Around 2003, Black Rock Studio (which is sadly now no more) was working on something fairly unique: a Metallica game that didnāt involve plastic instruments.
It instead was a āpost-apocalyptic driving/adventure gameā, in which the bandās members were badass, gun-toting characters.
Destined for the PS2, nothing ever came of the title. It was never even formally announced by Black Rock outside of this lame trailer included on copies of the bandās album St. Anger, so really all weāve got to show for it at this stage is some concept art showing the studioās vision for the game, and the knowledge it would of course feature the music of the band.
But what a vision it is. These pieces were all done by British artist Calum Alexander Watt, who isnāt just one of my favourite gaming artists, heās one of my favourite artists in general.
Thereās a Borderlands-meets-Akira look to the drawings, which look great in their own right; As a fresh take on a way to put famous musicians into a video game, they looked awesome
Interestingly, some of the pics were tagged as āDamage Incā, showing at least the artist knew which of the many incarnations of Metallicas to look to for inspiration
Since weāll never get to see this game, the least we can do is look at its art. And if youād like to see more of Wattās stuff, you should check out his personal site, which has great pictures of robots, mechs, cowboys and more robots.
To see the larger pics in all their glory, either click the āexpandā icon on the gallery screen or right click and āopen link in new tabā.
Fine Art is a celebration of the work of video game artists. If youāre in the business and have some concept, environment or character art youād like to share, drop us a line!
You can contact Luke Plunkett, the author of this post, at [emailĀ protected]. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.
