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The canceled Warhammer Horus Heresy MMO was “shaping up nicely,” one person who worked on it has said.
The Horus Heresy is the galaxy-spanning civil war between loyalist and traitor Space Marines that occurred 10,000 years before the current Warhammer 40,000 setting. It saw the Emperor finally defeat his Chaos-fueled primarch son, Horus Lupercal, and save the Imperium of Man from destruction, but at a terrible cost: the near-death Master of Mankind was interred upon the Golden Throne as a carrion Emperor sustained by the daily sacrifice of thousands of psykers.
The untitled game was in development at Jackalyptic Games, a first-party NetEase studio helmed by MMO specialist Jack Emmert of City of Heroes fame, for at least two-and-a-half years before the Chinese megacorp pulled funding for the project as part of a wide-ranging pullback from western video game development. Jackalyptic subsequently closed down.
Now, an animator who worked on the game has published work-in-progress clips to social media, showing off Space Marine movement and bolter fire, which in turn prompted Graham McNeill, author of a number of Warhammer novels including a long list of Horus Heresy books, to confirm he had worked on the title.
“I did some writing on this game,” McNeill tweeted. “Characters, missions, scripts, etc. — and it was shaping up really nicely. Damn shame…”
In December last year, MP1st published a number of images of the game, revealing what looked like Prospero, the homeworld of the Thousand Sons that was at the heart of one of the most famous battles of the Horus Heresy.
While there is a long list of Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer fantasy video games, the Horus Heresy remains an untapped setting. And based on the reaction to the latest clips of this canceled game, fans really want a Horus Heresy game at some point.
“Surprised no one has made a first person shooter of the Horus Heresy. So many to choose from, Isstvan, Calth, Prospero, Siege of Terra. Would probably sell just as well as Space Marine 2,” a fan suggested. "It's wild seeing stuff from this cancelled Horus Heresy game with how good it looks, they even had some of Prospero built," X user @DumbRobotStuff commented. "I'd hope this project gets reconsidered with how successful Space Marine 2 is."
One interesting idea about a potential Horus Heresy video game is that it could tie into the phenomenally popular Space Marine 2, which featured the Thousand Sons as the main Chaos Space Marine enemy throughout its campaign. A Horus Heresy video game could potentially feature the Thousand Sons during the Burning of Prospero, and let fans experience how the Traitor Legion became what it is in Space Marine 2.
Video games are canceled all the time, and indeed there have been a number of canceled Warhammer MMOs over the years. But it feels like we’re in the golden age of Warhammer 40,000 video games especially, with the likes of Total War: Warhammer 40,000, Dawn of War 4, and Space Marine 3 to look forward to. Perhaps there’s room in the future for the Horus Heresy, too. It's what the Emperor would want, after all.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
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