Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

Even though the interface has a verry old look and feel. The story line , the parameters and the gameplay in Arcanum are unique and not yet matched by any game known to me. A definetly must have for each role-playing gamer!

The storyline is engrossing and vivid. It's amazing. The gameplay however, has some issues that will distract you from it, one is a very weird and unbalanced leveling system.

Arcanum is the fantasy Fallout. It's flexible, it's fun, it's addictive. Does it have problems? Yes. Does Fallout 2? Yes. The graphics are acceptible, lots of patches are available, and you can make a molotov cocktail and fry lots of buggers at level 1. Huzzah!

Most CRPG's can be filtered down to several genre's; fantasy, sci-fi, horror, post apocalyptic, etc. Arcanum combines a few of these into a thoroughly enjoyable game. At the outset you can select from your generic retinue of races; human, elf, dwarf, orc, half-ogre, halfling. You are not pigeon holed into a specific role or class, rather you refine and develop your character as you progess in the game. You receive skill points at level up that you can use to increase your stats, skills, hit points, fatigue points, schematics, and spells. This way you can develop your character into a magic using type, or one skilled in technology. This is one of those games in which you can gather many objects in order to create things like armor and hand cannons. Another enjoyable aspect of Arcanum is the music. I usually turn music off but in this case it adds to the atmosphere, not detracts from it. I bought this game when it first came out and still have the disks (I love Gog and want to support them, so I purchased it again) but due to computers that have failed me, have been unable to finish the game so I'm making a concerted effort to complete this magnificent endeavor. One last note, the only reason I gave this 4 stars instead of 5 is that sometimes it takes time for combat to pause when turn based and can get frustrating especialy when you have several members in your party and they all manage to attack and kill opponents while you stand there dumbstruck.

it's an awesome game with the fallout type combat and dialogue system with races from the D&D series. From what i can tell from the ruins of the previous empire, it's maybe 1000 years after fallout 2. but just a funny guess. ;) :D But a fun game. As advice, i'd say, invest in the tech skill healing salve in the beginning unless you're relying on magic. As the combat can get kinda brutal unless you choose an ugly or crazy character on purpose.