7 Best Games That Survived Development Hell

The phrase ‘development hell’ is one that is likely to send shivers down the spines of gamers everywhere. When games face severe delays during the development process with no finite end date in sight, it is often a death knell, resulting in the cancelation of some very ambitious projects.

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While not every title is so lucky, there are some games that rise from the ashes and escape the dreaded development hell, arriving late but welcome to store shelves to the delight of their patient fans. These are the best games to have escaped development limbo and how long they were trapped there.

7 L.A. Noire

Seven Years

L.A. Noire was an ambitious project from the get-go, spinning the narratives of multiple mysterious murders that fell to Cole Phelps to solve. Players would scope out crime scenes for clues, investigate bodies, and question possible witnesses to piece together the puzzle. Most witnesses even had tells eagle-eyed players could detect to see when they were lying, and certain dialogue options could be selected to try and deduce what was true.

Though this fantastic title eventually reached the hands of murder mystery and noir aficionados, it almost never did, as it faced numerous cancelations and delays across its seven-year development time. The game changed hands with publishers and platforms due to how long it was developed for, as the consoles it originally planned to release for became obsolete.

6 Bayonetta 2

2 Years

The much-anticipated sequel to the original hack-and-slash game, Bayonetta 2 saw the return of the titular character for another round of action-packed stiletto-pumping action as she journeyed to the Gates of Hell to save her friend Jeanne from eternal damnation after the pair were attacked by a group of angels, and a demon summoning goes terribly wrong.

It’s ironic that a game revolving around saving someone’s soul from hell was almost lost to the inferno itself. Though it did not spend as many years in development hell as some other titles, fans were sure this title would never see the light of day as its cancelation was announced when Sega hit financial difficulties, and they deemed Bayonetta 2 as too much of a risky project to fund. Thankfully, the game was not canceled indefinitely and eventually released for the Wii U.

5 Doom

Eight Years

The Doom series is one much celebrated by its fans, remaining as one of the most popular and successful FPS game series of all time. These games see players jumping into the heavy boots of the unnamed protagonist as he arms himself with an entire arsenal of weaponry to send demons straight back to hell. The game thrives on buckshot, bloody action and heavy, thumping OSTs designed to get adrenaline running.

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Despite the enduring popularity of the series, it has been met with some difficulties. Doom 2016, or simply just Doom, was intended to release much sooner than the dated title suggests, as its development spanned a total of eight years. The game was conceptualized and prototyped, but developers id Software scrapped the project and started it over from scratch, which was the reason behind its lengthy development.

4 Mother 3

Twelve Years

The third title in the single-player RPG is perhaps the longest-developed game of all time, leaving fans waiting for over a decade. Mother 3 takes place on Nowhere Island, an undetermined amount of time after the events of the previous game, Mother 2. Lucas, Claus, and their mother Hinawa are preparing to journey home before the evil Pigmask Army strikes, bombing Tazmil Village and eventually taking it over.

Tallying up a total of twelve years of development, most fans gave up hope of ever seeing Mother 3 released, but the developers Brownie Brown and HAL Laboratory eventually managed to finish development, and Mother 3 was released in 2006, awarding fans for their patience.

3 Cyberpunk 2077

Seven Years

From the same company that created The Witcher came Cyberpunk 2077, a solid first-person RPG set in the fictional Night City in the year 2077, where megacorporations rule most of the world, and nearly every person has cybernetics of some sort grafted onto their body. Players control V, a customizable character that is possessed by the AI spirit of dead rocker Johnny Silverhand, who is deadset on taking over their body.

Fans were given an ephemeral look into Cyberpunk 2077 in 2013, treating them to a short trailer that certainly worked up appetites for this futuristic game, which would not be released for another seven years. Unfortunately, this ambitious project was left to the wayside, as the studio was also working on The Witcher 3, which took priority. The development hell continued long after the release, as developers were put under a major crunch to reach the game’s deadline, resulting in a game that was largely unfinished with bugs galore and even downright unplayable for some console gamers.

2 Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2

Four Years

Though it is a sequel by name, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is not a sequel by nature, taking place in a different city and allowing players to don the fangs of a different vampire. Set in Seattle, players take on the role of a freshly awoken elder vampire, able to choose from four of the vampire clans from the pen-and-paper RPG, with more likely released as DLC following the game’s release.

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Originally announced in 2020 and forecast for release in 2021, the game went dark for long enough for fans to worry it had met its end. An announcement from Paradox finally admitted they had taken the project away from Hardsuit Labs, and that its development would be undertaken by a different studio. After a few more years of radio silence, fans gave up hope until another announcement in September 2023 proved that the game has awoken from torpor and will release in 2024.

1 Half-Life 2

Five Years

Half-Life was undeniably one of Valve’s greatest successes, introducing players to the crowbar-wielding Gordon Freeman and Black Mesa, the research facility where he worked. A sequel seemed like it was inevitable to capitalize on the success of the first game, and thus began the troubled development of Half-Life 2.

The second game brought back the same protagonist, Gordon Freeman, who awakens 20 years after the events of the first title, having to save Earth from what Black Mesa unleashed. It was seen as a definite improvement on the first, but the development process that created it wasn’t exactly painless. Valve spent half a decade creating prototypes and outlines before scrapping and cutting content, resulting in a more delayed game than fans expected.

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