Ignition Entertainment’s multi-million dollar Reich is dead, but leaked video shows that it could have been one of the company’s best games.
Ignition Entertainment shuttered a number of its studios this year, saying it was switching over to a focus on digital distribution. The latest shutdown occurred with Ignition’s Florida studio, which housed around 70 staff members. Though Ignition’s titles have mostly received mixed-to-low reactions critically, its Florida studio’s cancelled project has been revealed as something that might have been worth completing.
Leaks call the project Reich, a first-person shooter rumored to have burned through around $20 million up to its cancellation. Video of the project shows it to have a real-time physics system and large scale environmental destruction. It also has blimps.
The videos show a player destroying buildings with explosive weaponry in various environments, including the Lincoln Memorial. Reich‘s gameplay also included telekinetic powers that allowed players to pickup giant boulders and throw them through walls, or even into the maw of president Lincoln. These powers being used in tandem with weaponry are reminiscent of Bioshock, but they still look hella good in one particular demonstration.
Anonymous sources said that the management staff of Reich “mismanaged the funds” as there was “no corporate monitoring on spending.” Former Ignition senior programmer Matthew Farber said of the leaked video: “Force Unleashed had nothing on Reich. I worked on this very version of the game. Everything you see is completely dynamic.”
Reich may or may not have been able to make back its money at retail, but it’s still sad to see a product with potential fall down the drain. Ignition’s London studio was also shutdown while working on a game called Wardevil, making it and Reich two expensive projects that will never see the light of day.
Source: Develop
