When researching the history of cancelled games, you'd be surprised at how much information and materials are simply hiding in plain sight. It could be anything from a first-hand developer account squirrelled away on some old outdated blog to untitled images published on an artist's portfolio site, or as it looks to be the case with the cancelled Dreamcast RPG Metal Max: Wild Eyes a YouTube video that was uploaded to the site and largely ignored.
Just yesterday (October 18th), on Twitter, the Dreamcast/Saturn fan Rolly alerted their followers to the discovery of the 5-minute video that features 5 minutes of gameplay from a prototype of the abandoned Crea-Tech RPG. The video has been online for the past two years (being posted in May 2021), but in that time has surprisingly only managed to rack up less than 150 views despite being the most in-depth look at the game available (a short 20-second clip was previously all we had).
The video shows more of the ambitious title, which was intended to be the first entry in the Metal Max series to feature 3D graphics and was reportedly inspired by the MMORPG Everquest. This includes a look at a previously unseen dungeon and an FMV of the main character entering a vehicle. From what we were able to gather, the game was originally scheduled for a Winter 2000 release but was dropped due to both its scope and the decision by its publisher ASCII to withdraw from the home video game business. As a result, the next game in the series was 2003's Metal Max 2 Kai, an enhanced rerelease of the Super Famicom game for GBA.
You can watch the full video below: