The Camheds is an interesting one as no reason is given for their exclusion. They where presumably dropped because the team decided that it was the wrong direction to take the game. Of all the gangs that made or didn’t make the final cut they are the only ones that can be seen as not being believable, this was likely the reason for their exclusion. There is no evidence of them making it into any incarnation of the game, in all likelihood they never made it past the concept stage.

Look - Each member has a camera for a head; presumably this was an early idea to allow the Camheds to film Cash as he went around killing hunters. It is unclear if the cameras where to act as their head or if it was a mask of sorts. Going along the lines of the cameras functioning as their heads it may give us indication to the reasoning for them being dropped.

Their clothing is of interest since they are all nicely presented in suits, this is a far cry from the look of the rest of the hunters which all wear customised raggedy clothing all the way down to simplistic tank top and jeans.

Weaponry - One Camhed has a spiked bat in the artwork and another appears to be holding a lead pipe, both of which are referenced elsewhere in the game files. These weapons could have possibly been exclusive to the Camheds and where dropped once the Camheds where removed from the game.

In the early builds of the game Cash had a completely different look to him than what he does in the released title. IGN was the first website to reveal Cash’s new design. On September 22nd 2003 they posted images of an updated build of the game, provided by Rockstar. Rockstar North cite the reason for the alterations as being down to the developer constantly refining the game until it is finally released in order to improve its aesthetic and design.

Below are some of the alterations between the beta and final versions of Cash.

1. The first version of Cash had an obviously more bulky look; he was much more muscular and looked like a hunter himself.

2. He had a deranged look on his face, perhaps from serving time in jail. Also note the van dyke style/goatee beard that he had. He seems to have maintained the same haircut but his hairline is evidently different.

3. He is sporting a vest or 'wife beater' in the beta version of the game whereas in the final build he has a 'State County' shirt with a long sleeved white shirt with the sleeves rolled up in the final game.

4. Although very similar his jeans are altered in the beta, in the final one the material reflects that of the state county shirt where as the ones in the beta version of the game look like they are made of a much tougher fabric with altered creasing and saturation levels.

The Clowns seem to have made it pretty far into the concept stage of the game, if they where ever included in a build is unknown. The reason for them being dropped is presumably because of them having too much of a resemblance to the Smileys. It is referenced in the artwork that the Clowns and Smileys had a rivalry and that the Smileys where the superior hunters. Although all isn’t lost for the Clowns, within the Innocentz group there is a faction by the name of the ‘Babyfaces’ which seem to take reference from the Clowns face paint. It is a pity that the Clowns never made it into the game they seem like a really interesting faction.

The following was taken from the bio included with the ‘Clowns’ artwork.

The clowns are the final in-hunt pack that the player meets and are as extreme as the hunt allows. Laughing and shouting, they pursue runners mainly for the entertainment. Clowns are the most high-ranked pack within the hunt at present due to the barring of the Smileys for gross disobedience. Fierce rivalry exists between the two gangs and although the Smileys are regarded as the superior pack, the Clowns are not to be laughed at.

Sponser - James W. Gacy - Head of cities art galleries and museums.

Special Ability - Extremely deadly but possessing no special talents beyond the fact that they are expert hunters. The clowns often snort amphetamines and other stimulants during the hunt, whether or not this enhances their performance is debatable. The Clowns don't care if this enhances performance or not, they just like the crack of it.

Audio - Demented laughter and shouted threats of violence.

In early versions of the game the execution camera looks to have had a slightly different look to how it displayed the executions.

In the retail version of the game there are scan lines that move up and down the screen, with static displayed around the top and bottom of the picture and a ‘Rec.’ logo in the top left hand corner. This suggests that the executions are being recorded with a security camera, made further evident with the run time displayed towards the bottom centre of the screen.

Whereas the look of the execution camera in early builds of the game has a more degraded look to it with strong yellow hues and is more in line with cheap quality home video equipment than it is security camera footage. There are still static effects present in the early build of the execution camera, although the static is more like that present on old VHS tapes and is much like the static displayed while in game.

Being settling on a level layout and design it is only natural that it would be through much iteration. As there is typically no frame of reference it is hard to point out what has been altered and what has been removed. Some ideas can be assumed when looking at parts of the level map that are off access while others are revealed through previews given out to magazines and to Internet gaming sites.

Kill the Rabbit - According to an early preview by IGN the scene ‘Kill the Rabbit’ was once known as ‘Pool of Tears’. This fact is further evident through looking in the games instruction booklet as it actually references to a movie by Starkweather with the title ‘Pool of Tears’.

Doing Time -

Some characteristics of gangs were carried over to other gangs. Such as the hockey masks from The Jury that eventually where given to The Skinz.

There doesn’t appear to be an explanation for The Jury not being included in the game. It is possible that they were never really dropped as much as adapted into The Skinz as a whole. No bio for the Jury is provided anywhere but due to the corruption themes throughout the game it might be a good guess to suggest that they too were a bunch of corrupt law enforcement.

The following was taken from the bio included with the ‘Jury’ artwork panel.

Some gangs that made it into early versions of the game where eventually dropped altogether for whatever reasons. The Lost and their leader Binbag is one such gang.

Their bio suggests that they were replaced by the Skinz in the final game. Either that or there was a continuation of the Junkyard where the Lost reined.

The following was taken from the bio included with the Binbag and The Lost artwork(s).

The following was taken from the bio included with the Binbag and The Lost artwork(s)..

One thing to notice on the art panel with information on the Scarecrow; he could very well have been the tramp that we see in the final build of the game. The reason for this is in his profile information it states that when he doesn't have his Scarecrow mask on he will be transformed into any regular bum complete with all the groaning and drunken rants.

The actual story behind the Tramp has been dropped but the level in which he is encountered has been left in. Scarecrow’s profile lists him as a ‘boss character’ so it is possible that the scene continued on and you faced him. As it is the scene ends and no more mention is made of the bum so it is highly possible that an entire scene was removed.

There is a variant art panel for Scarecrow listed as ‘Scarecrow Halloween Variant’. In this panel he wears a pumpkin on his head with one eye visible.

The following was taken from the bio included with the Scarecrow artwork.

Even weaponry wasn’t exempt from omission, for whatever reason the spiked bat shown below was removed. This screenshot was taken from the first released TV trailer for the game. The trailer was scheduled to be shown in the US and was sent out a week before the games release. What this tells us is that the spiked bat was removed very close to the release of the game.

With the use of the debug trainer in the scene ‘Doing Time’ it is possible to pick up the spiked bat. Unfortunately its animations are no longer attached to the model. Instead Cash performs the standard baseball bat executions. Chances are the original animations appropriate sound effects are still present on the game disk.

From scanning the game disk other weapons can be found that seem to have not made the cut such as:

Ice Axe - There is something named ‘ice pick’ throughout the game files. It was likely just another stabbing item similarly to the knife or glass shard. It likely shared the same animations and sound effects as the knife as well. It would have presumably been a multiuse execution item.

Black Wood - The black wood was probably from broken fences and such. The weapon was likely introduced at the start of the game and continued through the junkyard scenes.

Hunting Knife – The hunting knife was likely just an alternate knife. The sounds and animations for the hunting knife unlikely vary from what is already in the game. There is no indication as to who carried the knife but going by gang profiles it is highly probable that it was carried by the Wardogs or possibly even Ramirez.

Scythe – It is possible that the scythe is the sickle in the game. A scythe is typically a sharp hook like blade that is attached to a staff and held with two hands and is often associated with imagery of the Grim Reaper. In contrast the sickle is comparable as being a single handed scythe. But for the purposes of being correct we will go with it being an alternate weapon. There is no indication as to who would have carried the weapon or what scenes it may have been used in.

Metal Pipe – The metal pipe seems to have gone as far as the spiked bat, in all likelihood this would have had the same executions as what the black wood would have had. There is mention in the bio for The Lost that they would have used broken pipes and the like as weaponry so it can be assumed that the metal pipe would have been carried by them.

There are also images of what appear to be alternate glass shards, strangulation wire and a secondary sniper rifle. The sniper rifle alteration is most likely just appearance, one probably belonged to the Wardogs while the other to the CCPD.

Certain guns are named differently throughout the disk files, once again most likely due to the fact that people name them differently or it could be due to copyright reasoning.