One of my most treasured YouTube videos is This weird 2007 number From a man with 15 followers and the handle “FilmNoir82”. A tech demo of an unreleased post-apocalyptic RPG (music ripped from below). David Lynch’s 1984 Dune) Troika Games is a beloved but short-lived studio founded by former Fallout developers Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky, and Jason Anderson.
The demo looks like another interpretation of Fallout in full 3D, unlike Black Isle’s “Van Buren” prototype for Fallout 3 and Bethesda’s vision of the setting afterward. While it appears to play primarily in an isometric perspective, the demo also shows players zooming into a first-person perspective, potentially allowing for both immersive first-person exploration and zoomed-out tactical combat. .
I always interpreted this demo as a troika attacking Fallout 3 before Bethesda auctioned off the license. A vlog on his always informative YouTube channel, Troika co-founder Tim Kaine revealed that the project would have been completely unique. Kane doesn’t know the exact details, but he put a lot of work into the project, codenamed “Epic,” and before the team shifted gears to creating bespoke settings, Fallout’s license was in the hands of Troika. It seemed out of reach.
And that setting will sound Extremely. Epic was supposed to be set in a world similar to ours in many ways, except that, according to Kane, a planetary ring and multiple moons would cause “crazy tides.” Whether this world was a human space colony or another fantasy universe will probably be revealed in the main his quest in the game itself, along with the reason for the post-apocalyptic state.
The Epic world includes the Magic City Empire, the Barbarian of the North, Wardens of Rust, and Bogmen All are vying for control of undeveloped territories. Instead of choosing a class, a character’s starting skills and attributes are determined by their clan and background, in a manner similar to Arcanum and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines.
Epic would have had an interesting skill system. The skill system is divided into combat, social, bandit and magic categories and would have been limited to the skill tree provided by your background choice. However, characters can break into new skill trees by stepping into doors with her crossover skills. For example, if you started with stealing, the Intimidation skill would have crossed over with combat, and an investment in Intimidation would have opened up the possibility of weapons training.
Unfortunately, Troika did not successfully sell Epic to publishers and the studio closed in early 2005. Most of all, it’s the Epic setting that fires my imagination. Gradually it becomes clear that this very familiar world is very alien. It’s a good reminder of how Disco Elysium’s outlandish familiarity belies its alternative physics and history. It also reminds me that the apocalypse in fantasy and distant sci-fi worlds is far more engaging than the boring old I Am Legend or The Division. ”Street cool guys grown tactically in plain clothes“Landscape.
Tell us about D&D’s Dark Sun setting, Arkane’s first game. Arcus Fatalis, or the upcoming indie RPG Dread Delusion, where you can play something similar to The Last of Us any time of the day. As another window into another timeline where Troika didn’t die, Tim Kaine also recently revealed that the company had its own pitch for Baldur’s Gate in his 2003, three years before him. Did.