Anybody know what Troika Games is up to, post ARCANUM?

[Anonymous]

According to their website, they recently hired a bunch of employees to help them develop two new games.

Any scuttlebutt out there regarding these new games?

I'm glad that they are still in the fight, as I gathered the reaction to Arcanum was somewhat disappointing (were sales disappointing as well?). I think they are creative guys and definitely want to see what they come up with next, as long as it's not an adaptation of any books by Anne McCafferty.

[Murph]

I loved Arcanum, and look forward to their next game, but their lips are sealed, tight.

Which is not to say that nobody around here knows anything, but I don't. I'm certainly eager to see what it is, though.

[mtkafka]

Rumor I hear is....

Shadowrun. In 3d. With freeform open ended crpg gameplay ala Fallout meets Xcom. Actually I made that up. But thats what I want them to make.

And Arcanum was the best crpg last year... after Wizardry 8 that is.

etc

[Anonymous]

They're doing a Crocodile Hunter licensed game.

Pretty original concept, actually, similar to the new movie. Guide Steve and Terry through the outback rescuing various animals while uncovering clues about a mysterious "black helicopter"-type team that's been pursuing them and kidnapping endangered animals.

It's Discovery channel-sponsored, so it should be fairly serious. No talking Koalas or anything.

[Dave Long]

Crikey!

[Sharpe]

Although the game engine, character system, and combat mechanics of Arcanum all had their faults, the truly incredible game world, Troika style, and FallOut type quest system really made Arcanum a winner in my opinion.

I would REALLY like to see Troika further develop their game world. They could refine their character system and combat mechanics and license one of the numerous good engines and write a new plot and I would be all over that :).

I'm not sure what Arcanum sold but it seems likely that it at least recouped its investment given that it did not plunge into bargain bins ASAP. So I'm hoping Troika will give us either sequels or other games in that vein.

Dan

[Robert Sharp]

Kafka, please tell me that is a real rumor (not something you made up...write to them...make it real!). I would love to see a Shadowrun game. I enjoyed both of the previous Shadowrun games, and I think a PC version, similar to Fallout, would be incredible!

[Martinez]

Damn mtkafka! You had me excited there for a moment! Damn you!

WHY has no one recently made a Multiplayer Shadowrun CRPG!

I'm a bigtime tabletop Shadowrun fan! Something to quickly handle the Matrix (and not leave the street sams twiddling their thumbs), magic rules, and all those d6 dice!!!

[Robert Sharp]

I don't need it to be multiplayer at all, but a solid single player shadowrun game, where I can lead a party, and also have some actualy vehicle combat for riggers, and some drones, and cool magic, with summoned spirits/elementals. Oh, I would LOVE that!

[Alan Au]

Arcanum would have been a great game if it had been released in 1997! That said, I'd be interested to see what Troika is up to now and whether they have learned anything from their Arcanum debacle.

- Alan

[Anonymous]

"Arcanum would have been a great game if it had been released in 1997!"

I don't know how much weight I put on such comments.

One of the more popular games of the same year was, I believe, Rollercoaster Tycoon, which had dated graphics.

I play and enjoy classic games all the time, so I guess I have a hard time getting upset that the latest trilinear filtering methods haven't been employed in a given game. If the game is good and can run on my system, I don't care when it was released.

[Jason McCullough]

The problem with Arcanum wasn't the graphics. It was really unpolished, the character class system made no sense, it wasn't big enough, the items were mostly useless, etc., etc.

[Alan Au]

I should clarify. I wasn't referring solely to the the graphics. Admittedly they were a major sticking point for me, not because they didn't look nice, but because they weren't functional. For example, one of my biggest peeves was getting lost in Tarant and having to spend hours navigating by clicking on street signs. I'm going to complain about attention to detail, not that there wasn't a lot of detail, but because it hampered gameplay. I almost feel that there were too many little complexities that didn't add to the game. I wouldn't have been surprised if they had required you to manually make your characters eat food or tailor your clothes to fit properly. Granted, I'm exaggerating to make the point, but the takeaway is that I found the game too tedious to enjoy properly.

- Alan

[Murph]

Actually, I did run into several times where I couldn't find clothes for my halfling of half-orc character. That sucked.

[Anonymous]

Murph, Mark Asher has you way beat on posts now! :)

[Murph]

Wow!! Yes, yes he does. Might have to do something about that...

Nah, not really. No big deal. I've remembered again just how much I like spending time with my wife, so she gets most of my attention these days. :)

Still, there's plenty of time at work...

[Rob_Merritt]

I've heard that one of the titles Troika is doing an update to one of Sierra's older titles.

I just hope that one of the titles is an RPG. :)

[mtkafka]

My posts shall return... I am in the top 10 still. Mark Asher is evil at the top. PADDING MY POSTCOUNT NOW! :P

etc

[Greg Vederman]

Jason McCullough: "the character class system made no sense, it wasn't big enough, the items were mostly useless, etc., etc."

-------------------

I don't think I agree with most of that, Jason. I didn’t have any real trouble getting my head around the character class system. Did anyone else? As for size, if I recall, Arcanum was certainly "bigger" than Neverwinter Nights in terms gameplay hours. And when it came to all those "useless" items, I'd say a great deal of that had to do with the game’s diverse character classes. I do, however, tend to agree with the “etc., etc.” portion of your criticism. ;)

All in all, despite its problems, Arcanum really stands out for me as one of the best RPGs of the last several years. I enjoyed it as much as either of the two Fallout games, and more than either of the two Baldur's Gates. Then again, as stated elsewhere on the board, I may (or may not) be… a crack smoker. :)

-Vederman

[Jason McCullough]

Jason McCullough: "the character class system made no sense, it wasn't big enough, the items were mostly useless, etc., etc."

-------------------

I don't think I agree with most of that, Jason. I didn’t have any real trouble getting my head around the character class system. Did anyone else? As for size, if I recall, Arcanum was certainly "bigger" than Neverwinter Nights in terms gameplay hours. And when it came to all those "useless" items, I'd say a great deal of that had to do with the game’s diverse character classes. I do, however, tend to agree with the “etc., etc.” portion of your criticism. ;)

All in all, despite its problems, Arcanum really stands out for me as one of the best RPGs of the last several years. I enjoyed it as much as either of the two Fallout games, and more than either of the two Baldur's Gates. Then again, as stated elsewhere on the board, I may (or may not) be… a crack smoker. :)

-Vederman

I wish I could explain what annoyed me about the game so much. I finished it, but I was pretty disgusted with it by the end. Oh, that's right: it had some wierd bug that made the scrolling unbelievably slow that they didn't fix for a month. The quests were all amazingly pointless, too; you didn't get anything useful for them, and the writing wasn't good enough to make them fun in of themselves.

[Anonymous]

I just hated the combat system. Completely, totally, utterly hated it. It was dull and unexciting in the way that only stuffy American RPG developers can truly make them.

I take that back - the Germans made those Realms of Arkania games. Why can't we get the smarts and emergent play of a good Western RPG, but with a Jap RPG's visual panache?

[Kevin Perry]

I take that back - the Germans made those Realms of Arkania games. Why can't we get the smarts and emergent play of a good Western RPG, but with a Jap RPG's visual panache?

Wasn't that what Anachronox was supposed to be?

Not being snarky, since I didn't play it, but I do remember that being one of the driving forces behind its design.

[Anonymous]

"I've heard that one of the titles Troika is doing an update to one of Sierra's older titles."


It's going to be a steampunk version of Police Quest IV.

[xahlt]

I'll be honest, I absolutely in every way WANTED to like Arcanum. I liked the setting, I liked the open ended quality ala Fallout. But I just didn't like the game.

So I'm hoping one of those games in Arcanum 2 (right, and come on, the chances have to be pretty good for that) and they use the same engine. Not that the engine was appealing but I think they need to spend time on making the game absolutely fun, which for me, the first one wasn't. And I would be so happy for that to happen.

[Mark Asher]

I got turned off right at the start of Arcanum when that annoying NPC kept badgering me. I had a dialog tree and one of the choices was for him to leave me alone. I picked that, but he followed me anyway. Why did Troika tease me like that?

[Robert Sharp]

I thought Arcanum was a great game, for about 15-20 hours or so. Then it got real tedious. As a mage type, I was way too powerful. I have heard that as a tech type, the opposite tended to be true. At any rate, the combat could have been WAY better, especially the use of AP, which made no sense. Did anyone know how that worked? I felt like I was just running up to people and hitting them. Ranged weapons/spells never helped much because the baddies got to you in one turn every time. I don't know why they didn't use the Fallout system, straight out. In fact, the Fallout games (2 in particular) had better graphics, IMO, plus better story, combat, character development, and the etc.s listed above, plus a few etc.s of my own! I never even got to find the article I wrote for the game because I stopped playing.

Still, I would love to see a sequel.

[Mark Asher]

"In fact, the Fallout games (2 in particular) had better graphics...."

I was shocked the first time I saw Arcanum in person. The art just looked bad. I know one of the founders was one of the lead artists, but they need some new art direction. The game was poorly animated too.

[mtkafka]

I think Arcanum's graphics were fine. Like I said before... if you didn't mind Fallout's graphics, I dont see how you can have a problem with Arcanum's. I can see that Arcanum was 'behind the times' graphically... but it wasn't 'butt ugly'.

Ah well, opinions I guess.

etc

[Murph]

I can see that Arcanum was 'behind the times' graphically... but it wasn't 'butt ugly'.

That depends on the butt, really, doesn't it?

[algahar]

Shadowrun. In 3d. With freeform open ended crpg gameplay ala Fallout meets Xcom.


that would totally kick ass ! :shock: