Years ago, Sledgehammer Games was working on a third-person Call of Duty game set during the Vietnam War. But it never came to be. A developer who worked on the game, Bret Robbins, shared some new details on the project in an interview with MinnMax and also confirmed that Sledgehammer did, indeed, start working on Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare 2 before shifting gears.
Robbins said the unannounced third-person Call of Duty game was “almost like an Uncharted-meets-Call of Duty idea.” The game never materialized, though, because Sledgehammer got pulled in to help Infinity Ward finish Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III after the major shakeup at Infinity Ward that saw its top bosses get fired for alleged insubordination.
“We did a prototype for it and we made a demo. It was cool. It was fun. I think someone should go make that game someday,” Robbins said.
The developer said the game would have been “gritty,” adding that it was aiming to be a “more brutal third-person war experience.”
But development on the title never got very far. “We didn’t get that far with it, honestly,” Robbins said, adding that the team never mapped out what the game would be. Robbins described it overall as an “experiment.”
Before this, former Sledgehammer boss Michael Condrey said the game, codenamed Fog of War, was aiming to be an Apocalypse Now-style Call of Duty game.
“In your head you instantly can imagine an Uncharted style of game, but done in the lore of Call of Duty,” he said in 2014. “You can see that. We built a prototype and it was cool. It was a true, gritty, Apocalypse Now take on Vietnam in an interactive way. We had a 15-minute demo, and there were some great moments.”
Call of Duty fans didn’t get Fog of War, but 2020’s Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War from developer Treyarch featured flashback missions set in the year 1968 during the Vietnam War.
Also in the interview, Robbins confirmed that Sledgehammer created early prototypes and maybe even a demo level for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare II, but that game never came to fruition either. The studio made Call of Duty: WWII instead, which “felt like a better opportunity” for the team, Robbins said.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare II has been the subject of speculation in recent times, but for now, it doesn’t seem like fans are getting a sequel anytime soon. In 2023, Activision will reportedly release a new Call of Duty game in the Modern Warfare universe, with Sledgehammer said to be leading development on this title.
2022’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II was a sales juggernaut, setting a record for the franchise dating back to 2003. The game’s next major update, Season 3, goes live on April 12.
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