Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

Because I've never finished it, I can't say whether or not there's any bugs or anything that make it unfinishable. My reason for never finishing it has to do with life, and not the game. Beautifully written, especially for when it was released. Great art, for when it was released. Creative magic and technology system. An amazing world to explore. If you enjoy Final Fantasy, Elder Scrolls, Neverwinter Nights, Pillars of Eternity, Divinity, and similar games, you'll probably enjoy this game. It's magic & steam punk. A bit like Shadowrun and Numenera.

Be warned: this game is LONG and SLOW. This is because the major complaints people had with Fallout 1 and 2 (this game was made with the same engine and the same devs) was the low repeatability. So they artifically inflated the game life in the worse possible way: long winded and tedious quests. Everytime you think you've made a breakthrough in the story, they send you to another filler island. The world feels progressively emptier (you can see the end areas are quite barren and unfinished, the starter areas are well done however), until eventually you grind to the end of the game. If you can stomach that and have the patience and time, this is a very unique game with some great mechanics. One of the first game to introduce crafting, and the system still holds decently to this day. Magic is also awesome and arguably superior to crafting. The possibilities are huge and the game has a lot of replay potential, if you can deal with the grindy slow sections every time you do another run. Highly recommend the community patch to clear the many many bugs the original game has.

Schon damals waren die grafischen Qualitäten dieses Titels nicht herausragend und einige Designmängel stoßen noch immer schwer auf, aber dieser Titel wurde zu unrecht nicht beachtet. Obgleich die Story und die Inszenierung sehr seicht anmuten und sich vieler klassischer Cliches bedient, ist die Welt sehr stimmig, die NPC's glaubhaft und die Nebenaufgaben super (Spoiler: man kann das Schlumpfdorf finden, oder den Mann mit der fligenden Guillotine). Zwar kann man durch geschickte verteilung der Zauberpunkte zu einem extrem mächtigen Überwesen werden, welches durch die Welt springen kann ohne schaden zu nehmen, aber auch das lässt sich verschmerzen. Zu viele kleinigkeiten die einen Schmunzeln lassen, zu viele kleine Seitenhiebe oder schlicht mehr Easter Eggs als man je gesehn hat. Schon das Handbuch beinhaltet soviele schöne Details, dass man sich dann doch recht schnell zurecht findet. Man muss diesem Titel eine Chance geben. Ich für meinen Teil liebe es.

It's just perfect! It's something much more than a game. After a few months I still remember the plot, the game's world (unique!), the characters and, well, I'm kind of missing all of that... It is definitely one of the most impressive game experiences I ever had.

I cannot believe I missed this gem growing up! Think classic fallout meets steampunk meets oblivion (if it were in classic fallout style), and you get gun-toting knights, or a Doc Holiday type, or a classic Mage character, or even a Gnomish merchant if you want. I absolutely love the character creation and the leveling up. It is the type of game where I can keep starting new characters, spend hours and hours on each and still not even finish 1% of the main story, there is just that much to do. I recommend this to any RPG fan. There is simply not enough space given for these reviews for me to list all the things I enjoy about this truly underrated and amazing game. I really wonder what Fallout 3 would've been like if these guys won the rights over Bethesda, and Bethesda has released some of my all time favorites, which this game Arcanum, is now one of.