7. Hei$t
Hei$t was supposed to be everyones dream heist film come true in game form. It was going to be set in 1969 and seemed to be hugely inspired by vintage crime films. Announced in 2007, it took them three years to finally announce its cancellation in 2010. Details were scarce and most of the information known about it comes from a few interviews and previews. You were to control a crack team of thieves, based in a city known simply as The City, and you would rob numerous banks strewn about the world. You could tackle them however youd like and whenever youd like, although it appears as if they planned for it to have a structure similar to the first Assassins Creed in which you could participate in smaller missions that would help you prepare for larger, full scale heists. They also claimed there would be some sort of reputation system, so if you were known for barging into a bank, firing shots into the air and speeding away in a getaway vehicle, banks would start employing more security and such, making future missions more challenging. Much like Frame City Killer, Hei$t appeared as if it wanted to offer the sort of game that was aiming to be a perfect, cinematic simulation of some sort of criminal profession. These sort of games are ambitious and hard to do well, even Assassins Creed (a series five games deep at this point) more or less shed its more realistic assassination elements (the whole planning phase) after the first game in the series. Ultimately, I wonder if it was the ambition of a title like Heist, one which seems like it would require numerous systems working in sync, that led to its cancellation.