8 Video Games That Faced Development Hell (And Turned Out AMAZING)

7. Alan Wake

Alan Wake
Remedy

Remedy's Alan Wake was supposed to be the next big property for the Xbox 360; the new franchise that would eclipse anything the competition had to offer and completely revitalise third-person shooters. While it was an admittedly great game though, it in no way lived up to the hype that its long development would have had you believe.

The studio's next franchise after finishing Max Payne 2, the title was originally set to take that title's solid core gunplay and transfer it into an open world environment. The idea was that you'd control the titular writer and use him to explore the horror of Bright Falls, driving from one creepy area to the next. Essentially, it would have mixed survival horror with sandbox gameplay, long, long before The Evil Within 2 would attempt to do the same thing.

Unfortunately, the devs couldn't quite get the two to mesh while still being able to deliver their TV-inspired, episodic narrative. Officially announced in 2005, the project was internally rebooted to fit the more linear design, eventually releasing exclusively for the Xbox 360 in 2010.

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Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.