Recently uncovered footage seemingly showcases a canceled first-person Avengers game that was once in development at THQ.
The story of this game’s development dates back to around 2010 or 2011 when THQ Studio Australia and Blue Tongue Entertainment were working on an Avengers game that may have released alongside (or close to) the first MCU The Avengers film in 2012. Needless to say, it was a big deal for THQ.
Sadly, the whole thing came crashing down when THQ’s financial problems finally caught up with them and they were forced to shut down. Since then, many have wondered how far the Avengers project was into development and what kind of game it would be.
Those questions were (somewhat) answered by the Obscure Gamers group and the digital games curator of the Museum of Play, Andrew Borman. They discovered and uploaded what appears to be the only known footage of THQ’s canceled Avengers project. It seems that it was located on a hard drive which clearly belonged to someone associated with the development of the game.
The footage in question is rough, to say the least. The character animations, visuals, and world/object design all suggest that the project was in the very early stages of development when it was canceled. There’s not a lot of eye candy to be found in the brief peek at the game.
Still, it’s pretty clear what the team was going for. Basically, it appears that THQ wanted to make a first-person co-op experience that would have been based on the Secret Invasion storyline from the Marvel comics. We sense a touch of Borderlands in this early footage, which would make sense considering that the first Borderlands title was released in 2009.
The game’s roster (or at least initial roster) is also quite interesting to see. While Thor, Captain America, and The Incredible Hulk all seem to rely more on their melee abilities (with some exceptions), the Iron Man footage more closely resembles a first-person shooter. Again, we get the impression that the idea was to offer a Borderlands-type experience where each character brings a unique series of abilities to the table, but this early footage doesn’t exactly offer the best look at how these characters would have distinguished themselves from one another beyond access to a few trademark abilities.
Rough edges aside, it’s easy to imagine that this idea could have resulted in a fun (if simple) co-op experience. We’ll see if Square Enix’s upcoming game finally delivers that modern, big-budget Avengers title that we’ve been waiting for.