Overall, I would say absolutely, yes. You probably know this, but Arcanum was made by a lot of the same people who worked on Fallout, and the similarities are obvious.

To address your specific questions:

1. It's somewhat similar, but not identical. Arcanum does not use the SPECIAL system, and you don't have perks (although you can choose a single "background story" at character creation that works a lot like a perk). On the other hand, much like in Fallout, you use your level-ups both to put points into character stats and also to raise various skills and abilities.

EDIT: If you want another game that does use the SPECIAL system, check out Lionheart. I haven't played it yet, so I can't vouch for how good it is, but consensus seems to be that it's really good up until about the half-way mark, at which point they ran out of money.

2. Yes, unless for some reason you don't like the setting. Arcanum doesn't have quite as "open world" a feel as Fallout, as there are a lot of places you can't visit until the story tells you to go there, but compared to most RPGs you still have quite a bit of freedom.

3. Oh, yes. In fact, if you go with a technologist character, you can build your /own/ guns. Including tesla guns, acid guns, blade throwers, machine guns, grenade launchers, flame throwers, and sniper rifles. Heck, you can even build a suit of armor that's an awful lot like the Power Armor from Fallout.

One note about guns is that the 'called shot' system isn't quite as robust as the one in Fallout; you can only target 'head', 'arms', or 'legs'.. I rarely find myself needing to do so, though, as my Tesla Gun tends to wipe out most enemies in 1-2 shots anyway. :p

1)Turn-based combat is pretty much the same (you have even these green lights indicating amount of action points left) and quest system has the similar feeling ; instead of perks you have a schematics+tech schools OR magic schools system that allow you to build your character in the way that's interesting for you (some of the schematics are really cool and some quests or locations have that Fallout-like feeling of exploring something old yet very advanced).

Skill system is simplified and is connected with character stats in Arcanum (for example, you cannot max the persuasion without raising a charisma).

Followers system is similar, but some of them have their small story arcs and some are voiced. There's also one female follower that's interested in romancing PC.

You can add a dog to your party as well, just like in Fallout, except here Dog is much more useful :)

Tbh, this game feels like a steam-punk Fallout. If you're going to play a tech character, you will even have the possibility to wear a Machined Plate which is pretty much an Arcanum version of Power Armour...

If you are aiming for an easy run and if you prefer a fantasy setting, just go with magic-oriented character. It's a more boring way to play it tho'.

2)I'm a Fallout series fan myself and I consider this game closely related to F1&F2. It's much longer tho' and can be considered as hard especially if you want to play a tech character (it's somewhat weak at the beginning of the game and has to rely on melee but exceels in the late game with advanced weapons, armour and tech toys and tricks)

3)At the beginning you will feel a bit like a poor cowboy in a western and you may pass large part of the game with just a Fine Revolver but after a while you will rain destruction with Tesla Gun, Looking Glass Rifle, Blade Thrower, Elephant Gun, Hand Cannon etc.

You might want to consider a different path - for example a Constructor/Engineer (you might just create an army of automatons, mechanized arachnids and clockwork devices that will do most of the killing for you) or you might play a Grenadier and Chemist etc. it's entirely up to you.

It's not an easy game and requires some time to get into it, but after a while you will like it and after few hours you will love it and you will wonder why haven't you played it before :) Yeah, unfortunately, Lionheart is a game of average quality. First part/act of it is nice but after that, quality of the game drops down and it starts to be boring and annoying. Melee oriented character seems to be the only reasonable choice in it too.

ty for the help
gonna buy it soon

DEFINATELY!

i played fallout 1+2 first and it made arcanum all the more enjoyable.
my tip: dont stress about how to spend your points etc. just roleplay it and see what happens.
its easy to ruin this game by worrying by the choice and following walkthroughs.
the game is at least as forgiving as F2. but bigger. so dont worry. the journey is much more important than the end ;) i just finished it and its begging for a replay.

Hi, be careful with your first impression :). Few of my friends started playing Arcanum in about same time as I did. They quit playing game before finishing "Crash site". I also was not impressed on my first play, but I decided to play some more ... and after some time got addicted :D.

I played Fallout series, Baldur's Gate series, Icewind Dale, Planescape, ... and all that games really impressed me really soon. My point was, try Arcanum, but give it some time - it's worth it :).