Cancelled Preview: Frame City Killer

This is a “Cancelled Preview”, where we look back at games cancelled on the Xbox 360 and/or PS3 and speak about what they could have been. For our first article, we will be looking at Namco’s 2005-cancelled Frame City Killer for the Xbox 360.

Frame City Killer takes place in a futuristic Asian city named Frame City where a visualization tool is created allowing realistic images to be used throughout the globe. Khan, leader of a terrorist group, uses this device along with Visual Acid in order to shock people to death. Players step in the shoes of Crow, a hitman part of the SOU special forces and is hired to stop Khan and his terrorist group.

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The game, originally planned for a Spring 2006 release, was announced as cancelled during E3 2006.

“We are sorry to say that we have decided that Frame City–the Xbox 360 game which our company had planned for a spring 2006 release–will not be released,” the company said. “Our apologies to everyone who was looking forward to the game’s release.”

This was due to a series of delays that the game was facing, eventually discontinuing development.

Back in 2006, I wasn’t following the gaming news much, so I literally just heard of this game a few days ago. Watching the video really shows that if this game were to be released, it could have potentially been a hit.

The game was to feature a “player choice” system where you could pick when you wanted to kill your target. You could hit him with a bomb before he left home or head shot him with a rifle while he’s jogging. You picked the method you wanted to track and collect information about your target. There was an Info Scan feature allowing you to pick up hidden information, talk to the target’s associates, intimidate thugs into coughing up information, or pay an informer.

A “Sequential Kill” system allowed the player to devastate multiple enemies with a chain of attacks. The day & night system allowed the player to feel in a real-world environment all running on the Unreal Engine 3. This allowed the game to feature detailed visuals for the most hardcore gamer.

The game simply could have been a wonder were it to release based off what we’ve seen (of course, along with some improvements), since the game was in early stages back at E3 2005 (shown above). There is your Frame City Killer cancelled preview. May we hope for the day this day rises once more – which is probably never.

Resources
Frame City Killer Fact Sheet
Frame City Killer Game Videos
Frame City Killer Canceled