Interview Bloodlines Q&A at Troika Chronicles

[Whipporowill]

Tags: Troika Games; Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

Yet another <a href="http://www.troikachronicles.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=10" target=_blank>interview</a> with Troika's Leonard Boyarsky has surfaced today - this time it's the <a href="http://www.troikachronicles.com/index.php" target=_blank>Troika Chronicles</a> Michael Wolf that's doing the questioning. Here's Leons take on affecting the endgame:
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<blockquote><b>Troika Chronicles:</b> Can you tell us something about freedom of choice in Bloodlines? In other Action-RPGs like Deus Ex Invisible War, the choices you make are often almost irrelevant for the flow of the game, and the different endings were decided only minutes before the actual end of the game. Will decisions in the first minutes of playing Bloodlines have effect on the ending?
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<b>Leonard Boyarsky:</b> This is a tricky question to answer. The main overarching storyline seems to steamroll you forward in Bloodlines, regardless of your choices, as you are caught up in something bigger than you. The freedom comes into play when your choices as to how you react to your circumstances, how you treat NPCs, and how you approach your quests in the game. Your actions can definitely change the outcome of some of the main story arc quests, but you are definitely given the feeling you’re involved in something beyond your control. Eventually you begin to see the culmination of the choices you have made, which will determine the outcome of the whole game. I wouldn’t say choices made in the first few minutes will have an effect on the ending, but by the middle of the game your choices are definitely going to affect your options as the game draws to a close.
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</blockquote>Sounds about ok to me - as long as my choices matter linearity ain't <b>THAT</b> hard to stomach. Thanks to <b>Michael Wolf</b> himself for the heads up!

 

[Nightjed]

im sorry but "you are definitely given the feeling you’re involved in something beyond your control" sounds like "good or evil, transexual or hobostarved, youll still get the same quests, options and endings" to me

edit: and "This is a tricky question to answer" sounds like "i want to say no but that would make us look bad"
if its linear just say so instead of trying to sweeten it up, we will find out anyway

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Well, I'm still nuts for it!

 

[RGE]

I've thought about stuff like this, and I think it might be possible to design a game like this to have several situations during the game where choices matter, but the player doesn't get to see how they matter, because what happens is that the game totals the various choices that's been made and checks which ending they would lead to. That way it would be linear, but still change itself depending on the choices. I'm not sure if the Bladerunner game did it that way, but I wouldn't be surprised.

 

[Shevek]

It sounds like Deus Ex except instead of just making a single choice near the end to get your ending it calculates your ending and some of the late game play from a bunch of little choices. I like that. I just hope the game manages to have the level of choice per hub that Deus Ex had. You could approach some levels in radically different ways depending on which routes you decide to take to your objective. The gameplay Ive seen (which seems like typical scripted and linear level design + boss fights) has not reflected this and it is the thing I am chiefly concerned over.

 

[Jed]

I got through Deus Ex by sniping from the all-powerful air conditioning ducts.

 

[Shevek]

I didnt find too many air ducts in DX1 (quite few actually; only really prevalent in that one hostage situation in the subway and just before) but if it has as many as DX:IW I will be pretty displeased.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

I got through Deus Ex by sniping from the all-powerful air conditioning ducts.

I found it pretty funny how everyone was dying out there fighting the NSF and all i had to do was go trough a ventilation and open the doors to the subway when the hostages were completely unguarded and standing right next to them themselves.

Out of spite, i killed everyone in the station on my next playtrough.

 

[suibhne]

I didnt find too many air ducts in DX1 (quite few actually; only really prevalent in that one hostage situation in the subway and just before) but if it has as many as DX:IW I will be pretty displeased.

There were ducts in later levels, as well. Really, they were all over the damn place. Still, DX:IW gets a 6.0 from the Russian judge when it comes to ductwork.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

DX IW sucks my fat hairy balls. This will be much better from the previews.

 

[Jora]

if its linear just say so instead of trying to sweeten it up, we will find out anyway

The game could be linear and still allow you to make choices that have big effect on the story. I think it has pretty much been confirmed that Bloodlines is linear. We just don't know whether the player's choices matter or not.

 

[Surlent]

Has Troika devs said there would be multiple endings like other Troika products have ?

Multiple solutions to quests are quarenteed, though they might depend a lot of the class, err I mean the discipline or something.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I think they said multiple endings were in.

 

[suibhne]

I think they said multiple endings were in.

They said something coy like, "It will have all the hallmarks of a Troika game - like multiple solutions, etc."