City of the Dead (aka George A. Romero's City of the Dead/The Living Dead: City of the Dead) is a cancelled 2006 FPS game that was to be published by Hip Interactive, with development being handled by Kuju Entertainment. The game was to take place on a fictional island known as "Ningun Futuro" (meaning "No Future" in Spanish) and was to be the first of a number of games based on the Dead series.[1]
Following an array of secret military tests on cadavers that go horribly wrong, a zombie outbreak occurs, endangering the island's inhabitants. It's interesting to note that Romero's 2004 reimagining of Dawn of the Dead ends with the remaining survivors becoming stranded on an island; it has been speculated that said island may have actually been "Ningun Futuro", tying the game to the film. While it was officially stated that neither City of the Dead, nor any of its planned follow-ups would contain any references to the original 1978 Dawn of the Dead, (likely due to copyright issues), this doesn't necessarily rule out the possibility of it having been tied into the 2004 reimagining of the film.[2] It is cited that the game was cancelled due to Hip Interactive's tight budget and subsequent lack of funding, soon thereafter leading to their permanent closure.[3]
Tom Savini, make-up artist, and regular actor in the Dead series was announced to have been providing the voice and likeness of a character named William "Red" McLean, who would have later become playable in-game. Notably, a one minute trailer for City of the Dead was shown at E3 2005, although at no point was a playable version of the game was made accessible to patrons; said trailer has since appeared online and can be seen above.
References[]
- ↑ Wikipedia article on the game. Retrieved 30 Apr '14.
- ↑ 2005 IGN article on the then-upcoming game, featuring a statement by the MKR Group, who own the rights to the original 1978 Dawn of the Dead, on the film's non-involvement in the planned series of games (courtesy of the Wayback Machine). Retrieved 30 Apr '14.
- ↑ IGN page on the game, which has been updated since its cancellation. Retrieved 30 Apr '14.