15 Iconic Video Games That Almost Turned Out Completely Different

13. Alan Wake Had A GTA-Style Open World

Remedy's fantastic take on the horror genre allowed them to pay tribute to everyone from Jack Nicholson's descent into madness in The Shining to Twin Peaks' surrealist vibe and everything in between. Initially though, far from the intense, driven experience it turned into the developers had taken a holiday to the US and Canada where 60,000 photos later they'd construct a fully open world, all GTA-style for you to roam around in. Ultimately, although the project took considerable time and effort to put together, in the end they just couldn't nail the story as best they'd like when you were free to go wandering off for however you like, and so the whole thing was gutted to instil a more linear focus. In the end there is a section near the end of the game where you're running from place to place on the streets of Bright Falls, but it's a far cry from a truly open-world experience, but that's all for the better.