an action role-playing game that was cancelled by Square Enix in 2012 after three years of development at Climax Studios. NeoGAF user Mama Robotnik has compiled an extensive post of everything we know about the lost action adventure game.
Crystal Dynamics, which shepherded the series for most of its run, served in an advisory role to Climax. According to sources close to the project, Square Enix felt that the game was not going to meet the necessary sales projections in order to be worthwhile, and so the game was scrapped, much to the chagrin of the people who had invested considerable time and effort.
Dead Sun would have introduced a new protagonist into the struggle between humans and vampires in Nosgoth, while expanding on the story and mythos of the previous games. Like prior entries in the series, gameplay would have combined action, exploration, and puzzle solving, with roleplaying elements like upgradable abilities. It was also supposed to be strongly story-focused, described by one source as “if HBO did Zelda,” which is particularly funny given the recent reports about a Netflix Zelda series.
In addition to a single-player story, the game also included a separate multiplayer component. Teams of technology-armed humans would face off against bestial, super-powered vampires in bloody deathmatches. This element, along with some of the art assets, survived the game’s cancellation and was greatly expanded upon for Nosgoth, the online multiplayer spin-off that is currently in open beta on Steam. Mechanics that were introduced in Dead Sun like wall climbing and flight have also been fleshed out for Nosgoth.
Check out more screenshots, concept art, and details about the game’s plot over on NeoGAF.
