It’s time for a trip down memory lane, folks. Out of nowhere, a two-minute gameplay clip from Neversoft’s Call of Duty: ‘Future Warfare’ has surfaced online, showcasing what could have been more than ten years ago. Otherwise known as ‘NX1’, Future Warfare came about following Neversoft’s pivot from Guitar Hero, according to industry veteran Brian Bright on Twitter.
In the clip that surfaced online, we see an early game build from 2011, revealing a mission that takes place on the Moon. From the content shown, it looks like Future Warfare would have been a mix of futuristic and ‘boots-on-the-ground’ combat, and it would have featured remastered maps from classic Call of Duty games.
What Might Have Been
Neversoft was founded in 1994, and two decades later, it was folded into Infinity Ward by Activision and the brand name became little more than a piece of gaming history. Famed for the creation of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games and then a series of Guitar Hero titles, Neversoft was an instantly recognisable presence in the early noughties. In the latter years of the company’s lifecycle, it would help develop a spate of Call of Duty titles.
It has been shown online that, before that, Neversoft was destined to develop its own Call of Duty title – Future Warfare. In a post on Twitter, a two-minute video shows a soldier desperately fleeing from an incoming attack on a lunar base. There’s a run-through of the mission list available and a brief glimpse at what honestly looks like something quite well-polished.
In a comment on the video, developer Brian Bright explained that Neversoft was making Future Warfare and the mission on the moon that we see in the video was ‘really about the team learning the engine’, experimenting with features like low gravity.
He went on to explain that this would have replaced COD Ghosts and that when the game was scrapped, Neversoft had developed ‘2 – 3 campaign missions and a bunch of MP work’.
Another comment showcased a reported list of multiplayer maps for Future Warfare, which included the likes of:
- Legacy Afghan
- Legacy Crash
- Legacy Terminal
- Bin Laden’s Compound
- Gladiator Assault
- Merc Mode Map
- BENK
Unfortunately, Future Warfare was never meant to be. Ironically, Infinity Ward would come to work on Infinite Warfare (2016), which would be almost identical to Future Warfare in some respects.
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