David Jaffe's canceled PSP-exclusive FPS game Heartland was supposed to be more than just "the definitive shooter for the PlayStation Portable." It was supposed to have a message, one that echoed the sentiments of the always-opinionated God of War creator. Jaffe told The Escapist in a revealing feature: "It wasn't supposed to make you hate the Bush Administration so much as, as a layperson political junkie, it was supposed to put into light - using games as a medium - all the things I didn't like about the Bush Administration."

Unfortunately, a number of factors led to the cancellation of this project. It appeared that developer Incognito (team behind PS3's Warhawk) simply wasn't interested in working on the game. "They weren't really impressed with A) my politics, and B) story-based games to begin with."

Heartland may have been too ambitious and too graphic for the handheld. "The one thing Sony seemed uncomfortable about was naming the enemy," says Jaffe. "We were going to do some pretty intense stuff." Intense stuff indeed: players would see decapitations, and would face brutal choices: "The player chases after the teenage son, beating him and dragging him down the stairs, and throwing him into the living room. The commanding officer orders the player to douse the family and the house with gasoline, and set it on fire."

In a revealing chat with Newsweek's N'Gai Croal, opinionated God of War and Calling All Cars developer David Jaffe spoke about his ambitious (but canceled) PSP game, Heartland. He revealed the political motivations behind the title, and why the game might have been too ambitious for its own good:

"The game was very much a liberal person's response to the Bush administration and the war in Iraq ... [have players] feel what it must be like to have their own homeland occupied by another country. SCEA and I went back and forth over if we would ever say it was CHINA vs. AMERICA as they were a bit worried about being so literal ... As for Phil, his biggest issue was thinking a game so epic should be on PS3. But I was always pushing for PSP, saying that Heartland should do for the PSP what Halo did for the Xbox."

Ultimately, Sony didn't provide the support that Jaffe needed to complete the game. Instead, Sony pulled resources from the title to place into the PS3 title, WarHawk: "If the team would have been the right size, we would still be in production with Heartland today. That was the main reason we killed it, not enough folks to make the game ... the main issue that made it clear that we could not continue was that WarHawk kept taking our team members as they were further along in production and were the top priority."

Sony's admitted to focusing too much on PS3 at the cost of PSP development, and they've promised to change. With WarHawk nearing completion, could Heartland make a comeback?

[Via 1UP]

A few days ago we found out about the story of David Jaffe's Heartland. The aim of the title was to have a game that would make a gamer cry. Since that game is dead in the water, it made me wonder if there already were games on the PSP that could make me cry. I haven't yet had it happen with a PSP title, but unfortuantely for me, I don't play every game that comes out. Until they release Klonoa PS1 as a PSP download, I'm not sure there's a PSP game out there that can make me cry. Am I wrong? Is there a PSP game that's made you cry? Do you admire a game that can achieve that emotion or do you only want the emotion of joy from playing games?

David Jaffe wanted to make gamers cry with his PSP game Heartland. Well when the game was cancelled he accomplished that goal as many gamers faced incredible disappointment at its loss. Just as that wound was starting to heal, 1UP re-opens the wound and pours salt in it by getting details on the game. Of course, no matter how much it hurts, the curiousity factor makes it so we can't ignore the info

David Jaffe cleared the air by saying "Heartland was the story of China invading America. It was a first-person-shooter where you played a soldier debating whether to stay and fight for America or go AWOL to meet up with your family. We were trying to put in a lot of gameplay that would evoke emotion. You had sequences where you'd go into homes and your commanding officer would tell you to shoot innocent Chinese-Americans. It was very dark and was meant to cause players to consider what it's like to live in America and be an American today."

Sounds like it could be a deeply meaningful game, so why did Jaffe step away from the project? "Hearing myself talk about it now makes me a bit sad (that we didn't finish it). But I wasn't incentivized to make it, in a way I could go to my family and say 'You're not going to see me for 90% of the time, but there's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.' There isn't a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, at least the current way the industry is set up."

Maybe Cory Barlog can continue this project too?.

Project HL, David Jaffe's canceled PSP game was supposed to make you cry. And with a name like Heartland, it might have succeeded. Jaffe's gone off to bigger and badder things. Like God of War III. Too bad we'll never see what Heartland could've been ... if it didn't suck so much.

[Via IGN]