Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

I first became aware of this game when it came out and PC Gamer wrote on it and included a demo on the CD that month. After playing through the demo a dozen times or so, I went and bought the game. I still go back and play it from time to time. The occasional voice parts make me smile. The main story is decently fun, but as with many RPGs, so much is found outside of the main questline, helping mothers chase down errant sons, interfering in gang wars, inciting riots, and dealing with necromancers. There is a morality gauge between evil and good -- standard, if a bit annoying. But, unlike many games I've played, there are a LOT of places where you get to make decisions. More than just two or three places, you see common method choices, righteous fights or brutal brawls. Arcanum is one of the few games I feel that actually supported and added in significantly interesting evil quests, where it is more than the good quests with just different dialog. And the universe! As others have mentioned, it's pretty awesome! Dwarves with guns, elves throwing spells, and surly sea captains. So it's fun. But there's a lot wrong with it too. Railroady at points, and there's one agonzingly annoying dungeon that is absolutely mandantory to progress. You can't rest inside, a multilevel maze, with traps, and creatures that can destroy your weapons and armor, and you have to go in there. That dungeon, and one very similar later (albeit the latter is bypassable through a couple ways) are pretty hateful. And while the magic and tech systems are fun, magic is waaaay easier. Don't play tech the first time through. And since part of tech is fixing things, you can't fix things well or fix completely broken items until the last 1/3rd of the game. The part where going tech makes your companion healer unable to heal you, while interesting initially, goes bummerzone quick. Melee and summoning are pretty OP. Beauty worthless. Overall, give it a try!

Great steampunk atmosphere with nice artwork and excellent attention to detail. I liked the choice of tech and magic, and the character development is amongst the best I've played. Choices have actual consequences, so unethical behaviour really will come back to bite you! It's not perfect, and it's not for everyone - the combat is flawed and too many of the quests are glorified errand running. But if you like a detailed, immersive RPG where you develop a tight and powerful team that makes sense, it's worth your time.

Please, add Ukrainian localization.

Wow I have some great memories of this game! Best character i rolled on here had the Savant trait.... I remember lol'ing at almost every dialogue option that my character was presented with. Remember on Fallout when your Int and Charisma would drop after drug use, then your dialogue options would only be grunts.... Well they took things to an even more hillarious level in this game. Great characters, great atmosphere, OK plot direction. Just great fun! I remember it being a lot more unforgiving in the beginning, but get past the steep difficulty at first and its a great game.

After greatly enjoying Fallout I was horribly disappointed by this game. Guns were too weak, conversation too repetitive (all NPCs have very similar options, except a few notable exceptions), quests sudden and cliche (Stranger, won't you go kill X and pick up Y to solve all my troubles), and the gameplay generally frustrating (long travel times, non-strategic combat, annoying mana system (sleep one hour?)). All in all, an overly overhyped, outdated game, probably mostly good for nostalgic purposes.