Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

Is a dead gnome. Also pretty good game, 10/10, love me some Steampunk Tolkien-esque fantasy setting.

The first thing that immediately grabbed me in Arcanum was the SETTING itself. It seems pretty unique, because it’s a pretty standard fantasy world with the classic fantasy races – bearded, technologically minded dwarves, magical and nature-aligned elves, industrious gnomes and so on, but there’s a twist that builds upon this classic fantasy depiction, and the twist is that the world is currently undergoing an industrial revolution. Next point I loved about the game is the MUSIC. Not all pieces are remarkable, but the ones that are really, really stayed with me. It’s certainly a good decision by the game to put one of the most beautiful tracks right in the main menu. How about the STORY, then? I would lie if I said I thought it was boundlessly brilliant or anything like that, but for me it was definitely engaging and mostly competently done, interesting enough to keep me going through the 65 hours I spent in the game, and with a couple of highligts I’ll probably remember for a really long time. Finally, the GAMEPLAY. I didn’t find it’s gameplay to be anything overly fascinating, but that’s maybe because I never really entirely grasped it. Arcanum’s really one of those games that expect you actually READ the manual. And I never did. But one thing that really brings Arcanum down in my opinion is the significant amount of trash mobs that you have to kill and their sheer repetitiveness. There’s a LOT of travelling and only like 3 random encounters. I’m not even kidding. What do you think about my opinion? How do you remember Arcanum? If you’d be interested in checking out as someone who really values exploration, story and immersion goes through the game for the first time, you may check a BLIND playthrough on my youtube channel, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWCNGo5_19I&list=PLp4TpsJ7HUWW431baJHkNmF2KfucvTXB2

This game has a lot going for it but you'll need to work for it and be patient to get to the "good stuff". By work and be patient I mean put up with many many bugs, technical faults, poor AI, long load times and few QOL features. But beyond these is a fantastic world that feels believable and the player is given plenty of roleplay opportunities through dialogue and mechanics. Be a beautiful elf who is a necromancer, an ugly dwarf who's a master of magic or a finely-dressed orc who is a tinkerer - or anyone and anything in between! The game has reactivity to your choices, oh and you can resurrect almost any fallen NPC and speak to them and as part of a quest it can be beneficiary. A great RPG letdown by a rushed development with many cut corners and technical issues that drag it back down.

I love this game. I love its attention to detail, the way how it represents the world, lore, the story, the choices you make, the reputation you build, great sidequests, how the story gives the player two main quests in the same moment and the way it lets the player to decide what to do and where to go. The game respects the player and his ability to think. I definitely consider the RPG system the best RPG system amongst class-free RPGs. I love how technology affects magick and vice versa. I cannot 100% say that there is a perfect balance between these paths, since I have to play as a 100% mage yet. I love lvl 50 cap and that you are given just 1 point after leveling (2 points every 5 levels). This forces the player to choose the path immediately from the beginning and hold to it. There are tons of skills and just 1 point when you get a level. When you do not plan, you just may end up being a very poor character. There are problems: 1. the difficulty balance - It is just not good when a game forces you to fight lvl 1-10 monsters in "story" areas even close to the end of the game. You just constantly fight much lower enemies during the whole game (except the beginning). 2. the battle system - the game can be played as a turn-based RPG and a real-time RPG and neither of the two is good. The real-time is very fast-paced and it's nearly impossible to control anything at such a speed, turn-based's just basic, bare boned and does not require almost any strategical planning or playing. 3. the ending - NO SPOILERS (just to be sure) While I love the plot, all the plot twists and how the game ends - meaning the main point, I just did not like the final battle, it was just laughable. After it a couple of short videos are shown, the short ending and you appear in the main menu. 4. the bugs - Due to them I do not know what summary at the end I actually got. I killed the main boss three times with all my characters alive and every time I saw a different summary.

Let me start by saying that for me, Arcanum is in the TOP 5 list, if it is not THE most favourite game of my life. Despite this I will try to make this review fair. Let's start with things that were not as great. First thing was relatively low resolution for it's time and interface taking up large portion of the screen. For Fallout veterans not much of a problem, plus some of the unofficial patches can add higher resolution, but still... With this is connected another feature not so well made - waypoint system and pathfinding. If you've gotten to a larger location, camera restriction did not allow you to wander too far from your character, so you've had to use waypoints on area map your character then followed. Or did not... Sometimes he would get stuck which was getting rather frustrating, especially in Tarant. Combat system was sufficiently mastered for me, but I could see how others would gond confusin (in realtime mode) or slow and not as complex as it could be (turn based). You have option to choose to aim for head or limbs, but I wouldn't mind seeing more complexity there. But despite it's flaws, Arcanum found a soft spot in my heart and claimed it. Why? One of the reasons is music. Nowhere did I hear as perfect and atmospheric steampunk music as I did here. Each melody will stay in my memory and I'll be humming them whenever I'm in a mood. I have always thought that good music is important for a proper game atmosphere, and this proves me right. And the main reason to play this game is storyline and world that it's set in. This us probably the best portrait of Fantasy world being changed by industrial revolution. You can run around in tuxedo with magic sword in one hand and electric light in the other. Immersing yoursel into the world of Arcanum is absolutely worth of overcoming that few flaws this game has. Listen do Dwarf life philosophy, see the Ancient Elven forest cut for wood to feed technological progress and choose your own inclination...