Former Criterion Games staff have revealed that a sequel to the company’s 2006 first-person shooter Black was in the works, with plans to incorporate multiplayer, a cover mechanic, dynamic environments, and more exciting features. Despite reaching the pre-production stage, the project was deemed unfeasible and eventually scrapped.

At release, Black did a number of things few other shooters were doing. Destructible environments, Hollywood gunfire samples, choir-style gunfire audio, and elaborate immersion effects were just some of the features that made Black stand out from the competition.

At the same time, Black was limited to a mere eight levels’ worth of gameplay and did not include multiplayer functionality. It also did not have a map or a cover system, largely because the developers wanted to focus on a guns-first experience.

The team eventually sought to rectify these shortcomings when beginning work on a sequel to Black:

We had an amazing [first person] cover mechanic where you could position yourself against things and blind fire. It felt intuitive and organic. There were some cool enemy AI behaviour with the way they moved around the environment. You’d see them jumping over car bonnets and sliding into cover. It looked amazing as a player, because you had that dynamic flow of movement. These were just very early ingredients at the R&D stage.

Multiplayer was also a planned addition for the sequel, seeing as Black’s FPS experience was the ideal environment for player cooperation:

So there would have been co-op. They had something where if one player was downed, the other player could grab them, pull them into cover and revive them. The downed player could also shoot while being dragged to safety by their team-mate – effectively giving you 360-degree fire. It seemed natural that the team would start exploring multiplayer.

The team also developed a pre-viz scripted-failure scenario around preventing a missile launch in Korea. As the level progressed, smoke and gas from the launch process would fill the player’s environment, limiting visibility and forcing players to make as much of cover as possible.

Eventually, the level would transform again as the missile launched, with the developers trying to create fully dynamic, evolving environments.

Despite its promise, the sequel never ended up materializing: there was abundant competition in the shooter genre, and both EA and Criterion had other commitments.

At the time they [Criterion] were also working on Burnout Paradise, which was a huge game that required a lot of resources. There were a lot of other shooters coming out, even within EA. Bad Company was experimenting with destructible levels. It might have been difficult for them to see where a “Black 2” fitted in with other games in their publishing schedule. I was disappointed that it didn’t get to see the light of day.

What do you think, readers? Would you have liked a Black sequel?

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Source: thatHITBOX