Well they (as part of Irrational Games at the time) would've ended up making Left 4 Dead with the SWAT 4 engine (more or less a standalone mod sold at retail), if Vivendi didn't stop them. Vivendi wanted SWAT 5, the devs wanted zombies. So as a result Irrational Games dropped SWAT to make BioShock (cause you know... Zombies). You weren't really going to get a first-person tactical shooter sequel to SWAT 4 anyways (though we did technically get a sequel to SWAT 4 which plays like SWAT 2 for the PSP).

That said, some of us who liked SWAT 4 and Rainbow Six did ask the guys at Serellan to work those concepts into Epsilon, and they're open-minded devs who talk very actively in forums (I read an out of context tweet that referred to the optiwand, and almost teasing about it). I wouldn't give up all hope yet. Due to the small team though, they're focusing on single-player only for now.

I'll be honest, these are the guys who made Takedown: Red Sabre, but the short answer for the quality of that game is because of incompetent QA they outsourced to, because they removed Steam from the DRM free versions Kickstarter backers asked for, and because 505 Games only gave them less than a year to further develop the game (and port an Xbox 360 version in that same time) after acquiring the rights to Takedown.

Then dropped support and swept it under the rug about 3/4 of a year later (devs did squeeze out multiple hotfixes and free DLC in the time they had though). Almost had a Pay Day 2 crossover with Takedown DLC if that hadn't fallen through.

Epsilon is Serellan's project, where they can take their time make a polished game on their own terms, so I have faith circumstances are different this time. It's worth keeping an eye on them.

WOw! Thanks so much for sharing this!!! I am definitely going to keep an eye on them. This is a very interesting story and I didn't know about it. Did you happen to follow or know of any other similar project? or know where can I find more information about this whole story?

Ok, let's do this... This reminds me of the classic CS-Nation's Newsbits before they got refined into TGN/CSN's Quickhits. *Deep long inhale.*

Here we go:

• Let's start with TGN's announcement of Takedown: Red Sabre. I didn't hear about the game here, as I followed the game since its Kickstarter days, but it's a good introduction before continuing on this list of links. We also talk in the comments about SWAT 4's cancelled zombie game (hey we hit full circle!), as well as what I know about the game pre-release and post-release (separate posts of course). Some of my messages on that link will overlap with the rest of this list. You could treat it as a primer if you want. I never did find out why Red Sabre in the logo was in green text... Fans asked and got no solid answer on purpose.
• Now let's check out the post-mortem video from the founder and head of Serellan, Christian Allen. He'll explain the entire development process of Takedown right up to where everything went wrong. Many lessons to learn here, both business and technical.
• Here I give my interpretation on the post-mortem video, as well as include additional information such as staff injuries (Christian was not the only one), and an analysis of how much time they actually had to work on the game instead of keeping the damn company afloat. Namely I wanted to figure out why the game is so unpolished and gathered the publically posted info together. Ignore the bear. That's an inside joke of Serellan, similar to Stephen Colbert. Anyways, since my post was approved by both Terry and Christian from the company, I guess I got most of the facts right.
• Speaking of injuries, the post-mortem video was majorly delayed because Christian ended up in the hospital. What does he do? Make a safety video while getting treated, because that's the kind of thing he does. You'll hear this mentioned in the post-mortem video, and this would be what he's referring to.
• Ah what the heck, let's throw in another injury, because we know that helps small indie teams right? There you go! This technically happened before Christian's incident, but you can see how their luck just keeps getting better.
• I take another look at Takedown: Red Sabre and find out what all the noise is about. Is it REALLY that bad? And if so, WHY is it that bad even after all the hotfixes and DLC was released? Turns out there's only a few key issues I ran into, but I don't see it as a trainwreck at all.
• Serellan has us choose what we want from them for the future. Funny thing is, they have a prototype game, but they're willing to abandon it in favor of whatever we want. This is similar to the Rock Band survey from Harmonix, except we can be much more specific with our demands with Serellan's survey. Anyways, the survey ended and the results are...
• Screw the prototype game! We want another tactical shooter that doesn't suck this time! The new look makes this tactical shooter stand out quite a bit doesn't it? That's the point. If they need to make an impact for the tactical shooter genre, and to erase the bad taste in our mouths from the previous attempt, they need to surprise us like this.
• Details on Epsilon through Q&A video, and a concept screenshot.
• Discussions on what we consider is Sci-Fi and what is near future (and how we want Epsilon to be portrayed), WIP screenshots on random things built for the game (like the injury pictures, you'll need a forum account to see the WIP pictures), and a hinted story element. Also Craig Gilmore joins Serellan. You'll see why he's important, and it looks like this might have happened due to Christian's past connections to working with him at Red Storm Entertainment (Ubisoft) and Bungie.
• We bash Rainbow Six: Siege, and then talk about the heartbeat sensor. There was also a discussion about the heartbeat sensor during Takedown's development, but due to development restrictions, gadgets in general were minimal to non-existant in that game. Anyways, this is the latest forum thread discussion.
• Serellan's other videos not mentioned earlier.
• Let's talk about other games you can keep an eye on! Might I suggest Due Process? It's basically a simplified Rainbow Six: Siege attack/defend, and they were working on this long before Siege showed us what their attack/defend is like in the alpha. Mind you the character models are placeholders.
• A lot of people at the Serellan community (including the staff) are looking forward to Ground Branch. Me? Too outdoorish for me with all its trees. I'm more of a city folk who likes to stop bank robberies, etc.
• Counter-Terrorism Unit. Virtually nothing is known about the game, but we're wondering how long the game will exist until Fox shuts them down... Or send Jack Bauer to shut them down for Fox instead.

*Deep and long inhale again.*

Congratulations on making it through the entire list, or at the very least scrolling through the entire list to reach the bottom.

For that effort, I'd like to offer you a copy of Takedown: Red Sabre for Steam. PM me if you read this and are interested. It's not a great game, but it's a good way for you to understand the INTENT to make a tactical shooter, but due to development conditions and restrictions they were put under, the game ended up in the state none of us wanted. And from there, you'll have a better appreciation for Epsilon as it won't be under the same conditions and restrictions. Remember jimykx, we're not alone in the desire to have a tactical shooter that offers options beyond lethal force. Don't give up all hope yet. We still have options, and it's not limited to Rainbow Six: Siege.

Thank you for your time.

I managed to enter the closed alpha of Rainbow Six Siege and I must say that as someone who absolutely loves SWAT 4 I was really dissapointed. I know its still a very different idea and game, but the truth is that right now it has very, very big faws (obviously being an alpha) that make it more of a COD than any other actual tactical shooter I know.
Once again I want to thank you for taking your time to go through all of this, I got to the middle of the posmortem but I can't continue because I'm still in the middle of my day and currently I'm really busy with classes.
I do intend to continue listening and also reading your various posts on their forums. Once I have done finished reading I will send you a PM so that I can try that game out. I also intend on doing a youtube video (in portuguese though) explaining all of this situation, with some swat 4 gamplay, some takedown and maybe some from rainbow six siege, because I have a very big group of friends where we all used to play SWAT 4 together some years ago, following most of the tactics taught in the VOWS clan (they had an amazing and active community, but with the death of Gamespy they just died out too in the Swat 4 area. I rememeber how amazing where their in depth explanations of tactics in SWAT and how we all used them and loved teaching new people into the game. We felt so professional!).
So sorry that I can't go through it all right now, but I will and once I do I will tell you so as I intend to develop a little project about it

No worries. That list is definitely not meant to be blown through in one day considering it has over a year's worth of information. Take your time, soak it all in, and then let me know when you've caught up and I'll gift you a copy of Takedown. Trust me, there's no rush to give Takedown a spin. As for your video, I'd suggest throwing in some R6: Raven Shield as well. That's not a bad game. Lethal force only with no arrest mechanic, but still not bad.

Edit: jimykx, since you were in the closed alpha, could you tell me if this satire parody trailer represents the current state of the alpha? The let's plays I've seen seem to look that way as well.