Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

Classic Fallout with fireballs. Education is overrated.

Arcanum does many things badly, I played a firearms expert and mechanical master and ended up leaving the majority of combat to the AI members on my team because of how hard it is to aim at moving targets with a gun and how easy it was to accidentally click my arachnids (which deactivates them, requiring you to rearrange your inventory, pick them up and redeploy them). Despite this, and many other faults, I have just finished Arcanum and I had fun with it. Primarily I believe, due to the writing. The quests you're asked to undertake are interesting and varied, from rescuing dwarves that have accidentally created an army of undead to performing industrial espionage and dynamiting a steam engine, and the main story isn't a straightforward hunt for evil like many other RPGs but gets a touch philosophical at times. Unfortunately like this rest of the game the plot does have some issues and can feel a bit sparse which prevents the game from being a classic but it is worth playing. p.s. The 'technology' in the game for the player is little more than modern-themed magic with elixirs to heal bullet wounds and robots whose sophistication would make honda proud (and filthy rich), all put together at the click of a virtual button. Don't expect engrossing building and adjustment gameplay from the technology here.

An ideal adventure in a steam-magic punk world. It's really fun to see discussions on the conflicts between technology and magick in the game.

As many people have said it is very similar to Fallout in the way game play works. However, i think it would be more accurate to say this game is like the Fallout Series and the Baldur's Gate series had a child. The magic and technological aspects blend together very well. However, It is a bit unbalanced. Magic is a bit more powerful than technology when it comes to the PC. That said, whenever i go back to this game i always find myself playing a technological character because they are so much fun. One word of advice though, make sure you have the game fully patched and search and find the mod for the medical arachnid. Its important you install this mod before you start playing the game because it will only apply to a new game. Without this mod medical arachnids may not work, and that sucks because they are an awesome addition if your playing as a techy.

Very few Rpg's have ever gone to unique places, especially those who are set in a fantasy realm, but Arcanum does things differently, this time all of the familiar Orcs, Elfs, Humans, Dwarves, etc are stuck in a jolly old industrial revolution, and with this it brings an amazing abundance of gameplay, and, charecter development, are you a thief that uses magic? A warrior that uses technology? How about a Wizard that uses swords, and technology to help him in, battle? And if you choose to be a wizard well then what kind of spells are you going to use? With so many possiblities, a streamlined RPG system thats easy to learn, but hard to master, combat that can be either turned base for classic RPG fans, or real time if your perfer a more diablo style combat, and once you start your charecter are you gong to be good or evil? Are you going to rob the bank and, skip town or, take out the bandits? Are you going to cave that orcs skull in, or shiv him in the back? Magic or sword? Good or evil? The desicion is your and, with charecters that respond to your actions, a world thats great to explore and, greater to look at, combat thats both chalenging yet fun, and, a story that is quite enjoyable with little hicups, I say that you would be doing yourself a great injustice if you didn't but this game.