Once upon a time (in 2008, to be precise), we almost had a Superman open-world action-adventure video game, and based on footage released by DidYouKnowGaming and game historian Liam Robertson, it looked cool. Alas, a series of unfortunate events turned out to be its kryptonite, and it was scrapped in 2009.
The graphics, of course, are a little outdated for modern palates, but the actual gameplay showcases ambition that could easily stand toe-to-toe with today’s blockbusters. In one sequence, we see Supes blasting assorted bad guys with his heat vision while simultaneously flying about with ease. Elsewhere, we see the last son of Krypton hefting up his nemesis Doomsday and pushing him through entire skyscrapers while desks and walls scatter from the impact. The team apparently planned to allow this to happen with every building, and the demands on the hardware must have been incredible.
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The team in question was Factor 5, the studio responsible for Lair, the 2007 motion-controlled dragonriding game for the PlayStation 3, and Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, arcade-style space combat games for Windows and Nintendo devices. Factor 5 had signed up to work with publisher Brash Entertainment to create a tie-in for the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3, and the Wii for Bryan Singer’s planned sequel for his Superman Returns film from 2006. As such, the game, codenamed Blue Steel, included villains expected to appear in Singer’s sequel like Darkseid and Brainiac, as well as others who simply would have been fun to pummel in a game like Brimstone and Killer Frost.
But none of that happened. Warner Bros. decided they weren’t too keen on a Superman Returns sequel anymore by the time Singer approached them. Factor 5 thus tried to retool its game into a more general story about Superman, but that fell through when Brash Entertainment itself shut down completely by the end of 2008. Unable to survive in such a perfect storm, Factor 5 officially closed itself a few months later after over 20 years in business.
What we’re left with is this, a really rough draft of a potentially good Superman game. A couple of cool bits reveal little about how the full game would have turned out, though, especially considering that it’s hard to make an entertaining game about a dude who basically God Modes everything. And when developers do make Superman games, they’re very bad.
Those challenges and that history aren’t stopping others from trying. Rumors suggest there might still be an open-world Superman game in the works from Warner Bros. Montreal and Rocksteady, developer of the Batman Arkham series. If nothing else, here’s to hoping they use that building-smashing idea.
