Former technical director Rockstar North Obbe Vermeil told not only about the company’s closed zombie game, but also revealed fresh details about the canceled Agent.
Agent was a spy thriller set during the Cold War – the game was formally announced for the PS3 in 2009, but it never went beyond the announcement.
According to Vermeil, the authors left the new product due to the fact that they needed to focus their attention on Grand Theft Auto V.
Initially, Agent was just a demo, which included a glider and a car that could turn into a submarine “or something like that.” The demo was created in order to encourage other studios of the company to use GTA Engine.
However, gradually the demo began to be turned into a full-fledged game with the approval of Rockstar President Leslie Benzies. About half of the Rockstar North employees worked on Agent; the working title of the new product was “Jimmy”.
During this period, the second half of the team worked on add-ons for Grand Theft Auto IV and the same GTA 5.
Agent was a more linear game compared to GTA, where the player would visit a series of locations inspired by classic spy films. These included a ski resort in Sweden, a Mediterranean city in France and even Cairo. At the same time, the plot ended with a big shootout with lasers in space.
They worked on Agent for just over a year, managing to create an episode in Sweden with a chase and skirmishes on skis. However, development progress was not as smooth as the authors originally expected.
The task of creating GTA 5 loomed over the team, so the developers began removing various elements from Agent, trying to avoid cancellation of the project. But in the end, they realized that Agent would distract them too much while working on GTA 5 – and the game was eventually “abandoned.”
Agent was transferred to another team within the company for improvement, but this also led to nothing. Now Rockstar is already working on Grand Theft Auto VI, whose trailer will be shown in early December.
