Resurfaced Art Showcases Irrational's Lost Game

vansau

Mortician of Love
May 25, 2010
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Resurfaced Art Showcases Irrational's Lost Game



Ten-year-old concept art from Irrational Games reveals some ambitious details about a game based on The Divine Comedy that got stuck in development hell.

Before Bioshock, but after System Shock 2, Irrational Games was working on The Lost, a third-person action/horror game that was supposed to be published by Crave Entertainment. Unfortunately, Crave slashed the development budget and the game was eventually dropped from the publisher's lineup. However, the developer has recently let some of the title's concept art out of the vault and given fans the opportunity to see what could have been.

The Lost featured a story inspired by Dante's The Divine Comedy, starring a single mother who sells her soul to the devil for the chance to reclaim her daughter's from Hell. Although Crave canceled the title, FX Labs purchased the rights to the game in 2008 and released it in India as Agni: Queen of Darkness (apparently with different art assets).

Mauricio Tejerina, who is now an artist on Bioshock Infinite, was an environmental artist with The Lost. Tejerina recently dug up his hand-drawn level and character concepts, providing them to Irrational so they could be scanned and added to the company's archives.

The artwork is rough, but it certainly shows off the potential that Irrational saw with this game, and the accompanying interview with Tejerina is a great read. From the sound of things, The Lost could have been a stellar game; maybe Irrational will get a chance in the future to make something similar, both in ambition and in tone.

Source: Irrational Games via


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Daniel_Rosamilia

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Jan 17, 2008
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Hm...
That looks interesting.
Would have stopped me from buying the tripe-fest that was Dante's Inferno as well, so points to Irrational there.
 

NickCaligo42

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Oct 7, 2007
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Maaan, that sounds way more interesting than Dante's Inferno. Not that it didn't have its pros, but its character and plot weren't exactly its strong points...
 

strum4h

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Jan 3, 2009
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NickCaligo42 said:
Maaan, that sounds way more interesting than Dante's Inferno. Not that it didn't have its pros, but its character and plot weren't exactly its strong points...
I have to disagree with that. The plot and how they tied it in with the poem was an amazing feat. Everyone just wrote it off as a god of war clone. I really enjoyed the game. I definitely think that the plot and characters made the game for me.
 

Jared

The British Paladin
Jul 14, 2009
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SomeBritishDude said:
Well, it can't have been any worst than Dante's Inferno.
Heh. Now thats some concept art you wouldnt mind seeing in an art gallery...
 

thagen

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Oct 17, 2010
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Forever been a big fan of Irrational (and Looking Glass). When I heard about the "Lost" game from Irrational, and that the code was sold to FX labs, I went looking for AGNI - only copies I found were in Russian, and although Playable, just not that compelling since I cannot read or understand the language.

Here is the HUGE news - as I was strolling along at BIG LOTS, I saw a Cosmi(as publisher) product (from FX Labs) called NetherWorld - Beyond Time I Stand. No question on the cover that the art assets are the SAME as AGNI, down to the weird weapon. This means that there is an english translation and that the code is relatively intact. The back of the box still says "Abandon all hope, you who enter here" - obviously from Inferno (Lost's setting).

SO hit up Cosmi or Big Lots to get the title!!!!