In 1997, Fallow-Founders Tim Kane, Leonard Boyarsky and Jason Anderson could not agree with the Interplay leadership about the future series and decided to leave the company. The next spring they founded their own Troika Games studio. The name turned out to be prophetic – by irony of fate, the company released only three games. The history of the studio, however, in no case can be called inglorious, and even in the end she slapped the door loudly. How exactly? Let's remember.
From steampunk to mysticism
The first work of Troika Games was a role -playing game Arcanum: of SteamWorks and Magick Obscura. It was largely tailored by patterns Fallout – From the eminent predecessor, the game inherited a huge open world, and a flexible role system, and scattering colorful characters. True, stamping surroundings replaced with post -apocalyptic decorations, but this only added originality to the game.
After the release of Arcanum, the studio felt enough strength to take up the creation of two new https://casper-spins-casino.co.uk/ games at once, and in the most loud licenses. Half of the team took up the transfer of monitors to the screens The Temple of Elemental Evil – one of the classic adventure modules Dungeons & Dragons. The rest of the employees began to do for the publishing house Activision Adaptation of another popular board role -playing game – Vampire: The Masquarade.
[[Bullet]] Cold weapons against gear-vampires are much more effective than firearms.
Shortly before, one excellent computer RPG, entitled, has already been released for her reasons Vampire: The Masquarade – Redemption. True, she still lacked gloss and brilliance, and, apparently, that is why the publisher decided to entrust the new vampire game of the mastic team, which gathered in the walls of Troika Games. In addition, she became the first third -party company to which the studio Valve allowed to use my brand new engine Source , And with him Vampire: The Masquarade – Bloodlines made an application for the title of the most beautiful RPG of her time.
Alas, the technology was still very raw, and it did not so much help developers as they added a headache for them. Troika Games failed to use many of his capabilities like an advanced physical model and failed to optimize, which is why Vampire: The Masquarade-Bloodlines was extremely demanding and capricious to the gland.
In addition, Source problems have become one of the main reasons that delayed the development of almost three years. As a result, Activision had to interfere, which first raised the budget, and then demanded to issue the final version of the game in the fall of 2004, leaving for testing only three weeks. It will probably be unnecessary to say that they did not have time to catch a fair amount of mistakes?
Blood and intrigues
Fortunately, Vampire: The Masquarade – Bloodlines turned out to be one of those rare games, the technical flaws of which were almost instantly forgotten, it was only worth plunging into her world, very similar to ours with you. The only difference is that next to ordinary mortals in it, otherworldly creatures like vampires, werewolves or demons live. Most of them are very good about their anonymity. Vampires, for example, for the most part, adhere to a masquerade – a simple but extremely strict set of rules designed to keep their existence in secret. Any violation of the "Secret Regime" is immediately punishable by the final death.
[Bullet]] initially the developers planned to add a multi -user regime to the game, but there was not enough strength to create it.
It is from the execution of one such offender that the events of the game begin. He converted a man (our protagonist) without the permission of the authorities, for which he paid his immortality. Fortunately for the protagonist, Prince of Los Angeles-the most powerful and influential vampire of the city-adhered to the completely liberal rule “Children for the sins of the fathers” and spared the converting brother. Naturally, not by kindness of sincere, but to get a new servant who, on occasion, is not a pity to sacrifice.
So from the first minutes you have to pay for your salvation, dealing with the problems that the supernatural inhabitants of Los Angeles, frankly, have enough. The conflict between the supporters of the prince and the opposition-anarchists, the intrigues of the visiting Chinese bloodsuckers, who incurred werewolves and hunters for evil spirits, finally, the appearance of an ancient sarcophagus, in which one of the oldest vampires is supposedly buried.
We settled all these troubles, and that, which is important, without unnecessary noise. After all, no one has canceled the masquerade, which means it is strongly not recommended to drink blood or conjure in front of dumbfounded inhabitants. Several mistakes, and a too retreating vampire will take into the non -existence of its creator, and an inevitable reboot will happen.
Unusual role
Vampire: The Masquarade is only the first and most famous of the many tables created in the universe World of Darkness. All of them are the role system that the authors dubbed StoryTeller System , And this name is the best reflects its essence. She is not about such banalities as the salvation of the world or the fate of states, but first of all – about the struggle of the human principle and monster living in every vampire. In the very mechanics of the game, the development of personalities of characters is paid no less than their combat skills.
[[Bullet]] In the sewage of Los Angeles, you can find not only homeless people, but also creatures more expensive.
Vampire: The Masquarade – Bloodlines adopted this feature. Our aggressive impulses restrained not only the masquerade, but also the parameter "humanity". It decreased during the murder of innocent and other indecents, and as it decreases, the hero gradually turned into a crazy beast and lost control of himself. But the vampire is the predator, not a rabid monster, to be able to avoid situations fraught with unpleasant consequences. For example, secrecy or magical charm helped to avoid many unnecessary conflicts.
True, the hero’s actions directly depended on which clan he entered. Moreover, belonging to the "community" determined much more than the class in most other RPGs. For example, Nosferata is not just a master of disguise – they are so ugly that, unlike other vampires, they can no longer pass themselves for ordinary people and are forced to constantly hide in the shadows. And therefore, passing through the nosefire was fundamentally different from the game for elegant vents that could subordinate almost any interlocutor and even the enemy, or rude bruja, who prefer to sweep away any obstacles.
But the main thing is that, regardless of the choice of clan, the game really allowed to feel like a vampire. Start treating people as food or at best – as tools to achieve their goals. Manipulate others, wait for betrayal at any time and intrigue against today's allies. On the fingers, you can count RPG, which allowed you to get used to the role as Vampire: The Masquarade – Bloodlines.
Turning the developers, Activision served the game of poor service. She not only came out raw, but also appeared almost simultaneously with the long -awaited Half-Life 2. To compete with such a competitor Vampire: The Masquarade – Bloodlines, despite the powerful plot, first -class quests and the memorable world, was beyond the power. But she, in general, was the last hope of Troika Games for survival. Previous projects did not bring the studio of special dividends, and by the time the third game was released in the state, only three founders remained. The rest of the employees simply had to be dismissed, although some continued to grind the game and prepare patches that correct the main bugs until the end of 2004 – exclusively at enthusiasm.
Alas, in the first weeks of Vampire it was sold with a ridiculous circulation of 72,000 copies, which finally put a cross on the prospects of Troika Games. At the beginning of 2005, it was closed. However, although Vampire: The Masquarade – Bloodlines did not gain proper recognition, it rightfully, along with Deus Ex , Anachronox And Planescape: Torment , It is one of the most striking and original computer role -playing games.
What it was? One of the most extraordinary, atmospheric, stylish and … underestimated RPG of the current century.
Three beards
The fate of the founders of Troika Games after closing the studio
When Troika Games ordered to live long, the paths of its creators who worked together for so long, part. Of course, high -class specialists were happy to shelter other companies.
Tim Kane
Tim Kane almost immediately joined Carbine Studios. In it, he first as a leading programmer, and then the game designer worked on mmorpg Wildstar. In 2011, Tim left the studio and moved to Obsidian Entertainment , where he took the position of senior programmer and is now engaged in role -playing game Project Eternity.
Leonard Boyarsky
Unlike Kane, Boyarsky did not rush with the search for a new place. The previous few years he was pretty exhausted, so he decided to take a break and just rested for about a year. After a protracted vacation, Leonard accepted a proposal to work from Blizzard Entertainment and was responsible for the development of the world, as well as the role system Diablo 3.
Jason Anderson
Anderson shook much stronger than his comrades. At first, he completely went into the real estate trade sphere, but already in 2007 he was called on Interplay to work on a certain “non -annexed MMORPG”. Two years later, Jason moved to Inxile Entertainment , where he took the position of creative director, then moved to Turtle Rock Studios , but here I delayed only for a year with a little. Finally, in the spring of 2012, he returned to Inxile, becoming a screenwriter Wasteland 2.
Console hunters
Facial brother Vampire: The Masquarade
Not only Vampire: The Masquarade, but also other World of Darkness lines attracted the attention of computer and video games developers. Back in the 1990s, they were created, but they never got to the release of two games based on Werewolf: The Apocalypse. And in 2001, the former employer of Kane, Boyarsky and Anderson, Interplay acquired the rights to the game Hunter: The Reckoning. In it, the central role was assigned not to various evil spirits, but to people who devoted their lives to the struggle with it.
In less than a year, as a very young prefix Xbox , And a little later and on Gamecube , Role -ray action came out with a completely predictable name Hunter: The Reckoning. He began with what the games were supposed to end more likely – from the execution of the villain, the serial killer of Nathaniel Arkadi. The death of the offender, however, did not bring calm to the town of Ashcroft – rather the opposite, because it was after this that he was flooded with evil otherworldly creatures, to put an end to the rampant whose four brave hunters are taken.
Alas, from the original role system in Hunter: The Reckoning there are real crumbs. The gameplay actually came down to cutting crowds of motley monsters – it turned out a kind of console Diablo , cooperative passage. However, a peppy action, a stylish video row, a good story by the standards of the genre allowed Hunter: The Reckoning to find your audience.
Therefore, studio High Voltage Software , known for almost never releasing the continuation of his games, this time has moved away from its own unwritten rule. Next year, two sequels saw the light at once, however, they came out on different platforms – Hunter: The Reckoning: Wayward became an exclusive for PS2 , A Hunter: The Reckoning – Redeemer appeared only on Xbox, but both of them offered almost nothing new compared to the original game.