Dark Years is a 2015 story-focused open world action-adventure game, which follows two protagonists; a journalist and a detective. It takes place in 1953 in London and Tehran. The game was developed by RSK Entertainment and published by Kiss LTD, released exclusively on PC on October 17th 2015. It recieved negative reviews due to its poor FPS, graphics from 2005, many bugs, no gameplay and level design, and a terrible plot.
However, there existed 2 attempts of the game by different developers and publishers before the game was released, but none of them have been found.
List of Versions[]
Radical Entertainment[]
In 2004, after their game The Simpsons: Hit & Run released, Radical Entertainment began working on some games, one of them was "Dark Years". The game was later announced in November of that year, with a release date of October 21st 2005. It was set for release on PSP, PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, and PC, and later the NDS, Xbox 360, PS3, and the Wii. It would have also been published by Vivendi Games.
| “ | Dark Years will take place in the 1950s in London with 2 protagonists; a journalist named "Dave" and a detective named "Joey". While the journalist is from America, the detective is British. The game will be released in October 2005, and will have many story missions. The game will be released on PSP, PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, and PC, so get ready. | „ |
The game was planned to feature two protagonists (Dave the Journalist and Joey the Detective; both voiced by the late Rik Mayall and Kiefer Sutherland respectively).
After the first announcement, it had been announced that the game had been delayed to 2007, with Crash Tag Team Racing taking its original release date. It had also announced that the Gamecube and Xbox versions had been cancelled, and that it would also be coming out for Xbox 360, PS3 and the Wii, aswell as a NDS version by Amaze Entertainment.
Afterwards, nothing had came out of the Radical Entertainment version, as Activision and Vivendi Games merged to form Activision Blizzard in 2008. Kiefer Sutherland left the "Dark Years" project in January 2008, and it is not known how much of this version was completed before it got cancelled.
D3 Publisher[]
On October 3rd 2008, it was announced that D3 Publisher had brought out the rights for "Dark Years", with a planned release date of 2011. The game would have been developed by 7 Studios for the PS3, Wii, 360 and PC versions, while Vicious Cycle Software would develop the PSP version, and Artificial Mind & Movement would develop the NDS version. It had also been announced that it would be released on NDS, PSP, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360, and PC, and the plot would have been the same as the previous Radical Entertainment version. It is also unknown how much had been completed before this version was also cancelled. However, it was later announced that the other versions were cancelled and the game would be exclusive to XBLA instead.
Afterwards it was quietly cancelled, with no reason given. 7 Studios, the developer of the other cancelled versions, was also shut down on February 9th 2011.
However in 2012, RSK Entertainment had bought the rights to the game, but it was rushed and later was released in 2015, as one of the worst games in history.
Availability[]
As of 2025, none of the previous builds by both D3 Publisher and Radical Entertainment have been released, with the only version available to play being the final RSK Entertainment game build.