a bloody valentine for Troika

Last week a forum post announcing the liquidation of Troika's former offices made an appearance. Many (myself included) thought this was some kind of joke, but in the back of my mind I knew that the financial and critical success of Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines was dubious at best. Based on confirmation by the lead programmer of Bloodlines, Troika has all but been dissolved with many of its team members having joined other studios. This would explain the lengthy response for a patch for Bloodlines, as well as its focus on only critical bug fixes. Gamespot picked up on the rumour late last week, with Troika co-CEO Leonard Boyarksky performing damage control with the words "we wish that post hadn't gotten out". Though an official announcement about the studio's status is due at the end of the month, I've since surrendered to these accounts as truth.

Born out of members from the team that developed Fallout, Troika's first published game was the cautiously received RPG Arcanum. Set in a kind of gaslight or "steampunk" setting that mixed traditional fantasy with the industrial, Arcanum had a detailed and unique character creation system, and a refreshingly original world to adventure in. Temple of Elemental Evil, though a poor game, contained the most rigorous interpretation of the Dungeons and Dragons ruleset I'd ever played. But like those whimsical tabletop sessions of yesteryear where memories of that one player constantly banging his fist on the tattered copy of the Player's Handbook keep interfering, you easily lose sight of what made it fun in the first place. Plus the voice acting was fucking terrible.

I'll readily admit that Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines was completely covered in weeping sores, but underneath that slippery exterior is the best game I played last year. Combat may have been flawed, but the adventure presented within was something I will hold close as one of my most favourite gaming experiences. To think that Troika had been developing their own post-apocolyptic game, that now along with Van Buren will probably sink to the bottom of the ocean of unfinished games.

I'll miss Troika. I'll miss them because I know that CRPGs are slowly drifting towards action-oriented affairs; the stuff is guaranteed to sell. Troika was never known for delivering a polished product, but I'll always stand fast to the belief that they had some of the best ideas for roleplaying games. The games industry can be very unforgiving when you expect them to accept an unfinished product in stride. Maybe if they had a little room to breathe, we would have seen Troika mature into a Blizzard or a Firaxis - genre leaders in an industry full of copycats and publisher focus groups. But given where this industry is headed, I think we all knew Troika's demise was inevitable.

one more song to slay this earth