Domain Name Com's Arcanum: of Steamworks & Magick Obscura

Arcanum: of Steamworks & Magick Obscura

Domain Name Com's - : Arcanum: of Steamworks & Magick Obscura

- Nothing Short of Epic (but look out for the learning curve)
I almost stopped playing Arcanum before I'd really begun because the interface was so intricate and...uh...arcane. This is not a game one can simply hop into without reading the manual. After a few frustrating false starts, I got the hang of it, and the fun began to commence.

The range of choice in this game is staggering. You can use a pre-made charcter, or create an entirely new one, and fully customize either. The maps are expansive and full of goodies, and there's no penalty for simply wandering around and collecting quests that don't particularly drive the main storyline. Depending on how you interact with people, and what quests you take, your character's good/evil alignment can change, opening different options and quests.

There were a couple issues that caused the game to rate at a 4 rather than a 5 overall: (downloading the patch from the Arcanum website seems to have solved some of them) Most of the problems seemed to be with non-player party members--occasionally someone wandered away from the party into the thick of enemy territory to pick up a random old pair of boots (!?) or something of the like, and I had to dive in and rescue them from the hoarde of baddies they'd just trundled obliviously through. Also, a couple of times the NPCs noticed an enemy behind a wall, they all clustered there, unresponsive, waiting to fight, until I picked a lock to open a door or ran around back and killed the enemy myself. Frustrating.

Despite these few annoyances, Arcanum has infinite replay value, and I *highly* recommend it to anyone looking for an incredibly flexible RPG with an immersive story and intricately crafted world.

Rating:

- Involved Gaming - complex ? ... worth the learning curve !
I don't want to rehash what everyone else said. I agree with their reviews. This is a wonderful game. Can be a bit overwhelming, but with patience, you will "enjoy the ride".
I wanted to inform those looking to purchase this fine game, you can find the game/new at eBay, fifty% cheaper(...I paid twelve bucks) than what the new marketplace sellers are requesting. If you need a manual, you can download a .pdf version some 100+ pages long. Do due dilligence and you won't regret it.

Rating:

- A nice refreshing break from hack and slash RPG's.
First things first, I LOVED ARCANUM. Man it was so nice to have a decent RPG come out that was not centered around hack and slash. Not to bash Diablo or anything but the repetive hacking can get old and with a background story that does not care what you do leaves me wanting just a little bit more. Thats where Aracnum comes in. It basically takes the best of Fallout and puts it into a richly detailed and unique fantasy world. The beginning of the game was very good and had some nice hooks to draw me in. And then after that it didn't let up and I had to keep playing to figure out more of the cool story, complete all the cool quests and see the new areas. I absolutely loved the alternate situations throughout the game. I believe that is one of the biggest things that made the Arcanum game stand out from all its predecessors. And another cool thing was that if you beat the game with one character you could replay it with another character and have a brand new experience. The only drawback I had with the game was the level limit. I reached level 50 way before the end of the game and found myself running from almost every random encounter because I could not reach a higher level and it was getting real boring beating up every monster that came after you. And another drawback I found was the ease with which the end guy could be beaten. I expected a very tough enemy, but it only took me two tries to beat him down. The first so I could see what he was all about and the second to counteract all his moves and put the smackdown on him. But those are very minor details and the overall game was a satisfying RPG experience. I hope to see more types of these RPG's in the future and less action oriented RPG's. Sorry action fans, RPG does stand for Role Playing Game which means playing a role not clicking a mouse button as fast as you can. Maybe they should come out with a new genre Hack and Slash and keep it seperated from RPG.

Rating:

- Sleeper masterpiece, but missing a few touches
Arcanum is a good example of a sleeper hit on the PC RPG genre. Although many have forgotten, or have not even heard of it, it DID win 2001 RPG Year of the Award and other accolades from various sources. And at $9.99 (without shipping/handling), it's quite the bargain as well.

Arcanum's strong points lie in its original concepts, well crafted storyline and well scripted events. Betrayal abounds, and it's hard to know who to trust.

Arcanum was the first major game to offer two different sides in the form of technology and magic. Wield a nice automatic gun, or maybe a tranquilizer rifle. Or become a stuffy mage, carry a flaming sword, and send bolts of lightning out of your fingertips. Teleport yourself to distant lands, or ride the train.

The game is also very imaginative in terms of character interaction. If your mage becomes too powerful, the railroad conductor may eventually not even let you on the train, for fear that the warping of reality around you will damage the machine. The world is quite realistic- there are tailors, ordinary folk who just live in houses, blacksmiths, guards, etc. Some things will only happen at night. And unlike many other senseless RPGs, if you break into someone's house in plain view, it IS a crime. You want something valuable in that house? Sneak in through the shadows!

Arcanum is just an amazing game. The number of characters you can develop is startling, and the dialogue options available for each character are equally so. They range from the normal, to the cautious, to the sarcastic, to the outright absurd (i.e. "You're too nice. You have to die now.")

The spellcraft in Arcanum has been impleneted very originally. Casting a spell causes fatigue instead of mana, and spells actually will cost a certain amount of fatigue to upkeep, which allows for many interesting balances between technology and magic. Gun runners will never be afraid of suddenly getting too tired, and just running out of spells. On the other hand, they will be quite afraid of running out of bullets.

Of course, a game as ambitious as Arcanum also comes with several weaknesses as a result. Like any other pioneer in its field, Arcanum has a few pitfalls that kept it off the wish lists of some players. Arcanum has a steep learning curve unless you played a similarly styled interface (e.g. Diablo II).

Second, technological characters will find their time more difficult than the spellcasters because in the early game, they have to search everywhere- even garbage bins- for enough components to build decent weaponry. This perpetual scavenge hunt can quickly tire some less advanced players.

Third, some spells are simply too good. Disintegrate for instance, simply destroys the enemy monster. There is no equivalent for this on the tech side, and even if there was, it'd still be quite "broken" and unfair. There is no challenge in simply walking up to a boss monster and simply playing one spell that knocks it away into oblivion.

Another major complaint is that combat in Arcanum is too biased towards melee. Oftentimes the person who survives is neither the mage nor the techie, but the ogre who's got some good armor and a really, really big sword. Ranged weapons, as a general rule, are quite weak. The ones that aren't (i.e. explosive grenades are sort of good) are usually rare, even the components for them.

Last but not least, the controls in Arcanum are a bit clunky and the way the world map works is counter-intuitive. The game slows down periodically for little reason, even on fast systems, which suggests that the programmers may not have written entirely efficient code. Anyway, look at the advantages and disadvantages, and invent your own rating.

P.S. Arcanum does not support Windows XP officially. You have been warned. It may or may not work, depending on your specific PC. Also, some computers with older CPU's will have problems with their 3d acceleration. Try safe mode. Worked for me.

Rating:

- Load times aren't that bad
Ok let me start by saying this is a very good game, you have tons of quests and your charter is very customizable.

Ok ived read alot of reviews on this site and they all seem to say this game has long load time well it dosen't. It dose however have alot of stops in the game(while your battleing or try to cast alot of spells in a row) but if you have alot of ram you won't have that problem.(when i first got the game i had only 256 mb ram and had alot of stops while playing, but after i upgraded to a 1 gb of ram i didn't have the stoping problem anymore.)So if you computer is decent like mine you shouldn't have any major problems playing this game.

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