It sounds unbelievable, but if Warren Spector—the man behind the idea—says so, you know it’s not made up…

Deus Ex just celebrated its 25th anniversary. In a parallel universe, PC gamers would be looking back on a first-person Command & Conquer that would’ve made C&C Renegade look irrelevant. That’s because Warren Spector’s vision for immersive sims almost became a part of Westwood’s beloved strategy world—the legendary designer was that desperate to realize his dream.

All this happened before the game we jokingly call “Juice Sex” even had a proper name. Back then, it was just a pile of design docs codenamed Troubleshooter. Spector wanted to create an open-ended simulation set in the near future starring a supercop called Jake Shooter, a character who broke away from the then-ubiquitous aliens and fantasy warriors. He came up with Troubleshooter in 1994 while still at Origin Systems. While he struggled to pitch the idea internally, he managed to convince Westwood to essentially let him build the same game inside the C&C universe:

“I was sick to death of space marines, alien invasions, and mages with fireballs and pointy hats. I’d done enough of those and wanted to do something else. I was about to sign a contract with Westwood to make a Command & Conquer RPG. My plan was to take the genre mashup and player choice from Troubleshooter and set it in the C&C universe. From a gameplay standpoint, I was determined to make it happen one way or another—even if it meant making yet another damn sci-fi game!” Spector told PC Gamer.

But fate had other plans. John Romero, co-creator of Doom, basically handed Spector a blank check to join Ion Storm in Austin and pursue his vision, free of constraints. Ion Storm was born, Troubleshooter became Deus Ex, Jake Shooter turned into JC Denton, and the rest is history.

How would the games industry look today if Spector had stayed at Westwood? Is there an alternate reality where Command & Conquer: Troubleshooter is the best-selling game of the decade and a pioneer of immersive sims? Or would Westwood have scrapped the project two years in, after realizing how wildly ambitious Spector’s vision really was?

Source: PCGamer