Anyone who has played Valve's Left 4 Dead knows the dread and exhilaration of cooperatively blasting through an undead horde. However, gamers might have been able to experience the zombie apocalypse years earlier if Irrational Games’ Division 9 had been completed. The premise was this: Division 9 would have put players (and their friends) in the middle of an ever-encroaching zombie menace. Co-op gameplay, scarce resources, base-building, and strategic rescues were a part of the conceptual blueprint. In our recent visit to Irrational Games, we talked to the team about how the game started and what it could have become. We also saw a slice of Division 9 in action – and with our exclusive demo trailer at the end of this feature, you can see it, too.“The reason we were frustrated with zombie games at the time was they never had the sense that you got for Dawn of the Dead, because there was really only Resident Evil at that time,” explains Irrational’s creative director Ken Levine. “That there was this group of survivors and they had to gather resources. They’d lock themselves up in the mall, and then be like ‘Oh, s---. We don’t have any food. We have to go out into the world and take these risks.’ And that was the game design, basically. You have a group of survivors, and these resources. You’d have to take on risks to get more supplies, ammo, and people. You sort of build up your group of survivors.”“It had strategic elements, too,” adds lead artist Shawn Robertson. “Like getting the power back on for a certain section of the city. From then on, any missions you’d do at night would be lit.”Art director Nate Wells adds: “We also had some really odd notions of base-building mechanics. At some location, you could get a transmission from a doctor who was trapped. If you went out and got him and brought him back, you would have a doctor installed at your base. Or you’d find an engineer who could make new weapons. There was going to be a whole RPG-style base-building mechanic. But the real innovation was the concept that the zombies never stop. The zombies are infinite. And now, just a few years later, there are plenty of games that treat zombies that way.”
“It was about holding back waves of enemies – I always think of Robotron – and you make these decisions moment to moment,” says Levine. “Do you stop to reload? Do you stop and heal each other? Do you stop and barricade a door? All these tactical decisions where the enemy was time, because there’s always going to be more zombies.”
I am another one of those people who likes to post "first."
Don't be like me.
That was amazing. Man, if only this game actually made it. This would've been really cool.
This is awesome it should have been made
shooting zombies is always cool....
So it's basically SWAT with zombies. This exact level is actually IN that game. So I guess they were trying to make a more tactical based zombie shooter. They probably should've changed the blood and animation and stuff, but I guess it was still in dev, so can't argue much. It was like that in the first place to make the firefights more realistic, without blood splurting everywhere and walking slowly to take out suspects carefully without eliminating hostages...this looks like it could've been a good game if it had gone under a lot more development though.
I love prototype games. Gameinformer really should have more article about cancelled and prototype games. Also anyone who liked this article check out unseen64.net
Looks like decent a midgrade to good XBLA title to me.
They should still do it. Just throw in an original gameplay mechanic, with a good story. I'd buy it.
This falls in with other infamous gaming decisions like Blizzard canceling Starcraft: Ghost, or Capcom saying Wesker actually died in RE5...YES I'M STILL MAD ABOUT THAT!
there is another zombie mmo called dead frontier which is in public beta
I've always wanted more zombie RPG-ish games. Because the apocalypse is more than just killing zambies.
The reason some things look the same as SWAT is because the demo was made using the engine and assets from SWAT 4. This demo was just to illustrate the concepts that would be in the game. The ideas are the important parts; all of the polish on the graphics would have come later if the game had actually entered full development.
Dead Rising got most of the feel of Dawn right, aside from the totally useless and infuriating "survivors," who'd be better titled "zombie chow." I loved that game, was one of the first ones with really good 'chievos, and they definitely felt well earned once you got them, but man would it drive me batshit crazy at times... for one thing I was still running SDTV at the time, for shame.
The premise for this game sounds okay, it looks pretty fugly, but as others have said, it was probably early in the dev cycle. Sounds kinda like a mix of elements that actually did appear in L4D, with some things from WaW's Nacht mode. The whole being able to set up defenses thing is definitely something I'd like to see worked into L4D, but it wouldn't really fit with the move, move, move style of L4D unless it was in a specific mode separate from the main campaign.
I think with a tad more polish, they could have success with this as a PSN/Live title.
Also, before you rail against the graphics, remember that was a PC game in the early conceptual phases of development five years ago. For reference, that's before the Xbox 360 had even come out.
That sucks. Sounds like a good game. Oh well, back to L4D2 for me....
bit more refinement and this would have shot L4D out of the water.
Honestly....I'm thinking Valve saw this and decided to try it themselves. That's not a bad thing, L4D and its sequel are cool...but just a theory.
I wish that game had made it