Arkane's canceled game The Crossing shown off in new documentary
Footage of Arkane Studio's canceled title The Crossing has appeared in a new documentary.
A new documentary from Noclip called The Untold History of Arkane has been released, and along with discussing its canceled Half-Life game, Arkane also touches upon another canceled, game: The Crossing.
The first eight hours of the canceled game, were single-player action FPS, in a world which was designed and directed by Half-Life 2 and Dishonored's Viktor Antonov.
One unique feature of the game was called "cross player," which fused single-player with multiplayer. Players could check the cross player option at any time during the story to allow other players of a comparable level to join the game and take possession of the enemies.
The pitch of the story was that in the time of the Templars the world split into two different versions of Paris. In one world, the Templars had evolved and the landscape was tall, and gothic with plenty of detail, while the other world was the "normal Paris," where strikes and rebellions took place. There were portals that took you from one world to the other, allowing the Templars to invade the normal Paris, and vice versa.
In one version of Paris, the gameplay and atmosphere were a bit like SWAT, while in the Templar version you could use special abilities. You could use a grappling hook to climb walls, throw objects, and use an integrated sword.
Arkane was ready to sign a deal with an unnamed publisher on the game, but it was a "terrible deal." The publisher, which Arkane wouldn't divulge, would only speak with the team every week or two weeks, and each time a new version of the contract was brought up and worse than the last one.
By the end, Arkane says it lost around $1 million of its own money on the venture. But the team kept going hoping to sign a deal with a publisher on The Crossing because they really wanted to make this game.
In the video below, the team also discusses using Valve's Source Engine to develop the title, and you can also check out footage of the canceled game.