What Happened To Deep Down?
Jan. 11, 2017What Happened To Deep Down?
Deep Down. The mention of the name is beginning to take on the mystical air of games like Duke Nukem which languished in development hell with barely a murmur of an update on their progress. A game that once held so much promise has receded into the woodwork, and only the staunchest of hopeful fans have wondered about the fate of what was supposed to be a PS4 exclusive launch title. With 4 years gone by, what has happened to this once promising RPG? Let’s visit with the ghost of development past and see what time has done to Capcom’s Deep Down.
The trailer shows us a procedurally generate dungeon exploration experience that shares visual and gameplay similarities withDragon’s DogmaandDark Souls, and features a meta world future element like that in Assassin’s Creed. Though light in details overall, the video was enough to capture the attention of gamers who were enthusiastic for what the PS4 and its launch lineup would look like.
In this trailer the game’s time displacement concepts are further reinforced as there are strong hints that something is to be learned in the medieval simulation that will be relevant to the game’s present. At this point however, the cracks begin to show, as much of the trailer features a lot of the same assets andenvironmentsfrom past videos. But none of us cared, as the game still looked awesome and the music rocked as usual.
This trailer showed much more of the gameplay perspective which further reinforced its Dark Souls inspiration. The medieval setting was shown to be the year 1494, and then we are pulled back to the game’s present, which is set in the year 2094. Disconnecting from the animus like device, we are given a tour of what life is like in 2094 before we are thrust back into the simulation to take on a variety of different beasts and traps while donning our best weapons andarmor. We are then given our first look at themultiplayerin the game, which shows up to 4 players fighting side by side. In all the trailer showed an impressive amount of content, and certainly enough to assume that this was a game in advanced development stages.
That is the last we’ve heard about the game, and at all subsequent conventions when we’ve approached Capcom to inquire about the status of the game, we get the same canned response of “we have no news to share about the game at this time”, almost to the point of annoyance. All we’ve had of looks at the game beyond the trailers are some screenshots:
Although our glimpses of Deep Down are not exactly extensive, this is not a game we are prepared to let die such an ignominious death. Games like Dark Souls and Dragon’s Dogma are singular experiences and Deep Down teased the potential of both enormously popular franchises. Although the delay has been so severe that a death knell would not come with the same reaction of a game likeScalebound, news of Deep Down’s cancellation would be unfortunate nonetheless. The issues it remains mired in are a sordid part of game development that we all wish could be avoided. We’re crossing our fingers that the game isn’t stuck in the past, but that we’re also not waiting until 2094.
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Emergence
Editor at Fextralife. I look for the substantial in gaming and I try to connect video games to the emotions and stories they elicit. I love all things culture and history and have an odd fondness for the planet Jupiter. I think my dogs are pretty awesome too.
3 days left to go…..
Megaman Legends 3 redevelopment.
Fingers crossed that Capcom has something special in store for the next few weeks!
Deep Down in VR would be fucking epic!
Cas
A VR RPG like that would be fantastic. Since getting a VR and actually getting to play a “non-demo” one, I’m actually quite excited for the technology. I’m not sure how it will work with one of the rpgs we like to play, but the level of immersion is on a different scale, and could make for very interesting approaches.
So, they say they’re up to something that requires a complete overhaul of the game, on top of remaking it for the current generation of consoles?
If you ask me, that sounds suspiciously like they’re trying to make it VR compatible.
Oh definitely, everyone has something to do with how gaming is going. There’s no one source of the problem. Publishers and Developers using shady tactics, and just releasing the same kind of game every year with little difference or innovation, and plenty of buyers just lapping it up, even defending it in some cases, sometimes asking for it (there was a Jimquisition about the problem with sequelizing games that would be just fine as single titles). However, last year, Watch Dogs 2 and Dishonored 2 actually had around 30% drops in sales compared to the original games, so people seem to be getting tired of it.
I was also just joking at how one major title that was supposed to be released this year, that as I recall was delayed, has now been canceled, and now some people are getting scared about other games that might bite the dust. I sincerely doubt game cancellations will become a big thing. There have been plenty of delays though, even for single platform games. Bloodborne, No Man’s Sky, Final Fantasy, Mighty No. 9 multiple times, and Horizon: Zero Dawn just to name a few. Though small in most cases, it has been happening quite a bit recently.
Outside of Scalebound there really hasn’t been that many triple-A titles being cancelled in the past year. In fact I can’t think of any other major games cancelled in the past year at all. In the past decade there’s probably been about one major game every 2-3 years cancelled, so this idea that there’s so many games being cancelled is just false. Delays are definitely an issue, but I personally think that has to do more with how much competition there is now compared to say 10 years ago when PC gaming was an afterthought for most developers. Now they have to develop for 2 consoles and PCs, which is considerably more work and it’s showing in how several games a year end up being poorly optimized on PC or consoles.
Also, the problem isn’t just the companies but consumers as well because we’re the ones who keep breaking sales records on sequels or remastered games while a lot of the new IPs rarely break ground enough to even be a blip on the map. The fact of the matter is there’s just too much in name recognition to consumers so creating successful new IPs can be very difficult.
