Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

Arcanum is the pinnacle of 2D gaming. It occurred on the cusp of a technological revolution where gaming would go three-dimensional and in the process, ironically, lose a great deal of depth. I bought it when it was new for $60, I'd certainly recommend buying it now for six dollars or less. With an incredibly detailed and fleshed out world to explore, non-linear progression, complex character creation with an engaged and interesting population that responds to your character's uniqueness and deep mythos, Arcanum hits all the right marks. Reaction to your character's moral choices, race and gender, appearance, dialogue choices, magical or technological bias, prior actions, abilities and more are all well integrated. There are many paths to a goal: direct combat, stealth and cunning, perceptive qualities, intellect or flattery, and often many more. The game is highly playable and replayable upon completion. It's biggest fault by today's standard is its dated technology. The game engine isn't dated, gameplay-wise, and 2D isometric games continue to be made today which look more or less the same. The issue is in getting a modern machine to run the game smoothly and in widescreen. It is possible with some work and once successful will run butter smooth and look fantastic. It's also worth taking the time to learn how to add portraits and character back-stories so you can further customize the game and add replayability. What RPG allows me to fully flesh out a gnome gunslinger with a gem-cutting background who looks like Tony Soprano? Only Arcanum. If you played Fallout 2 and thought it was one of the best games you've ever played, the next game you play should be Arcanum.

I wanted to like this game and give it a good review. However, to date it will not run on my computer. I am using an HP Pavilion dv7 laptop with an i7 Processor, 8 GB RAM and AMD Radeon HD 6700M series graphics card. The operating system is Windows 10 Home Premium 64-Bit. Compatability Mode does not work. I have also installed Direct X 9c Redist, which has fixed compatability issues with other gog.com games I own, but not this one apparently. Yes, I checked the forums, but nothing suggested there seems to work for my issues. I'm sorry... Buy at your own risk.

A large, open-ended RPG that wear its Fallout roots with pride, Arcanum offers a wide range of variety for character and plot development. There's plenty of well-earned praise here for Arcanum, so let me point out my one little quibble... It's simply much easier to focus in magic. To quantify that, magic development requires you raise one attribute (Willpower). You can add a little to your Constitution for fatigue (which doubles as your "mana"), but that's it. Technology skill requires you develop your Intelligence to purchase certain level skills, often requires Dexterity and Perception if you want to use guns you make, Strength (to carry things you make), sink some points into Firearms potentially, and you often have to pay for parts when you can't randomly find them. While you can purchase schematics that broaden the number of nifty items you can make, creating a good technologist can be tricky. Not impossible, but when you can take Harm and Shield spells right off the bat as a first level magic user and blow the doors off of most of things you encounter early on, it's a little frustrating shooting off the crappy flintlock you just made, missing two out of three shots, and wishing you didn't have to invest in three different things to improve effectiveness shooting. And when you only get 1-2 points to spend improving a level, that hurts. Add to that the fact that spell casters can level up faster because they can become killing machines and get a lot of the XP, and it seems a bit unfair. You get one companion early on, and another (provided your Charisma is high enough). The first can heal you, but the further you progress in technological skill the harder it is for his (magical) healing to work on you. Sigh. I don't want it to seem as though there's nothing but negatives, but I imagine for some people who have imagined a well-balanced game that gives equal share to the two major disciplines in the game there will be some disappointment. And don't forget, you can develop as a fighter type, thief, diplomat or hybrid - there are no classes, only skill development. All in all, if you're patient, Arcanum will provide hours of entertainment -the story is compelling, the strange string chamber music works amazingly well, and all the ambiance and detail you would want in a solid RPG is there. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this game to anyone who likes a good RPG (and doesn't mind a few minor bugs). Buy it in a box from Amazon for $50, or spend $5.99 here, it's worth it.

BUY THIS RIGHT NOW! this is the best pure RPG of all time. period

Everyone compares Arcanum with Fallout, and well, yes, so will I. If you liked Fallout 1/2, you'll like Arcanum. However, I feel Fallout 1 and 2 as a whole were better. Maybe it's just my Alzheimer setting in, but I can't really remember having too much frustration with those games, whereas Arcanum can be frustrating. Having said that, I should straight away mention that I feel it's worth the frustration. It's a fun game, with lots to explore and lots to do. Did I say Fallout 1 and 2 were better? Yes, but Arcanum has some (rough) diamonds which Fallout was missing. So here's my advice: Play Fallout 1 and 2 first. If you like those, you'll probably like Arcanum. It's a great game. However, if only they had gotten the interface and the graphics right, then it would have been one of the very best.