Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

First time player and just finished my first run. Arcanum is a masterclass in worldbuilding. Its fleshed-out world allows a compelling conflict between magic and technology. Expect familiar fantasy tropes, but because of its premise, there are aspects that are explored deeply such as race and class in transitioning times. Its strongest suit is the character building. You can choose either of the two routes and experiment with the vast possibilities character creation — and there's so much to tinker around with. You can go down a path of good or evil, or somewhere in between. All of these eventually affect your engagement with the people, the world, and the story. For the music, scoring helps build the immersion and experience of the gameplay, and Arcanum does this very well. Caladon, Tarant, and Dernholm are a delight to visit because of their beautiful BGM, while the eerie and dark ambient music really create the spookiness of caves and dungeons. Voice-acting is another area where Arcanum excels. Many followers and NPC have so much personality because of the excellent VO work. As an open-world RPG, Arcanum is immersive but has its limitations. There are areas that can be explored immediately but a lot have to be marked after completing a quest. Combat is its weakest point and, perhaps, its biggest flaw. It's a major slog even though you can switch from turn-based to real time. This can also easily throw off the game balance, from mind-numbingly easy to impossibly hard. Lastly, though it has a compelling story with its fair share of twists and turns, I can't deny that I was disappointed with the ending (or how it was presented, at least). It's not terrible but I wish it was done better. I had many issues running Arcanum (the Steam version didn't work in my PC and I only got to launch game with GoG). And as mentioned in other reviews, it's not for everyone. Despite its flaws, I thoroughly enjoyed it and, perhaps, even revisit it in the future.

Still feels like a rushed, underdeveloped game. Since most reviewers covered positive aspects, I`ll focus on the bad: Due to being based on plot twists, replay value is on par with rewatching Sixth Sense - you may end up doing it once for the sake of catching some details, but more than that is a chore. Areas are vast but mostly empty (in terms of quest density). Graphics (especially animations) are worse than in its predecessors from the same age. Combat mechanics - unbalanced like it wasn`t even playtested. Keyboard shortcuts are strange, unintuitive or lacking (try playing a thief type, or pretty much anyone other than straight click-to-hit fighter). NPCs dialogue text is imposed over the area and not displayed in another window, making it harder to read. Game is full of the 'I should not have sold that vendor trash, because it wasn`t' moments. Side-quests are fed-ex kind, very few can be solved by talking with NPCs the right way. Game is bad at self-explaining its mechanics: what does the "MSR:18" or "NP -50" mean when I equip that item and how exactly does it affect my combat effectiveness? Good luck without checking external sources. Compared to the masterpieces of the era (Fallout 1&2, Baldur`s Gate 1&2) - it is a pee-wee league game.

I love and hate this game at the same time. It has amazing story, interesting quests and complex worldbuilding and that means a lot in roleplaying game. Unfortuantely it has many, many problems. First is the combat - it is real time or turn based. Real time combat is too chaotic and difficult to manage (e.g. archers are firing their bows like mashine guns), turn based is slow (sometimes too slow) but managable. I REALLY recommend using turn based for whole game. Game is also really unbalanced, using magic is much easier compared to making technologist. Last thing I must mention is a lot of padding in the end, we need to travel a lot in the end, but if you endrued to this point you won't complain about it too much. In the end Arcanum is dirt cheap and if you endure begginig hours you'll be rewared whit amazing experience.

Unglaublich originelles Setting - was wäre, wenn man Tolkiens Fantasy mit dem späten 19ten Jahrundert kombiniert? Orks als ausgebeutete Arbeiter in Fabriken, Gnome als reiche Aristokraten, Elfen als zurückgedrängte Ureinwohner in Wäldern, die für die Industrialisierung abgeholzt werden - und dazu noch ein verschärfender Konflikt zwischen Magie und Technologie. Die Story ist enorm fesselnd und ermöglicht stets, andere Entscheidungen zu treffen - man kann sogar jeden einzelnen Charakter in der welt töten (!) und trotzdem die Hauptquest erfolgreich beenden. Die Vielfalt an Möglichkeiten, die es gibt, ist fast erschlagend. Ein Halb-Ork, der als Revolverheld durch die Welt zieht? Ein düsterer Nekromant, der Informationen von den Seelen toter Charaktere erpresst? Ein diplomatischer Ritter, der immer noch mit Schwert und Rüstung kämpft? All das ist möglich. Man kann verstörende Verschwörungen aufdecken, Länder gegeneinander in den Krieg hetzen oder Frieden schließen, Rebellionen erzeugen und vieles mehr. Oder nicht, wenn man die entsprechenden Optionen übersieht, denn das Spiel belohnt Erkundung und logisches Mitdenken sehr stark. Eines der besten RPGs.

This game was rushed in its final days. If you dig through the original files, you'll find a text document named "Eh" which simply reads "well, that's that then" hinting at the frustrations of the developers. That said, in its heyday, it garnered some acclaim as the most replayable game of all time. There are tons of alternative endings and endless permutations of characters. Want to be a dwarf with a machine gun and power armor? Or maybe a snobbish elf with a degree in necromancy? Arcanum can do it. I've played this for hundreds of hours and may yet do so again. I love the music, and the lore. The technology and crafting is fun, if not exactly effective, while the magic system is endlessly entertaining. I've spent hours and hours just dabbling. Pro-tip, if you cast a magic reflection shield onto a mechanical arachnid then target it with a polymorph spell, then deactivate the spider, you'll be transformed permanently into a sheep. I've never found a game with such open ended shennanigans. It's unique and probably not to everyone's tastes, but if you like it then you'll love it to bits.