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infinitepunches · 1 day ago

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Monolith's Wonder Woman game has been cancelled.

I’ll tell you why this is a terrible tragedy.

It would have been an open world single-player game set on Themyscira.

It would have involved Diana returning to Paradise Island to protect her home from an attack from an army of monsters. This would have created an interesting dynamic between Diana and her sisters, as she is now assumedly a member of the Justice League and very familiar with the world of men. Perhaps they would doubt her loyalty at first after her time away from home.

You would have been able to recruit other Amazons to fight alongside you in battle, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood style. The concept art shows one of Diana’s allies using futuristic armor and weapons. It’s unclear whether or not these are other Amazons who have returned from the outside world or mortal women coming to the aid of the Amazons.

You would have fought manticores, orcs, Minotaurs, and various other creatures all being controlled by the evil goddess Circe. Concept art also shows Cheetah allying with Circe.

We would have likely learned about Circe’s history with Hippolyta and the Amazons and why she would want to destroy their paradise. After coming more into the public eye in Creature Commandos, this game could have shown the scale of threat that Circe represents as she conquers a nation of superpowered immortals.

This game would have been made by Monolith, a company I’ve loved since they made Tron 2.0 in 2004. They are most famous for making the Lord of the Rings game Shadow of Mordor and its sequel Shadow of War, which in in my top 3 games of all time. These games have beautiful open world maps that give us a bit of an idea of what Themyscira may have looked like. One of the coolest things I’ve ever done in any video game is to tame a dragon and ride it around an open world Middle-Earth.

The most unique thing about Shadow of War is the Nemesis system. Every villain you encounter is procedurally generated with unique aesthetics and abilities and immunities. Any time a villain defeats you, he gets a name, he grows more powerful, and he moves up in the ranks of the hierarchy of the enemy’s forces.

Killing enemies merely opens up their spot for another enemy to fill. But defeating them nonlethally and forcing them to pledge loyalty to you allows you to take control of all the forces under their command. The Wonder Woman game would have implemented the Nemesis system for Circe’s army.

Citadel strongholds are where the most powerful enemies fortify themselves. With the former enemy commanders and armies under your control, you lead assaults and take over these citadels, assigning one of your own commanders to be its new leader.

The combat system of Shadow of War is somewhat similar to Arkham Knight. Fast-paced and combo focused. Taming creatures also adds a fun layer to fighting large groups of enemies. It has my favorite sword combat in any video game and it would have been interesting to see how they would have incorporated the Lasso of Hestia into the gameplay.

We would have likely seen skins and customization for Diana.

Ferdinand the Minotaur could have been your first new ally to abandon Circe.

Kangas could have been a tamable creature type you could ride around the open world.

The Invisible Jet could have been used for fast travel.

We could have gotten some great exposure for some of the lesser known characters in the Wonder Woman mythos.

Rocksteady killed Wonder Woman unceremoniously in their suicide squad game. (And then said every other character who died was just a clone.) The failure of that game and the $200 million profit loss that it caused is the primary reason why Warner Brothers decided to kill Monolith Productions, a company that has been producing games since 1997.

Meanwhile, Rocksteady gets to make a Batman Beyond game.

This is one of the most regrettable missteps in gaming history.