First (and only) look at Irrational's canceled zombie game 'Division 9'

by Justin McElroy on Jan 13th 2010 1:58PM

It was rough yesterday when we heard that Irrational Games had a really incredible sounding zombie game called "Division 9" buried under its floorboards, never to be released. Ask our loved ones, we cried, moped, cried some more, and then consumed tubs of Chubby Hubby. We lost count -- it was that bad.

And now that we've seen screens and video of the project, via Game Informer; now that we know the game has a dark, desperate, realistic feel that's even better than we imagined? Well, it's frankly more than we can bear. If you need us, we'll be in the frozen desserts aisle ... or maybe the whiskey aisle. Jury's still out.

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Tags: 2k-boston, canceled, cancelled, division-9, irrational-games, ken-levine, zombies

Reader Comments (64)

Probably a wise move, zombies are getting played out and I for one would hate to be competing with Left 4 dead 3.

Ken Levine (in the video) clearly states that this game was being pitched well before the proliferation of the zombie-game genre.

Be that as it may, it wasn't released before that. It'd be swallowed up by L4D3.

Actually, have Valve announced L4D3? I haven't heard of a boycott for it...

This game was canceled before Left 4 Dead (the original) was ever released, so this dumb Left 4 Dead 3 comparison is ridiculous. With that train of thought, you could say Division 9 would also be eclipsed by Left 4 Dead 4, 5, 6, etc, as they are also unannounced games that would take place in a timeframe completely separate from this canceled game.

I, for one, don't see an L4D3 in the future. Valve is more than likely going to do episodic sequals to 2, before cancelling the whole thing half-way through in favor of doing some vampire game.

It doesn't matter which one started development first. The question is if it would have come out before or after L4D. Because if it came out after, it probably would have failed, just because it would have had to compete with L4D.

Left4Dead 2: Episode 3, where the hell is it Valve??????

Even though it had its differences the similarity to L4D is striking. They would have been working on this a year or so before L4D was even shown, right?

I read the article and they said they started a small team working on it in 2004. Created a demo in 2005. So if you figure 2 years it would've been made in 2006-2007. A good year or 2 before L4D.

Looking at the concept of the game I think someone should try to make this game. From what it seems this game brings out the longterm planning of a zombie apocalypse. Concentrating on base building and creating a safe zone that'll hold off the never ending herd of zombies.

Enough with the zombies.

Werewolves next, please.

Oh, and sprinkle in some Frankenstein's Monsters, too.

Rawr.

Heh. With the new Wolfman movie coming out, Werewolves may very well be the next thing to be done to death...just like vampires.

How about a game where you kill sparkling vampires?

You know - as a payback to our sisters/girlfriends/other twilight-fans for forcing us to watch that junk?

A good Blade game would be pretty sweet.

Chubby Hubby is the best Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor.

You are incorrect, Sir.

The best flavor is Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.

Good flavor, but a bit too bland. How about going with Half Baked so you can get that brownie batter stuff, too? Let's agree to disagree.

Phish Food. Chalk it.

damn right chocolate chip cookie dough is the best! although i give a damn close second to half baked because that also has cookie dough in it.

I think there needs to be a ice cream off at this point. We will have to try them all.. just to make sure we pick the best one.

Brownie Batter wins...end of story...

Cherry. Fucking. Garcia.

Chunky Monkey all the way. Where else do you get good banana-flavored ice cream?

Though their new Macadamia Chocolate is giving it a run for its money.

Bohemian Raspberry BIATCHES!

I like vanilla.

Ben and Jerry's Cinnamon Bun!

We all win. I hope everyone that replied went out and bought their favorite flavor to celebrate.

Wow zombies...innovative...maybe someone will do zombie Nazi's while we're at it.....
.

/sarcasm

I challenge you to come up with an innovative game idea. Until you do, you don't get an opinion.

How about some form of a puzzle game that adapts to the player? You don't necessarily "fail" but as you do worse the game gets easier until you find a way to do what you couldn't before. The farther you get in the game the more benefits you earn. Should hit some extended form of regression in the puzzle take place you could potentially lose the benefits previously earned, thus forcing the player to earn them again. It would be a game where mastery is mandatory. Its by no means perfect, but it hasn't been done before and is a lot fresher than zombies. But in the end I guess I'm just thankful that Avatar doesn't actually get to dictate whether or not I get an opinion.

That isn't a game. That's a mechanic; and a bad one at that. Hurp-durp.

killing zombies is also a mechanic...but without the mechanics there wouldnt be a game, and you thinking that my mechanic is a bad holds just as much validity as my thinking that zombies are a bad mechanic...we don't have any consolation prizes, but thanks for playing anyways...

Except zombies aren't a mechanic. They're a thematic element. Nice try, though.

I don't see how zombies are "played out" when they're in three games. Well, technically two since Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 are the exact same game. You can't really say that the Nazi zombie part in WaW is a complete game since it's basically an add-on to the actual game itself.

Well, I guess you have Stubbs the Zombie: Rebel without a Pulse. But hey, that was an awesome game.

This kind of looks refreshingly gritty (even though I can't stand the shit they filter most games with now), and it could have been something fun.

On a final note, it looks like a PS2 game from the graphics, but I realize it's first stage so all riiiiiiight.

Let's see, we have Resident Evil, Halo (do the Flood count?), World at War, Half-Life 1&2, Left 4 Dead, countless other games with zombies.

I think they're getting played out.

don't forget downloadable zombie games like "zombie apocalypse", "plants vs. zombies", n "1 MADE A GAEM WIT TEH ZOMBIEZZZ!!!"

Zombies are played out but Nazi's, aliens, cops and orcs aren't? FFS people, QQ.

They're all played out.

We need more games with psychopathic cars or something.

I was talking about mainstream games, not indie ones. Although, I guess in order to have a list of zombie games I'd have to include them. But really, two games you mentioned did not have zombies.

The "zombies" in Half-Life are headcrab controlled human, not zombies. Halo's Flood are not zombies either considering they're parasitic.

Resident Evil has gone the way of the parasite as well, they're not mindless zombies anymore considering they have the plagos or whatever in them.

Either way, tell me more zombie games that are in the mainstream.

Lest we forget, Dead Rising and soon Dead Rising 2

This list speaks for itself..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_undead-themed_video_games

But what about Dead Head Fred? Oh, yeah, that was exactly like all the others too. If only people bought PSP games, we'd have John C. McGinley in more games!

Only a few zombie games have become "mainstream zombie game", and yeah I forgot about Dead Rising.

Killing Floor is not about zombies though, considering they're specimens of a failed military project.

"Killing Floor is not about zombies though, considering they're specimens of a failed military project. "

And this is different from most other zombie games how?

Well, if you actually read the story for Killing Floor (no matter how short and kind of lame), you'd see that they were failed clones. Those are not zombies.

What is this recent infatuation with the number "9" lately?

District 9
9
Nine

And now Division 9?

How about a little originality?

This was in the making before '9' and 'District 9' were announced.

So they started this after Swat 4 came out in April 2005. That explains the older graphics.

I'll still go on recorded in an unrelated manner as saying that the number 9 has become quite popular as of late.

I agree...nine is quite popular...Guitar Hero 9 also comes out Q4 2010...you forgot that one...rumor has it that if 8 people all playing expert + drums all hit FC, it will initiate the second coming of Jesus, who will then become lead singer and merge both bands into one band of 9 people....hope it's comes true...

Eh, I'd take an Irrational zombie game over yet another L4D.

PS: I still love you, Valve. Now please give us Episode 3 or Portal 2. Thanks.

I'm very intrigued by the "not infected" bar in the bottom left. I wonder just what type of game this could have been. Wouldn't a full open world zombie game be great? Not like Dead rising, more like GTA, but with zombies. You'd spend your time building defenses, gathering supplies and rescuing survivors, and maybe you'd never really beat it, it would be just like infinite mode in Dead rising. You could eventually build a whole fortress, but you'd have to deal with other survivors interactions with each other, food supplies, whether they were infected or not, and maybe eventually save the entire city. Damn, I want that shit

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First (and only) look at Irrational's canceled zombie game 'Division 9'

Reader Comments (64)

Posted: Jan 13th 2010 2:02PM Shagittarius said

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