Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

Whats boasted is a BG like experience but with tons more freedom, a great steam punk environment, your choices having a real outcome of how the game play out and more. But none of that matters if the game is no fun to play. Unlike the BG games, playing this feels like a terrible chore. It also suffers from "where am I supposed to be going?" syndrome. You're given very vague clues. Leveling up is tedious, and combat is very lame in all three of its flavors. The only solace I take in buying this, is that I can warn people that it isn't worth their money. Spend the extra 4 bucks and get Baldurs Gate instead!

This is a bad game. Story is not interesting, combat is just a mistake. If you played Fallout, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale or similar games you will be sorely disappointed with this game.

My main gripe about this game, apart from the clunky interface, gameplay, and graphics, is the balance. Good luck getting beyond the starting town (Shrouded Hills) and making it to one of the other two towns that your quest log leads you to. You have to journey for several days across the wilderness, where you will have random encounters with wild animals that decimate your party in a few rounds, like a 5th level party up against a 15th level grizzly bear, or a group of 5 level 12 poison rats. Great fun. Should you make it to one of the other towns somehow, you will find that the NPCs are way higher level than your group and getting into combat with anyone will be fatal for you. There is no hand holding in this game and you generally have to find out things the hard way. The combat system uses a stupid fatigue system where being hit by enemies, attacking too many times during a round or casting a spell costs fatigue points. When your fatigue points reach zero, you collapse to the ground and just lie motionless while the enemies beat you to a pulp. At this point, it's game over unless any of your surviving followers can hopefully finish them off. There is no proper autosave option, no ability to swap weapons quickly and moving long distances across the world map or the area you are currently in involves scrolling jerkily to the edge of the screen, clicking there, then repeating the process. This game was released in 2001, about 3 years before Baldur's Gate, but seriously looks about 5 years older. The game engine looks like Tim Cain developed it in a week while drunk and working in his basement alone. On the plus side, the music is pretty good, the quests are interesting and the dialogue in the game adjusts for characters of low intelligence, resulting in some hilarious conversations and journal entries. I just don't understand why this game is revered so much. Rather play Baldur's Gate if you're looking for a good RPG from about 20 years back.

Whatever it is that makes people praise this game is beyond me. I still enjoy Wizardry 8, Baldur's Gate, Incewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, Divine Divinity, etc. and play them all a few times a year. This game is just slow, and a total drudge. Impossible to complete for me, I can't recommend it. I have to suspect there's a lot of Fallout worship at work here, where the devs are admired and so the game earns praise it objectively does not deserve. Save your money.

I found this game way too confusing just at the start. The UI is sub-par even compared to other RPGs from that era (or earlier). The dialog is annoyingly long-winded. It'd be one thing if it was interesting, like Planescape Torment, but it's not. I can see why it didn't sell that well and has more of a cult following. If you're really into working hard for your fun, you'll probably enjoy it. If you don't feel like spending a day trying to start and get into the game, you might want to pass and try out say Planescape Torment for another viable RPG experience without all the hassle.