Arcanum: of Steamworks & Magick Obscura
Rating:  -
After nearly a decade of not playing CRPGs, I can honestly say that Arcanum sucked me back into the CRPG world. What makes Arcanum great is the flexibility. You can choose to be good, evil, start out good and become evil later (or vice versa - although becoming evil is a bit harder to recover from), become a technologist, or a mage or neither, or a bit of both. What seperates this game from many of its predecessors is the lack of restraints. You don't feel like you MUST do quest A then B then C. You can blunder around aimlessly and pick up a plethora of side quests that have branches of their own.
Another thing to note is the cleverness of the world created and the mystery of the main plot kept me guessing all the way until the end. The atmosphere of the game is unique that has been cleverly adapted with a combination of Victorian England meets the Wild West. The story is not lacking or flat and the dialogue allows you to be as gallant, devious, or just plain ornery as you want to be. The main shortcomings of this game really are the odd tendency to CTD (crash to desktop), so save early and often to avoid losing much. The other shortcoming is the pathfinding of the NPCs leaves a bit to be desired. All in all a very nifty game with a brilliant world that has few constraints. As an aside, their are some clever little mods out there that can enhance the gameplay experience. The most useful of which are those that allow your character to continue to grow and gain experience. The game, as shipped, caps your character at level 50. During my first go, I found myself only 80% through the main quest before I found out that I couldn't advance my character further in experience.
Rating: -
I knew i had to buy this when I first began reading about it back in 2000. The setting just sounded so great. A fantasy world, but one having an industrial revolution. In other words, your typical fantasy world, turned upside down.
The game doesn't disappoint.
First off, the character creation system is very cool. Completely classless, which while initially rather daunting, is very deep and fun to use. Basically, your stats determine your ability to train in skills. When you level up, you receive 1 point, and every five levels, you receive 2. These can be spent on skills, stats, spells or schematics. For example, if you want to become proficient with melee weapons, you must raise your dexterity accordingly, and the spend points in the Melee skill. if you want to hit harder, you raise your Strength stats.
You can play as a Male/Female Human, Male/Female Elf, Male/Female half-Elf, Male/Female half-orc, Male half-Ogre, Male Halfling, Male Dwarf and Male Gnome. I didn't like that you couldn't play as a female for several of the races, but the reasoning is explained for some in the manual and in the game. Still, it was disappointing.
If you fancy magic, you can use, it though the spells are often not as fun as the ones in D&D 3.5. Still, the spells are cool, and have intersting effects. Excpet the elemental cantrips. They make annoying constantly playing noise (especially Strength of Earth). But anyway, magic is a path you can follow; in order to use magic, you must raise your Willpower stat accordingly. High intelligence also benefits a spellcaster, in order to maintain more spells at once. Instead of having your character's magic increase in power when you level up, in Arcanum, your magical apptitude increases when you learn more spells. This makes as much sense as the D&D system, so i like it. There are 16 Colleges of Magic.
If magic isn't for you... you can become a technologist. Based on your intelligence score, you can aquire schematics when you level up; schematics allow you to combine items and create new ones. You can create guns, armor, potions, etc. You can also buy schematics in stores, and learn to build equipment by using things you can already make, and combine them. There are eight technological disciplines, inclduing Blacksmithy, Electrical, Chemical and Explosives. Each have their own benefits and playing style.
Arcanum also has an excellent story. You are appparently the reincarnation of a powerful elven wizard, destined to fight a great evil. All I will say is that the plot leaves you guessing until the very end.
NPCs follow you around, and can be given certain instructions, like Back Off, Wait, Walk to X Location, etc. by right clicking their portrait. The commands don't always work due to some fun bugs, but this doesn't happen often. NPC interaction is not as complicated as in Knights of the Old Republic, but is still good. A few have voices, but not all. The more interesting ones generally are the ones with a voice, like Magnus, or Virgil. Some even have a story you can complete, again, Magnus and Virgil, and a few others.
Combat is a mixed bag at times, but fun. In Arcanum, you can choose to use a turn based or a real-time form of combat. Stick to turn based. The real-time setting is poorly developed with no pause button, or round system like in Knights of the Old Republic and other real time games. Combat tends to favor melee fighters, which can be disappointing. Bullets and arrows are assigned weight in this game, which is realistic, but it hampers gameplay. It is also harder to play as a gunslinger, at least in my opinion. This isn't to say its not fun. The most amusing weapon to unleash on enemies is the Mechanized Gun, followed by the Pyrotechnic Axe.
The sound is well done, with my favorite effect being a dying lich. The weakest effects are the "crowd sounds" you hear in bars. They say the same thing over and over.
The graphics are now quite dated, but acceptable. They get the job done, but it wouldn't have killed Troika to include more character models. Even (yuck) Baldur's Gate let you customize your character's looks.
There are several bugs, some of them annoying, and a few can crash the game. Save often, and you'll be fine. There is a patch available.
Overall Arcanum is an excellent game, and I recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone who enjoys RPGs, fantasy, or in my case, those who enjoy science fiction or alternate history. It has something for everyone. I got addicted to CRPGs thanks to Arcanum.
Rating: -
I was introduced to Arcanum by a friend of mine, who often spoke praise for it. I installed it, opened it, and watched the CG of the the blimp crash (loved the fanciful "heavier-than-air" machines). From the moment I met Virgil well on to going to Tarant, I found I couldn't stop playing.
Why was this game so addictive? Perhaps just the replayability Arcanum has! I'm guessing there are ten different side-quests in small towns, thirty in the major cities, and each one has different outcomes depending on how you handle it. Dialogue is very flexible, and fits the personality of every one. For example, let's say you meet a flower girl in a town who offers a flower. You can respond with:
- "Yes, thank you. [pay her]"
- "No."
- "That flower would look better in your skull."
And no that last part wasn't put in for good humor - you actually HAVE responses like that! They're not always as severe, but if you like being a crabby old man, this is your game. Another friend of mine (one who would join the Dark Side gladly) went through the game constantly using those responses. Yes even the ones for Virgil.
Character development is also a MAJOR aspect of this game, and another reason it is so replayable. Besides the fact you can choose to be a magic user, a tech user, or a bit of both Column A and B, you can also get blessed, curse, get good (or bad) reputation with towns, and also choose your "background" at the beginning of the game, which will determine your skill or disposition. I should warn you if you choose to go magic, technology users will begin to shy away from you, as it is believed high levels of "magick" will cause mechanisms to burst. One character of mine became such a heavy user of magic that they wouldn't even let me ride the train any more! So I killed them...
You also get a good number of people who can join your party. You can choose to boot them or let them stay (even Virgil), and quite often that is determined on your character's Good or Evil rating. I played a character with a high Good level and was told by one person she couldn't join me because I was so "morally inclined."
So with out a doubt, this is probably the most fun RPG I've played yet. It really does make me feel like I'm inside a fantasy world, and I'm pretty sure they spent a good amount of time on this. If you want to find an RPG with a different world than what you're used too, or you're ticked off they aren't releasing "Fable" for the PC, then I suggest you give this game a try.
Rating: -
Arcanum is a great mix of the worlds of fantasy and middle-ages, and of magic and technology. The story is very interesting and kept me playing straight through. The vast customization of you character is pretty impressive. Since I don't normally play PC RPGs (or any PC games period), I highly suggest ARCANUM for everyone and anyone who likes video games.
Rating:  -
I could talk forever about this game on what it did right and what it did wrong, but suffice to say it's a good game, but nothing special. It was an incredibly ambitious project for a tiny development team -- they wanted you to be able to be a human, elf, dwarf and more; fighter, wizard, thief, technologist, and more and any combination of those; and good, neutral or evil -- all in an incredibly huge game world that includes both real-time and turn-based combat, multiplayer and the ability to construct your own gameworld.
Well that's very impressive. But they didn't quite pull it off.
What happens when you have such a huge project like that and such a small development team is that everything gets stretched THIN. You have good parts here and there, but a lot of stuff that is pretty average and needed a lot more work. The combat system is bland. Many of the towns feel ... empty. And probably the most disappointing thing, the dialogue lacks the witty banter from the Fallouts. In addition to being fairly humorless, you're typically only given the chance be polite or to pick a fight. The best parts of the game are the areas right along the main story path.
But where Arcanum fails to live up to Fallout the most is just in the feel of the game. The atmosphere isn't there. Something about Fallout -- the sound of wind blowing across the desolate wasteland, the eerie music, the feeling of dread while walking through the failure of human civilization, feeling utterly alone at times -- the whole thing felt REAL. When you started up the game, you were in it. Arcanum does not replicate that feeling.
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