Former BioWare developer talks about the James Bond-esque RPG that could have been

BioWare was working on a James Bond inspired role-playing game that had the working title of Agent in 2009 before the game was shelved, according to former employee Trent Oster.

Speaking to Eurogamer, Oster — who has since co-founded Overhaul Games where he and others are currently working on Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition — said that in 2009 BioWare was working on "a new and exciting project that failed to survive the recession."

Oster said of the game:

The concept was to do the other half of GoldenEye. The idea being that James Bond isn't just a gun that walks around the world and shoots people. He's a suave manipulator, he's a talented martial artist, he's a secret agent. We wanted to cross that 007 with Jason Bourne, where he's been modified in some way; you're not sure what, but he's definitely deadly.

We really wanted to push the acting side, the digital acting. We really wanted to be very high drama, very intense scenes. I always think of the scene in the second Bourne movie where Jason Bourne's choking the guy out with a book and he's right in his face and it's this very intense moment. That was one of the key things we wanted to carry off.

Oster said in the interview that EA ultimately didn't believe in the concept, so the game never came to fruition.

After the game's cancellation Oster left BioWare to start his own studio. Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition is currently available on PC.