These days, almost every game is a roleplaying game. You collect and upgrade loot in shooters. You progress through skill trees in stealthy action-adventures. And you earn experience points in basically every genre under the sun.
But it wasn’t always this way – there was a time when RPGs stood apart. Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, for instance, was marked out by a strong connection to the world of tabletop roleplaying, a heavy emphasis on player choice and problem-solving, and a quality of writing that often towered above what the rest of the industry had to offer.
Which makes it all the more tragic, then, that it was the game that ultimately led to the demise of its developer. Bloodlines was a game that was so ambitious – so ahead of its time – that it killed the studio that sired it.
New blood
Troika Games may not be a household name today, but the studio was home to roleplaying royalty. Founded by three of the key members of the Fallout and Fallout 2 development teams, Troika’s output included The Temple of Elemental Evil, an RPG based on a classic Dungeons & Dragons scenario, but it was the strikingly original Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura that really earned Troika a reputation.
Like most RPGs of the time, however, these games made use of a zoomed-out, isometric perspective. For its next game, the team at Troika wanted to place players face-to-face with its cast of characters. And when publishing partner Activision suggested that Troika create a followup to Nihilistic Software’s well-received Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption, Bloodlines began to take shape.
But while the direction was clear, the development proved difficult. One issue was the decision to make use of the Source Engine, which was still in …read more
Source:: GOG – Good Old Games
