This Rockstar game will forever be a mystery in the studio’s history, known for Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption.
In November, Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser spoke openly about what happened with Agent. Originally planned for the PlayStation 3, the title was billed as an open-world spy game and remained on the company’s website until 2021, when it was finally removed from the database, though its fate had long been obvious. This occurred two years after the leak of Grand Theft Auto V’s source code, which unexpectedly provided a glimpse of assets intended for Agent. Now, a diligent fan believes they have pieced together what the protagonist of The Agent might have looked like.
GTA Forums user XanaBax has likely solved a mystery that few expected to be solved: the rough, in-development look of Agent’s potential protagonist. There’s no name, but the word “Player” is visible, which indicates that this would have been the character we would have controlled in the massive world of the canceled game. Although Houser mentioned that The Agent’s 1970s Cold War setting was just one of several proposed concepts, including a modern alternative, the man in the image is wearing a distinctly 1970s-style military uniform.
XanaBax explains: “The main node in the hierarchy is called ‘player.’ The same model (with different textures) can be seen in some images from an environment artist’s portfolio from 2011. Some parts of the model are taken from or edited versions of Niko Bellic. The head has more or less the same UV map (excluding the hairline); the boots are Niko’s default boots; and the pants are Niko’s cargo pants with edits (the UVs are slightly different, too). The model is in the “Jimmy” folder (the codename for Agent) and hasn’t appeared in any Grand Theft Auto game.”
The 2011 version is quite interesting, and the reference to Jimmy is a sharp observation. The player is pretty clear. By development standards, this model is quite detailed and would almost certainly be the one we, the players, control. The fact that it was modeled after Grand Theft Auto IV’s protagonist, Niko Bellic, during the early stages of development is just the icing on the cake. All of this offers another fascinating glimpse into what Rockstar will never make, which is a shame because it could have been cool.
However, since the studio is fully focused on Grand Theft Auto VI and perhaps Red Dead Redemption 3, we doubt we’ll see a new IP from them in the near, medium, or distant future.
Source: TheGamer, GTA Forums
