Posted July 11, 2014
So I wrote a piece about this game because I had a second and Word open and really like talking about this game. But since GOG seems to have adopted a twitter-like philosophy on character limits, I had to hack pretty much every limb off of the thing to make it fit into 1500 characters.
Not wanting to waste the thoughts completely, I figured I'd post it here. Sorry for cluttering up the feed for self-indulgent reasons, but I thought that the whole aesthetics discussion is a cool one, and people might possibly be interested. And maybe prospective newbies to the game will even find it useful!
Here's a good jumping-off point for the idea of aesthetics (and just a great video article in general):
http://extra-credits.net/episodes/graphics-vs-aesthetics/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------
Title: Decent Mechanics; Incredible Aesthetics; Entirely Unique and Unforgettable.
*ahem* okay, here we go.
Arcanum is an aesthetic masterpiece.
Most reviews prominently feature discussions of graphics, writing, combat mechanics, etc. - and this one will too - but I think it's important to note, first and foremost, is a less discrete quality that is often ignored when discussing the merits of games. The cohesion, depth, and beautiful craftsmanship of Arcanum is what made me fall in love with it. The game is set in an original Tolkien/Steampunk universe in which magick (with a k!) and technology are diametrically opposed, warring natural phenomena whose dynamic is rapidly shifting with the arrival of an industrial age. The game’s setting weaves together the best elements from both genres, placing echoes of an era of elven high magic amidst the bustle of modern human cities. The world politics mix themes of Industrial-Revolution-era urbanization with those of crumbling kingdoms reminiscent of the fall of Japan’s Fedudal age, all within a grander scheme of divine influence and impending apocalypse. The imagery the story provides ranges from fantastical natural vistas to gritty, well-traveled streets, and provides the player with the impression that the world is even more complex and widely diverse than it was programmed to be. The characters are, for the most part, interesting and distinctive, and are strongly connected to their environment. And this entire aesthetic is underscored by the strikingly unusual background music: a string quartet playing simple but beautiful compositions with a faint Americana color, complex contrapuntal harmonies, and the stylistic richness of Romanticism (a friend heard it and described it to me as “like Dvořák, when he was in America,” which is pretty apt.)
Everything I describe above coalesces into this intangible quality, “aesthetic,” which is far and away Arcanum’s strong point. I can’t quite pinpoint what delights me when I see my marker move across the old parchment map during travel and the main theme starts to fade in, or when I finally have earned the ability to craft that new period firearm that I wanted, or when I can outsmart poachers with my knowledge and my persuasion, but it’s a powerful force of imagination, and it sets this game apart from every one of the cookie-cutter games that are released every year. Arcanum has an enigmatic quality that I can’t get enough of.
So anyway -
I know it’s a little late (13 years late, really) to be writing a review about this game, and a million have been written before me, but I felt the need to articulate the point about the aesthetics, since I haven’t really heard it said in those terms specifically. But just to make this a full review, here are the other talking points:
GRAPHICS: evidently people really shat on ‘em back in 2001. That baffles me; the backgrounds are absolutely gorgeous, the character portraits are charming and I love the design of the items. (The 3D character models are the clear weak point, specifically their lack of diversity, but they’re fine.) Maybe it’s that I started playing this game in, like 2011, and I was willing to write off any graphics imperfections with “hey, it’s a retro game?”
MUSIC: already discussed. Fantastic. The combat theme gets so tired that by the time you hear it as Wheel Clan background music the magic is gone, but that’s my only complaint.
CHARACTER CREATION: systems are great - cool system of spell colleges/technical disciplines and a solid D&D-style RPG system, and a wonderful diversity of race and background choices that eschew a single model of hero for a variety of paths. Want to be a dumb-as-bricks half-ogre? Sure! Your dialogue options will be hysterical! Want to be a dwarf who wields magic? Go ahead, but your natural aptitude penalties and inevitable racism against you will be hurdles you’ll have to learn to overcome. Pacifist communicator? No problem, you can do the talking while followers obediently mince your enemies for you. (No true pacifist path is possible, sorry.) Needless to say, the replay value of Arcanum is huge.
Unfortunately, combat-wise, the balance of the game is awful. Playing a gunslinger is just really hard, while mages usually coast through the game with ease. Fortunately, option to be a technologist is cool enough that I went for it on my first try anyway, and didn’t regret it, so hey!
GAMEPLAY: well, the combat’s kinda meh. The publisher forced Troika to include a spastic real-time mode that just totally sucks, which inevitably borked the turn-based one, which wasn’t creative to begin with. But I never really had an issue with it. Map travel isn’t graceful but the waypoint system saves it from being downright irritating. The menus are unintuitive sometimes, as well. Overall, though, you’ll find you become accustomed to the GUI pretty quickly, and don’t have to jump through many hoops to do what you need to do.
PLOT: good. Not amazing, but quite good. It’s a rich, long plot with lots of fantastic philosophical notes (mainly about humanity and death, technology vs nature, inevitability of destructive change) and nice twists and turns. But the side plots are really where the game shines. Arcanum has all the good parts of an open world game: multiple strategies towards the same end, multiple outcomes, multiple types of interaction depending on your race, gender etc.
POLISH: haha, yeah, well. This game was shipped half broken back in the ol’ CD-ROM days (we can call it “pulling a Troika”) so thank god it’s a game worth modding. The full official patch is included with the GOG install, and it’s great, but YOU MUST DOWNLOAD THE UNOFFICIAL PATCH to really play the game as it was intended. Drog Black Tooth (a modder from Terra Arcanum) basically brought the game back to an acceptable place in terms of fit and finish with his “UAP,” and fixed all the super problematic bugs.
So anyway, there’s my self-indulgent yarn about one of my favorite games. I haven’t even played the game for the endless hours that most die-hard fans have, but my love for the Arcanum’s unique aesthetic gives me an affinity for the game that I don’t think I have for any other. Most importantly, it’s what makes this game worth playing in 2014 - no other game I’ve ever seen can reproduce Arcanum’s specific spirit and style. So if you’re reading this on GOG and haven’t picked up a copy, and you want to try something totally new, shell out the six bucks and sacrifice the <2GB on your hard drive. I don’t think you’ll regret it.
Not wanting to waste the thoughts completely, I figured I'd post it here. Sorry for cluttering up the feed for self-indulgent reasons, but I thought that the whole aesthetics discussion is a cool one, and people might possibly be interested. And maybe prospective newbies to the game will even find it useful!
Here's a good jumping-off point for the idea of aesthetics (and just a great video article in general):
http://extra-credits.net/episodes/graphics-vs-aesthetics/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------
Title: Decent Mechanics; Incredible Aesthetics; Entirely Unique and Unforgettable.
*ahem* okay, here we go.
Arcanum is an aesthetic masterpiece.
Most reviews prominently feature discussions of graphics, writing, combat mechanics, etc. - and this one will too - but I think it's important to note, first and foremost, is a less discrete quality that is often ignored when discussing the merits of games. The cohesion, depth, and beautiful craftsmanship of Arcanum is what made me fall in love with it. The game is set in an original Tolkien/Steampunk universe in which magick (with a k!) and technology are diametrically opposed, warring natural phenomena whose dynamic is rapidly shifting with the arrival of an industrial age. The game’s setting weaves together the best elements from both genres, placing echoes of an era of elven high magic amidst the bustle of modern human cities. The world politics mix themes of Industrial-Revolution-era urbanization with those of crumbling kingdoms reminiscent of the fall of Japan’s Fedudal age, all within a grander scheme of divine influence and impending apocalypse. The imagery the story provides ranges from fantastical natural vistas to gritty, well-traveled streets, and provides the player with the impression that the world is even more complex and widely diverse than it was programmed to be. The characters are, for the most part, interesting and distinctive, and are strongly connected to their environment. And this entire aesthetic is underscored by the strikingly unusual background music: a string quartet playing simple but beautiful compositions with a faint Americana color, complex contrapuntal harmonies, and the stylistic richness of Romanticism (a friend heard it and described it to me as “like Dvořák, when he was in America,” which is pretty apt.)
Everything I describe above coalesces into this intangible quality, “aesthetic,” which is far and away Arcanum’s strong point. I can’t quite pinpoint what delights me when I see my marker move across the old parchment map during travel and the main theme starts to fade in, or when I finally have earned the ability to craft that new period firearm that I wanted, or when I can outsmart poachers with my knowledge and my persuasion, but it’s a powerful force of imagination, and it sets this game apart from every one of the cookie-cutter games that are released every year. Arcanum has an enigmatic quality that I can’t get enough of.
So anyway -
I know it’s a little late (13 years late, really) to be writing a review about this game, and a million have been written before me, but I felt the need to articulate the point about the aesthetics, since I haven’t really heard it said in those terms specifically. But just to make this a full review, here are the other talking points:
GRAPHICS: evidently people really shat on ‘em back in 2001. That baffles me; the backgrounds are absolutely gorgeous, the character portraits are charming and I love the design of the items. (The 3D character models are the clear weak point, specifically their lack of diversity, but they’re fine.) Maybe it’s that I started playing this game in, like 2011, and I was willing to write off any graphics imperfections with “hey, it’s a retro game?”
MUSIC: already discussed. Fantastic. The combat theme gets so tired that by the time you hear it as Wheel Clan background music the magic is gone, but that’s my only complaint.
CHARACTER CREATION: systems are great - cool system of spell colleges/technical disciplines and a solid D&D-style RPG system, and a wonderful diversity of race and background choices that eschew a single model of hero for a variety of paths. Want to be a dumb-as-bricks half-ogre? Sure! Your dialogue options will be hysterical! Want to be a dwarf who wields magic? Go ahead, but your natural aptitude penalties and inevitable racism against you will be hurdles you’ll have to learn to overcome. Pacifist communicator? No problem, you can do the talking while followers obediently mince your enemies for you. (No true pacifist path is possible, sorry.) Needless to say, the replay value of Arcanum is huge.
Unfortunately, combat-wise, the balance of the game is awful. Playing a gunslinger is just really hard, while mages usually coast through the game with ease. Fortunately, option to be a technologist is cool enough that I went for it on my first try anyway, and didn’t regret it, so hey!
GAMEPLAY: well, the combat’s kinda meh. The publisher forced Troika to include a spastic real-time mode that just totally sucks, which inevitably borked the turn-based one, which wasn’t creative to begin with. But I never really had an issue with it. Map travel isn’t graceful but the waypoint system saves it from being downright irritating. The menus are unintuitive sometimes, as well. Overall, though, you’ll find you become accustomed to the GUI pretty quickly, and don’t have to jump through many hoops to do what you need to do.
PLOT: good. Not amazing, but quite good. It’s a rich, long plot with lots of fantastic philosophical notes (mainly about humanity and death, technology vs nature, inevitability of destructive change) and nice twists and turns. But the side plots are really where the game shines. Arcanum has all the good parts of an open world game: multiple strategies towards the same end, multiple outcomes, multiple types of interaction depending on your race, gender etc.
POLISH: haha, yeah, well. This game was shipped half broken back in the ol’ CD-ROM days (we can call it “pulling a Troika”) so thank god it’s a game worth modding. The full official patch is included with the GOG install, and it’s great, but YOU MUST DOWNLOAD THE UNOFFICIAL PATCH to really play the game as it was intended. Drog Black Tooth (a modder from Terra Arcanum) basically brought the game back to an acceptable place in terms of fit and finish with his “UAP,” and fixed all the super problematic bugs.
So anyway, there’s my self-indulgent yarn about one of my favorite games. I haven’t even played the game for the endless hours that most die-hard fans have, but my love for the Arcanum’s unique aesthetic gives me an affinity for the game that I don’t think I have for any other. Most importantly, it’s what makes this game worth playing in 2014 - no other game I’ve ever seen can reproduce Arcanum’s specific spirit and style. So if you’re reading this on GOG and haven’t picked up a copy, and you want to try something totally new, shell out the six bucks and sacrifice the <2GB on your hard drive. I don’t think you’ll regret it.
