Whore of the Orient early alpha screenshot

LA Noire is these days synonymous with development hell, and even though the team behind it had the best of intentions the end result was a rushed, buggy mess that didn't even begin to scrape the potential of the initial premise. While LA Noire ended up being a mediocre game, hopes were risen high when Team Bondi announced that they are working on a spiritual successor, Whore of the Orient, that would take all of the good stuff from LA Noire and then further improve upon it.

This was all the way back in 2012, however, and unfortunately it seems the Whore of the Orient will not be seeing daylight as the whole project seems to have been canceled. As spotted by the aptly named Finder.com.au, a producer at Team Bondi recently did a podcast interview over at Gamehugs where he essentially confirmed the project's cancellation. Here's the full quote:

"Proud: Yeah, it’s amazing. And we were creating a game with all of that rich texture to it. And we fought for it. Brendan [McNamara – studio head], Alex Carlyle [design lead], Vicky Lord [general manager] and Naresh Hirani [project producer] all fought to keep that project alive. And I fought, too, it was something we were all passionate about. But in the end, that was the way it went.

Blomberg: So we will never see that game?

Proud: I don’t think so. That was one of the games and one of the studios I kind of left right at the bitter end. When we got wrapped-up."

It really is a shame, especially since LA Noire had the potential to be something truly amazing, but I can't say this was an unexpected turn of events. The last update anyone received about Whore of the Orient was way back in 2013, and ever since then it was only radio silence.

As a final note, here's some gameplay footage that leaked back in August 2013. Its frame rate might not be the most stable thing in the world, but it will give you an idea of what sort of game Whore of the Orient was trying to be.