Raven Software's canned games include "an ambitious new Call of Duty: Zombies live service project"
Designer CV also outs mysterious unreleased sequel to a Raven Software "classic"
First reported by MP1st, Raven Software lead designer Michael Gummelt mentioned a couple of cancelled projects on his Linkedin page. One was a live service version of Call Of Duty's zombies mode, and the other, a revival of a classic Raven IP. I'm not sad about one and I'm mildly sad over the other, with the mystery not being too hard to solve.
According to Gummelt, the first cancelled project would've been Raven Software's own spin-off of Treyarch's Call Of Duty zombies mode. Apparently, it was "cancelled when the ATVI studio that 'owned' that part of the Call Of Duty IP wanted it back."
What's sadder, though, is Gummelt saying Raven had started on a "unreleased sequel to a classic Raven IP" back in 2019 for a total of 10 months. He was the lead developer on two "highly playable" prototypes as part of Activision's Press Start initiative, which ended after Warzone came along and made megabucks.
Raven were behind dark fantasy FPS games Heretic and Hexen, so there's a chance it could've been either of these rebooted. I hadn't played either, but having watched some clips I would've been down for a gritty swords and crossbows take on the boomer shooter genre from a team that's been stuck with COD for so long. Raven were also behind Soldier Of Fortune, which I remember had absolutely ridiculous blood and gore. That's it, that's all I remember of the series.
On the flipside, we've got… live service zombies. Not to say cancelling video games that people work very hard on is a great thing, but the concept of a zombies mode strung out into a live service machine exhausts me. COD zombies is great in bursts with your pals, absolutely. But that's the thing: it's great for a big sesh every now and again. You don't need to play regularly to have a good time, as everything's nice and simple and packaged neatly.
When you pop an ever-expanding roster of unlockable characters into zombies, alongside seasons, world bosses, and a battle pass, I see the repetitive simplicity of mulching the undead needlessly transform into an obligation. I'd rather not see Zombies turned into an FPS Diablo 4, cheers.