In in an interview with Vox Games, Jason VandenBerghe sheds some light on a spin-off Call of Duty title that never saw the light of day.

Five months before the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, a small team began working an a third person, spin-off project set in Italy during World War II. The game was supposed to be titled “Call of Duty: Devil’s Brigade” and would have featured squad-based mechanics and exploration, though the project was scrapped in March 2008 after nine months of development.

The game was supposed to tell the story of “The Devil’s Brigade” (also known as ‘The Black Devils’ and ‘The Black Devils’ Brigade’), a team of American and Canadian soldiers that fought in France and Italy during the second World War. The team brought forth a mix of talent which spawned an elite force known for its toughness, intelligence and how ruthless they fought. After the war, they would inspire the formation of the Green Berets and the Canadian Special Operation Forces (CSOFC).

Cancelled COD by u64backupThe game was a kind of “insurance” in the case that the shift to modern warfare wouldn’t pan well, due to the initial sceptical reaction by the public. Though because of what we now know was a successful release for CoD4, the project got scrapped.

When reading about the Devil’s Brigade, its hard not to marvel at these real life heroes of war. Disregarding the violence of their tactics, it would have been interesting to see how this real life story of Inglorious Basterds would have turned out.