Canceled PS2 Daredevil Sport Now Playable 20 Years Later

Daredevil: The Man With out Concern, a 2003 PlayStation 2 superhero sport that was in improvement by 5,000 Ft. Studios for the PlayStation 2 earlier than getting canceled, has resurfaced after 20 years with a brand new playable construct.

Learn Extra: The Life And Dying Of A Daredevil Video Sport

The sport preservation group Hidden Palace managed to launch a playable model of Daredevil: The Man With out Concern on October 31 through member Casuallynoted, who apparently obtained the construct from an nameless developer of 5,000 Ft. It’s a late prototype with a good quantity of bugs, together with potential crashes after the primary chapter and getting caught behind partitions. That mentioned, it nonetheless options the bones of what 5,000 Ft. Studios and writer Encore Inc. have been engaged on in collaboration with Sony through the early aughts.

The brainchild of 5,000 Ft. Studios, a Nevada-based developer whose earlier credit solely included two Military Males ports from 2001, Daredevil: The Man With out Concern began out as a easy undertaking earlier than ballooning in scope. Initially often called Daredevil: The Video Sport earlier than adopting the identical identify as writer Frank Miller’s 1993 comedian, Daredevil was prototyped as a sequence of “vignettes” showcasing pivotal moments within the blind crimefighter’s historical past.

Nonetheless, as the Misplaced Media Wiki explains, Marvel’s imminent Daredevil film undertaking led 5,000 Ft. to remodel the idea into an open-world journey, now additionally slated for the Xbox and PC. Tensions arose when Sony had very particular requests for brand spanking new forms of gameplay so as to add to the sport, whereas Marvel needed it to hew extra carefully to the upcoming Daredevil film.

Extra hassle struck when the builders tried to adapt the then-popular RenderWare engine to the undertaking’s altering wants. After operating into severe points there, they diminished the undertaking’s scope from open-world journey again to linear brawler. Issues continued as “inside strife” on the studio induced it to overlook its February 2003 launch. A brand new date was set for summer season, however employees departures and persevering with bickering between Sony and Marvel put the ultimate nails within the Daredevil sport’s coffin. 5,000 Ft. Studios itself closed in 2012.

Now, although, due to an nameless developer reportedly related to five,000 Ft. Studios, a near-final construct of the canceled PlayStation 2 sport has been launched onto the web through the sport preservation group Hidden Palace.

Though it wound up getting canceled attributable to inventive variations between Marvel and Sony, primarily based on the video it appears to be like fairly tight. It recollects early-aughts 3D superhero gems reminiscent of The Unimaginable Hulk and Spider-Man, with a little bit of Tomb Raider combined in, too.

The sport apparently tells an unique story primarily based on the 1999 Elektra Lives Once more comedian and starring Daredevil’s arch-enemy The Kingpin. It’s a disgrace, then, that it was canceled simply earlier than completion. As The Hidden Palace notes, solely the Sport Boy Advance ever ended up getting a Daredevil sport. The a lot much less bold Daredevil: The Man With out Concern for Sport Boy Advance arrived simply in time for the Mark Steven Johnson-directed live-action movie.

Learn Extra: Why I Love Daredevil

As Hidden Palace reviews, the newly launched construct of Daredevil: The Man With out Concern is playable, however with a number of bugs and game-breaking glitches because it’s unfinished. It’s good that this lastly snuck out 20 years later, although nonetheless a bummer the undertaking by no means received to dwell as much as its potential. With the success of Insomniac Video games’ Marvel’s Spider-Man sequence, and the Wolverine sport on the horizon, perhaps Daredevil will get one other shot at online game redemption.