Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

There's a few immediate disappointments that need to be said: -It looks awful. It was released in that awkward period of time where isometric games started to use high res renders of 3-D models for characters while the backgrounds were still done the same as ever, leaving it to look like you're playing with poorly painted action figures on top of a paper playmat. Animations are DREADFUL. The UI looks half-baked, like it's still in development. Speaking of the poor UI... -Combat is more of a chore than ever. I'm gonna be doing some more direct comparison to Fallout 1/2, since there's a lot of shared staff between the games and Arcanum. Combat was kinda the weakest part of any isometric Fallout game, but it was servicable enough and had its fun moments. In Arcanum, combat happens suddenly and feels like a fever dream. While in Fallout there was a pretty clear aggro range that combat would trigger at, Arcanum surprises you out of absolutely nowhere by aggro range being absolutely TEENSY WEE. Real time combat moves WAY, WAY too fast for it to be enjoyable. Turn based is an awful slog. -What am I supposed to do? When Morrowind, a game (in)famous for giving you next to no direction on what do to next, has a better journal system than you do, you're in trouble. With a lacklustre dialog system in comparison to Fallout, Arcanum gives its quest information in a very vague way, and then doesn't record it ANYWHERE within the game besides "I was told to do this". That's fine if the game is interesting enough to make you want to explore, but Arcanum isn't. The ideas are cool, but the excruciating way in which you explore the world does not make you want to explore the world. I really want to like Arcanum, but I can't. There might be a hidden gem in this game, maybe I'm too dumb for this game, I don't know, but I just can't like this game no matter how hard I try. It's a shame, because it sounds like something I'd love.

It's really bad man. The map is huge an unassailable, combat sucks, your character sucks, I saw what they were trying to cook, but they burned it.

"Arcanum" is, hands down, one of the best games I've ever played. This is the fourth time I've bought it since it was first released. It's a beautiful, deep, complex and very immersive role-playing game. The story is captivating and the characters are truly interesting. The world is large and offers countless of quests and exciting areas to explore. What really makes me love this game (once again!) is the fact that it works, and looks, very good on a modern system. You might run into some issues but most, if not all, can be fixed. I cannot recommend this game more warmly - it's a masterpiece!

One of the few steampunk-themed video games ever created and one of the best cRPGs I played. Collage of magic and typical Victorian machines and enviroment works very well. Lots of humor and unusual items in your inventory will suck you in to the gameplay. Besides of few bugs (especially exec instability), we have here a masterpiece.

Hands down my favorite single player RPG of all time. It's not 100% but its close. Interesting story and characters, entertaining turn-based combat, flexible character editor, enormous world. ENORMOUS WORLD. I've played it through to completion 4 times (which is a substantial time investment considering the ENORMITY OF THE WORLD).