Daredevil is one of the most popular Marvel characters and has been seen in several comic books and even a live-action series. Recently, there have been rumors that Insomniac may be working on a standalone Daredevil game, or that Daredevil may appear in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 DLC.
However, a new report suggests that a Daredevil game was in development for PlayStation 2 and reportedly got canceled in 2003. This report comes from a team who have discovered a prototype of the canceled game thanks to an anonymous developer, revealing several details about it.
A Daredevil Game Was Reportedly in Development for PS2
Video game preservation website Hidden Palace revealed the prototype version of the canceled Daredevil game called Daredevil: The Man Without Fear which was initially called Daredevil: The Video Game and was in development for PlayStation 2 by 5,000 Ft. studios. The game was a third-person beat ‘em up action game based on the Marvel superhero comic created by Frank Miller.
The Daredevil game was going to be published by Encore Inc. and was in development for multiple platforms including PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox, and PC. The story of the game was based on the Elektra Lives Again comic book and followed Electra, who was resurrected after The Kingpin was assassinated and there was a full-blown war to take control of Hell’s Kitchen.
Players play as Daredevil, the alter ego of Matt Murdock, and climb walls and use the ‘shadow world’ ability to see heat sources and other life forms around them. The prototype version also revealed that the game had several individual chapters and players had to finish the chapters with the help of the game. Additionally, there were also optional side missions that players could perform simultaneously alongside the main story.
Images from the game also surfaced which show Kingpin, in-game screenshots featuring Daredevil, his mentor Stick, and an image showing the score at the end of the level. 5,000 Ft. studios started working on the game after they helped 3DO port their Army Man series on PlayStation. Although the game had a very small budget at first, after it was revealed that a movie was in production, the budget of the game was also expanded, eventually expanding its size and scope.
The Daredevil game was first supposed to be an open-world title but was soon turned linear third-person beat ‘em up as per Sony’s suggestions and also because developers decided to create and use their own engine to develop the game in efforts to cut costs, but it did not work as the game ended up being canceled sometime in 2004 after several employees working on the game left.
Marvel also refused to approve the game as it was a different concept than what the developer had initially told Marvel and had made amendments to it as per Sony’s suggestions. The game was almost completed when it was canceled and also released on the Nintendo Game Boy Advance in 2003 and was lost like any other game in those times.
The Unreleased Daredevil Game Is Also Playable
Hidden Palace also revealed that the canceled Daredevil game is playable once it’s fixed as SolidSnake11 fixed it and gameplay footage was shared by Hidden Palace. Although the game has several bugs and glitches since it was never finished and sometimes players are glued to the walls, it still gives Tomb Raider-like vibes with its parkour mechanics.
The game looks quite okay-ish for the time it was in development and would have been a fun title for players to hop on. Daredevil can be seen engaging with the enemies and performing parkour in the released video. The game is also without a valid product serial ID so technically it’s still in development. No cheats or debuggers are enabled in the prototype version and the cracked version of the game can view all its contents.
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