Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

I am lucky to have the original disc copies and I've played this game for hours on end on my old bag of bricks PC but the shear randomness of this game alone and the way you change your good/bad karma in the beginning of your adventure talking to the first npc to the the last big baddy at the end. -SPOILERS- You can go throughout the game having a silver tongue without killing at all! It's hard but I challenge you gamers to try! PS Buy this game!

Let's face it, to this day, even if its an old game we want it to look... decent enough. That's why many don't like it. Also, it's too immersive and that's what bothers people who would rather kill stuff almost immediately after a short tutorial. And another "let's face it"... these kinds of games are demanding. They need you to read, to think, to make decisions that can "turn you off" because of how serious they are. In short, people these days like it with a long, well-made story and a thick combat system that gives them the freedom they want to feel. I'm no exception, but I loved this game more than most. I just hope I could play it again.

add russian language

I made a character and progressed a little bit, before encountering a problem with bandits blocking a bridge. A walkthrough confirmed that the only way to progress in good alignment was to fight these bandits. My character build stood no chance at defeating the incredibly overpowered NPCs. One frustrated quit and some time later, I made a new, completely combat centric character. Played all the way back to the encounter. The outcome remained the same. Who knows, the game might be awesome! I'll just never find out, since I can't be arsed to reload the game 60 times until I get a lucky RNG roll. I could also restart a THIRD TIME, and build a thief character. In my mind, a great RPG should favor several builds, instead of forcing you to take specific ones right at the very beginning of the game. Fun fact: The first build I used was prebuilt into the game. Other than that, the game plays extremely sluggishly and the mouse is weirdly accelerated. The GUI was probably the biggest turn off.

This game was created by the makers of the original Fallout...and it shows. As other reviewers have noted, the game is not necessarily for everyone. The game world is huge, with tons of areas to visit and quests to complete, along with lots of character customization options. Add to that the fact that the main questline is not heavily forced on you, and you get a very open-ended game that can leave you completely lost. Also factor in the tons of bugs that you can expect from a Troika game. However, the game's rather comprehensive steampunk setting, technology-vs-magic conflict, the rich and detailed character customization options and the very well done main plot do more than enough to carry the game on their back in my opinion. So, all in all, the game deserves all five stars, especially since we're talking about one of my long-time favorite games here.