From Unseen64: The Contract is a cancelled action game that was in development for the original Playstation. As told by Haydn Dalton, The Contract’s project manager, “The Contract was a 3rd person action adventure, where you choose between two different characters; Simon & Natasha. This was being worked on at Psygnosis Manchester, which shut down partway through production.” In GamePro issue 113 we can read how Simon and Natasha are two Mob henchmen in a quest to avenge the wronged Colusha family. The action game would consist of 30 undercover missions ( which vary greatly depending on which character the player choose ) where the gamer can use more than 50 weapons, a unique targeting system and 20 stealthy moves.From pictures game is similar to original Syphon Filter, but there is more blood and violence. There are pictures from two development phases Here is interesting HUD - Time?? Mission have time limit? In this phase, HUD was different and there wasnt timer. Does anyone have more informations or magazine scans about this game? Why it was cancelled? Because of Syphon Filter? Sony didnt want to release two similar games in one year? EDIT: Pictures were taken from Haynd Dalton official web page. Here is his page info about The Contract
I dont know, maybe? Contract is looking similar to Syphon Filter but it was Psygnosis game. But its much darker than original Syphon Filter. I suppose that everything is possible. Found more info from GameSpot and IGN about clousure of Psygnosis Manchester studio. Following an extensive review of its development activities in the UK, Psygnosis has implemented measures designed to place the company on a firmer footing for its continued development as a leading computer games publisher and developer within the Sony Corporation. The principal actions being undertaken are: - closure of Psygnosis' Manchester development studio- termination of certain UK game development projects that management believe are unlikely to achieve significant returns As a consequence of these actions the company is making approximately 75 employees redundant mainly from the Manchester area. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Psygnosis has taken several major steps to reduce costs, including closing a studio, canceling projects, and getting rid of nearly a hundred employees, the company told IGN today. Its Manchester, UK studio was shut down to place the company on a "firmer footing" as a developer of computer games within the Sony Corporation. About 75 employees were found to be redundant and were laid off, mainly in the Manchester, UK offices. A spokesperson for Psygnosis' US office told us that all of the cutbacks were in the UK. It is believed that all of the canceled projects were unannounced games.
This game looks like an prototype of Syphon Filter indeed, the models and art are striking similar, if not, the same.
I found some short Syphon Filter beta video from 1997! So maybe original Syphon Filter was average game, and Sony decided to retooled project in The Contract engine? EDIT: Original Syphon Filter logo from 1997
From Michael Cottam personal page: 1997 – 1998 Environment and Character Artist (Sony / Psygnosis Ltd – Manchester. UK) Staff (Senior Environment Artist) The Contract (Did not ship) · 3D Character / Environment construction, using Softimage · Texture creation, using Photoshop And from Haydn Dalton Linkedin Producer Psygnosis 1997 – 1998 (1 year) Didsbury, Manchester, United Kingdom** Company Closure ** The Contract (psone) - Unreleased And also I have found impressive Matt Wood renders Ah, the lovely Natasha. She was meant to be one of a set of characters rendered for the Psygnosis Playsyation game The Contract. Unfortuntely that game didn't get finished so I abandoned the modelling with just this one character almost complete. Thanks to Han Randhawa on the contract team for designing a female videogame character that actually wears a full set of clothes - genius! A test render of the Natasha model before I did any poses. I'm not trying to hide anything with the recolouring and grain it's just that I have a habit of messing around with images and then accidentally saving over the original.
Damn, this is such a shame. I remember finishing Siphon Filter back in the day and really wanting more of that kind of gameplay. I wonder (as I imagine everyone is) if the files for this are floating around out there somewhere?
Maybe one day someone release iso image Who knows, everything is possible! EDIT: There is chance that images or video from game exist in Psygnosis press kits from 1997 or 1998. For example here is their E3 digital press kit from 1997. Any maybe there are coverage in other UK or US magazines. Also I have found about unreleased Psygnosis game called Elric based on popular fantasy hero. Elric is similar to Diablo and Blood Omen!
Found Psygnosis article in PC Zone issue 55 (October 1997), they mention all game that were in development (G-Police, Formula 1 97, Shadow Master, Overboard!) and coming soon games, but no word about The Contract Here is coming soon part of bigger article:
It looks like they may have been spreading themselves too thin. That's quite a number of projects, all seemingly ambitious. Surprised the one game in question isn't even on that extensive list.
Holy crap, there was going to be an Elric game!? How the hell haven't I heard about this before? The stuff you find on this forum, man...
