Best Open-World Game Franchises That Were Shelved

Back in the first generation of gaming consoles, open-world games were not even an option, but as the technological advancements opened new development opportunities, the games started to feature bigger worlds, letting players freely explore them at their own pace.

Nowadays, being open-world is most of the time a must-have feature for the big-budget titles, but it never guarantees a success. Many open-world games were released in previous years, and a significant number of them were discontinued even after succeeding in delivering a satisfying experience.

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9

Wheelman

Shelved Since 2009

Wheelman

Systems

Cinema superstars appearing in video games has almost become common nowadays, but back in the seventh generation of consoles, it used to be a rare case, and that’s why most gamers still remember Wheelman.

The game is an open-world action experience featuring Vin Diesel as the protagonist. Wheelman has nothing to do with the Fast And Furious franchise, but it’s safe to say that the game was heavily inspired by that movie series, especially knowing that driving is a major gameplay mechanic in the game. Wheelman features both story missions and side quests, but GTA-like free-roaming is also a big plus in the game, as players can drive any vehicles they see in the streets.

The player takes the role of a special undercover agent, trying to retrieve some classified documents before they end up in the hands of the wrong people. Set in the city of Barcelona, Wheelman delivers a unique experience of driving in a European city, something that is quite rare in the open-world games of this generation.

8

The Godfather

Shelved Since 2009

The Godfather II

Systems

Released

April 7, 2009

Developer(s)

EA Redwood Shores

Few movie adaptations succeed in becoming a superb video game, but The Godfather was a brilliant effort by Electronic Arts in delivering a game that sits between the original Mafia and the Grand Theft Auto series.

What made The Godfather a great experience was the fact that it allows players to enter the universe of the movie as a new, standalone character while also following the highly-praised storyline shown in the original movie.

The open-world elements in The Godfather are way more advanced than the original Mafia game, and that’s why it felt like a refreshing experience, though the story was not as impressive as that of Mafia. Some of the open-world activities like robbing banks were quite creative in The Godfather, something that even the GTA series didn’t feature at the time.

Unfortunately, The Godfather 2 was so big of a big failure that EA canned the entire series. The game was a total detachment from the original entry, where the open-world activities went shallow, and the story elements from the movies were also downsized significantly.

7

Mercenaries

Shelved Since 2009

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames

Third-Person Shooter

Sandbox

Released

August 31, 2008

Developer(s)

Pandemic Studios, A2M

Probably the best franchise to compare Mercenaries to is Just Cause. It was Electronic Arts’ take on a light-hearted open-world action game where explosions and destruction take the main theme of the game while the story does not take itself too seriously.

Both entries in the Mercenaries franchise feature maps that include more wilderness than city areas. Even the urban areas are usually home to military outposts with heavy vehicles that can be used to boast the game’s mechanics in raising chaos and destruction.

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A third entry for Mercenaries was in the works in 2009 after the mild success of the second iteration, but the closure of both Pandemic and Danger Close studios canceled the project and shelved the franchise.

6

Midnight Club

Shelved Since 2008

Systems

Released

October 20, 2008

Developer(s)

Rockstar San Diego

Before Rockstar traps itself between consecutive entries of Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, the studio was indeed working on a variety of franchises from different genres. Midnight Club used to be a serious rival for Electronic Arts’ Need For Speed at the time, but it had its very own gameplay feel.

Midnight Club was also a game about illegal street racing with a detailed car customization system. Unlike Need For Speed, which used to focus more on the aesthetics of the cars in the customization menu, Midnight Club would also allow for some detailed technical customizations as well, and it was a bold feature of the game at the time.

With the Los Angeles Complete Edition released in 2009, Midnight Club never received another entry. It was barely even talked about by Rockstar Games or its parent company, as Grand Theft Auto became the cannonical brand for them.

5

Driver

Shelved Since 2011

Released

August 30, 2011

Developer(s)

Ubisoft Reflections

Franchise

Driver

Once considered as the rival for the Grand Theft Auto franchise, Driver experienced a massive free fall after its second entry. The game used to be the king of open-world driving games on the original PlayStation, as both Driver and Driver 2 were amazingly popular games at the time with interesting driving mechanics and enjoyable free-roam opportunities.

However, the transition to the PlayStation 2 era was never easy for the Driver franchise. While Grand Theft Auto reached massive success in this generation, Driver failed with every experiment. Driver 3 turned into a huge letdown for the fans, and the same happened for Driver: Parallel Lines.

The series, however, was eventually revived with Driver: San Francisco, an entry that took the series back to its driving-oriented roots and ditched the GTA-style gameplay. The results were epic. Although San Francisco was the closure for the franchise, it was indeed a closure at its peak.

4

The Saboteur

Shelved Since 2009

Action-Adventure

Open-World

Released

December 8, 2009

Developer(s)

Pandemic Studios

World War 2 is usually a preferred setting for shooter games, but The Saboteur was one of the few open-world action-adventure experiences set in Nazi-invaded France. The game was about a resistance group in the country who get involved in a feud with the Nazis after a series of events and then try to recapture the sectors of the city that is lost to the German army.

The Saboteur had inspirations from a variety of games. The ability to freely roam around the city and cause trouble for Nazis would remind players of a GTA-style game, but it also had a good amount of stealth mechanics and a lot of rooftops to climb, giving players a mixture of Hitman and Assassin’s Creed experience in a World War 2 setting.

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The story and the gameplay elements were both quite satisfying for The Saboteur, but even before its release, everyone knew that there would be no sequel to it. Electronic Arts shut down the studio behind the game, almost a month before The Saboteur‘s release.

3

Prototype

Shelved Since 2012

Released

April 24, 2012

Developer(s)

Radical Entertainment

Protorype was a brand-new experience from the developers of The Simpsons: Hit & Run, and it did turn into a successful launch for Activision, convincing the company to greenlight the sequel as well.

Both games focus on the superhuman abilities of a protagonist who tries to stop a deadly virus from infecting Manhattan. The game uses a mechanic known as Shapeshifting that allows the player to switch between their human form and the mutated form.

While the story does try to make a good person out of the protagonist, the gameplay does allow the player to harm the citizens as well, something that was more viable in the sequel. Both Prototype games delivered great fast-paced combat and smooth movement abilities, but the second entry didn’t meet the financial expectations of Activision, which resulted in canceling the third game and shelving the franchise.

2

Sleeping Dogs

Shelved Since 2015

Released

August 14, 2012

Developer(s)

United Front Games

Sometimes, it’s just sad how great games with amazing potential never receive a sequel. Sleeping Dogs is one of the biggest opportunities in the gaming industry that was missed by Square Enix. The game excels at almost everything.

It delivers a unique setting with a compelling story. The gameplay combines martial arts with the common weapon-based actions of an open-world experience. And the protagonist is quite beloved by the fan base.

Sleeping Dogs had everything it needed for a sequel, and the developers were already working on an online spin-off for it, but then Square Enix decided to cancel the project and shut down the development studio, shelving a stellar IP forever.

1

Red Faction

Shelved Since 2018

Systems

Released

July 3, 2018

OpenCritic Rating

Fair

When destruction in games used to be a fancy feature, Red Faction was on the front line of delivering destruction-based environments, allowing players to change the shape of the game’s world as they raise hell with explosions.

Similar to Saints Row, Red Faction was also a brilliant new IP by Volition, a studio that no longer exists. Unfortunately, the sunset for Red Faction happened a lot earlier than Volition itself goes off. The last entry in the series was delivered back in 2011. Although Volition released a remaster of Red Faction: Guerilla in 2018, it never took the series out of its long hiatus.

Currently, the IP is in the hands of Plaion, but there is no clue about a possible revival of the franchise.

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