WTF?

[Ratty Sr.]

Please forgive the rude subject line, but I'm really upset. I have a problem. A problem with Troika, that is.

When I first played Arcanum and saw how lame it was in almost every aspect, I thought: "OK, it's their first game, they're just settling in, they were short on money, but they'll pull themselves together and start making decent games, after all, that's Tim Cain, man, the very same Tim Cain that made Fallout."

But now, after seeing the bugged, unintuitive, unimaginative, combat-oriented, monotonous Temple of Elemental Evil, I can't help but wonder what the hell is wrong with people working in Troika. I mean, they had an opportunity to make a Dungeons and Dragons game that would bury Baldur's Gate series and become the greatest role playing game in the universe, but all I see is a game that is no better than Neverwinter Nights. I mean, Neverwinter Nights! Sure, TOEE has incredibly detailed interpretation of latest edition D&D rules, but what good does it do when all there is to do in the game is crawl through dungeons and fight same old. And everything is so... unintuitive, that it's impossible to know what properties a particular item has or what exactly a particular skill does, unless you memorize every book that was ever written about D&D. Then there's also graphics, so nice with tasteful colors and beautiful environment design, but dammit, it's still 2D! And this is 2003! 2003! I look at Morrowind and Gothic 2 and almost cry. And finally, the bugs. Oh my God, after reading the list of fixes in the upcoming patch, I realize some of the bugs in this game are so stupid and childish that only a crack-smoking pothead programmer could have made them. Troika really should have known better than lallow this unfinished beta to get released.

You know, I'm actually beginning to think Tim Cain and Brian Fargo (Seen InXile's latest project? Oh, the horror...) are not the brilliant geniuses with vision who left because they didn't like evil commercial exploitation of their ideas by greedy Interplay, but actually weak links of Black Isle Studios, who left because they were kicked out by people who actually know their job! And yes, I think Fallout 2 is better than Fallout 1, and I also think Planescape Torment would've sucked bigtime if Tim Cain and his boys were around to screw it up.

Let's sum up:

- all Troika games so far were disappointing

- Baldur's Gate is still king of computer D&D

- BIS projects improved after so-called brilliant innovators departed (we'll set aside crap like Fallout Tactics and Interplay's console RPGs, because they have nothing to do with the present issue)

- Troika better hire some decent programmers and 3D designers, because games that look and feel like they were made in last century no longer work for me

 

[Gunslinger]

Well, being the moderator of a board dubbed "Troika Board", I suppose that my opinion would be grossly subjective. In fact, I've proclaimed myself a fanboy of Troika (though not of the rabid fanboy varient). So you might think, "Oh, of course, he's blinded by the love of this company, sure he's going to defend it." But here's the Catch 22, folks: I can also see the faults.

With Bard's Tale and Fallout, Tim Cain has an impressive resume to fall on (forgive the horrible pun, folks). But I'm always leery when I see Arcanum and ToEE being promoted as "From the makers who brought you Fallout and Fallout Two...". Granted that Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky, and Jason Anderson were the main principals in the Fallouts, but now they are Troika and they can't really place claim on a BIS product. However, remember that Mr. Cain was also the lead programmer, designer, and producer. I'm not saying that all of the goodiness we find in Fallout is solely attributed to Tim, but I'm also placing credit where it is due. Most of the things that I liked-the isometric view and TB for instance-came about from Tim and Co.

Now onto Arcanum. As you've mentioned, Troika was given a limited budget. I mean, a name and a reputation can only do so much when starting a new company. The engine seemed terribly reminiscent of Fallout's, almost verging on verbatim. But I think that if you came into Arcanum expecting a Fallout, then of course you will be disappointed. I mean, I remember in Klamath where the pugilist John Sullivan pulls your leg about the "wee fairy folk" and a dialogue option is: "You mean magick? Can you teach me spells?" And I, in my infinite knowledge, thought, "That would be sooo cool!" And that's the mentality that I had when I heard of Arcanum. But then I started reading the background of Arcanum; of its feuding nations and politics, of his deities and gods, of its quant 18th century setting, of its technology, and of its magick. It sounded very rich to me. One of the lures of Fallout for me was the post-nuclear vibe. Arcanum's vibe was more like western gunslinging outlaws duking it out in one part of the world with the wealthy bourgeoise plotting schemes to get even richer in the other part of the world. I really dug it, man. Arcanum, graphically, was "meh". I agree that, looking at games such as Morrowind, Troika's games kinda make me wanna cry. But limited graphics is acceptable if the gameplay was great, which it was to me, at least. Combat did get repetitive after a bit and some of the missions were more like messenger-boy roles, "Fetch this and fetch that!" But I felt that it was all in a day's work for a mercenary gunslinger. Like delivering a parcel from Shrouded Hills to Dernholm to get enough cash to buy bullets so I can take out a few local bandits. Or gunning down hordes of Kree with my Repeating Rifle only to run out of bullets and being forced to beat them into pulp with my gauntlets. I kinda felt like a real scrapper, fighting tooth and nail if I had to. Then there was the storyline. Oh boy, was that great. It was intricate, more highbrow than you see in most RPGs, and it had so many twist and turns that it made you think you had to run all over Arcanum (which you did). It might not be worthy of novelization (but then again look at http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2361). I thought it was well written; it didn't seem forced along so that it contained all it did nor did it seem contrived just so it could contain all the plot twists. Then there's the voice acting. I dunno, but hearing the cultured voice of Rino Romano (Virgil) kinda made me think of a guiding hand, as was Virgil's role. And then Jim Ward as Gar (and other main characters), man did that totally fit; I mean, it's hard to sound orcish and sophisticated at the same time but Mr. Ward did pull it off. The dialogue written for Arcanum was pretty nifty too. I mean, the people actually talked in common VERNACULAR for the time, unlike some games (ahem, Final Fantasy). You didn't see people walk up to you all of the sudden and spout: "You! You are the divine hero predestined to save-" *insert fantastic-sounding town here* "Now, quick, take this sword with your name inscribed on its hilt and climb the summit of a nearby mountain to learn the oracle's wisdom." Naw, that didn't happen. Instead, you've got maybe an elderly matron wishing to desecrate elven ruins for a piece of furniture walking catiously up to you and saying, "I overheard your conversation with that guard and, from what I understand, you're looking for a job." And then your character can respond with, "Forget you, woman!" or "Certainly, madam, what do you require?" That's just one aspect I liked of Arcanum.

But then there's many things that kinda hinder Arcanum. Such as the demand by Sierra for real-time combat and multiplayer to be included. Real-time was pretty fucked up in Arcanum, horribly imbalanced, and hardly anyone used multiplayer (good luck finding someone today). All that time coulda been used to beef up Arcanum some more. Then there's graphic problem. And the combat repetitiveness (though that can be said with nearly all games). And I think that maybe those two factors (and possibly some others) was mainly Arcanum's downfall. At the time Arcanum had been released, no one, and I mean nearly *no one*, had made an RPG game in a while. The market was dry. If other games had caught up, such as Morrowind or Dungeon Siege, Arcanum would have gotten tronced. And it certainly wouldn't have won a PC Gamer award.

So Arcanum's success can be attributed to many factors: plain luck of being released during an RPG slump, hype of a renowned programmer, and a reputation. But, I still think that a few gamers who genuinely enjoyed the game on its merits had a large part in that success, too.

Now, onto ToEE (you might want to take a break at this point, I tend to rant, folks). Remember it's premises before you judge. Tim Cain has alluded that the engine was meant to be used on a possible Lord of the Rings game (he says its very capable of handling "hobbit-sized" characters) but that was ultimately scrapped. And Troika only had roughly a year or so to make the game. Then there's Atari to partly blame for releasing the game so early (but I suppose they've seen their error since they're now funding an official patch). And Troika being required to bump down their Mature rating to Teen might have hampered the game also.

Right off the bat, I can see many problems. Troika seems to have gone a full reverse from Arcanum. The dialogue is rather stale, bleak. The voice acting is horrible (talk to Bertram, you'll want to brain him with a rock afterwards) since they hired non-union actors. There's many non-functionable elements such as a partly unfinished item creation option.

But still, based on it's premises, Troika managed to do what it could. Let's recap the bad: it's really buggy, the dialogue and voice acting is horrible, the graphics aren't up to par, some gameplay options haven't been completed, and did I mention it's buggy? Now let's recap the reasons for such problems:
1) ToEE was originally meant to be an entirely different game and its engine was salvaged from it
2) Troika only had roughly a years time to complete the game
3) Atari fucked up by releasing the game early (thus the bugs)
4) The Mature rating was bumped down to Teen and some locations, such as the brothel, and dialogue had to be cut
5) A divided developer team (Leonard and other Troikates are working on The Masquerade)
6) Limited budgetting, as always

So, I understand your disappointment Ratty. Believe you me, I have a sort of love-hate relationship with ToEE at the moment (it's crashed on me numerous times). The only difference is that I think I put higher regard on ToEE's and Arcanum's strongpoints rather than let other crucial elements get me down. I genuinely like these games, not because of who made them or because of the games made before them. I'm not too concerned with Troika's future at this moment, though. Arcanum was a starting off point, not much could be expected of it, and it still got some rave reviews. At ToEE was really just a "give-me" job. Sure, Troika put effort into it but it isn't like it was something planned a few years in advance like most traditional games. They were able to piece together parts of a game that would have been scrapped and managed to make something out of it.

But there's still hope, Ratty. Troika's other RPG, The Masquerade which is based on the eminent Half-Life 2 engine, seems rather good at this point. I wouldn't give up on Troika altogether just yet. Who knows, Vampire: The Masquerade could be their redeeming factor. I know that I, at least, will still give them a try.

-End of Rant, so Speakth The Gunslinger

 

[Ratty Sr.]

Yeah, there might still be hope for Troika. I haven't given up on them entirely, but their next game better be über-good. I'm actually looking forward to a decent Vampire game. I played Vampire The Masquerade: Redemption and pretty much hated it, but hopefully Troika will manage not to screw up Bloodlines. Half Life 2 engine? At least graphics will be great...

 

[Volourn]

Arcanum is great; TOEE is okay.

However, I hate when people give all (or most) of the credit to FO's greta quality to Mr. Cain. He was simply one of many people who worked on it.

I hope Troika's game after Vampire (which I have almost no interest in what-so-ever) combines the great things about Arcanum (story, writing, and role-playing) with TOEE's great things (combat, combat, and the most accurate D&D rules yet)...

 

[DarkCorp]

Arcanum would have been better if they had more weapons graphics and effects. I mean the flame thrower looks exactly like the repeating rifle, except the shot that comes out is a bit different.

I realise Fallout 1 and 2 were old games, but I want to have different weapon graphics for the weapon I wield. I hate seeing the flamethhrower shoot out a laser when the laser rifle shoots out a laser.