Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

Arcanum is not for everyone, but those who enjoy the carefully crafted design that made the original Fallout a masterpiece will not find a game as ambitious. Arcanum is a steam-punk role playing game set in a Dungeons & Dragons style world in the grip of an industrial revolution. Science, industry and capital enable men women and ogre to achieve what one - only magicians could do. Arcanum is a complex world of political upheaval, class struggle, rampant racism, religious reform and social changes. There is a big bad guy, yes. There is a fresh hero destined for greatness. There are ancient secrets and people losing their wedding rings in the sewer. But at it's heart it's a breathing world that is ready to be changed by your actions. And indeed few things are as rewarding as reading about your own exploits in the local news paper. It has it's flaws. Chief among them is the battle system. It can be played in turns or real-time but each of those lack something. The Turn-based combat is cumbersome and too few combat animations make it dull. Real-time is useful for battles where you have a melee weapon and the enemy is another rat. But I wouldn't recommend it for battles that require even a little more tactic. The opening is another big hurdle. It's filled with creatures ready to mince you if you are not playing a combat centric character. Sometimes it's better to just run away and reach the next town rather then spend an agonizing hour trying to outfight a wild boar. Level cap is a double edged sword in Arcanum. Every NPC is scaled on a level between 1 and 50. And your character is not exempted. If you build a character that is invested in too many areas, you might discover that the game is becoming more and more difficult. A purely magical or technological character will have an easier time then a jack of all trades. This is not a game where you can wander around doing random battles to surmount every obstacle. Despite it's flaws, Arcanum remains one of my favorite games. Every npc is a character, every quest is well crafted. Every companion has a story to tell and everyone can die. But there are few games where one of the ways to beat the end boss is a existential debate. Few games where you are offered so much REAL freedom. Few games where you can roam through trash to build an arsenal of grenades. Few games where the designers are waiting for your every action with a prepared response. If you loved Fallout for more then it's exploding head combat, give this a shot.

I have bought several games from GOG. A few I enjoyed but didn't finish either because I got stuck or because, um, well, I don't know why, exactly. Others I just didn't enjoy very much. However, I not only finished this game, but I also think it is one of the best games ever created. The first thing you will notice is how many frikkin options their are. You can be a human, a dwarf, an elf, and many others. But that's not all. Each race, along with their respective genders, comes with some boosts or detriments to their attributes. But maybe you want to boost something else, or maybe you want to make the game harder for you in some regards. Well, you can do that too. You can pick a background which affects you stats either positively or negatively, though usually both. And then you get to the game itself. It starts off fairly slow; it never throws you into something you can't handle. The early part of the game is somewhat confined, probably to help you get a grasp of how the game works. But once you leave the first town, the game opens up. And that is when it gets five times more awesome. The setting is incredibly unique. It is a fantasy realm going through an Industrial Revolution of sorts, bringing a steampunk feel to the game. But the two opposites of magic and technology are not just there to be there. The game uses these to create an even more unique setting that offers even more replays. You see, the two things clash. Magick doesn't really operate that well around a heavy presence of technology, and vice versa. But what is awesome is the fact that effects how you play. For example, say you are a magic man, and you want to heal someone in your party that is heavily technological. You find that, unfortunately, heals don't always work. Sometimes, it just kind of fizzles above the character but doesn't do anything. As you can see, there are a lot of things to consider when playing this game. When considering if I should get this game, I read one review that said the combat was terrible. I completely disagree. Mostly. The default setting is real-time combat. However, hearing that it was only good for some things, I switched to turn-based. Turn-based works somewhat similarly to Fallout. If you get near someone or something that wants to fight you, you enter into combat. You have a certain number of action points. Once you run out, your turn ends. If you score a critical hit, you do more damage, or perhaps damage their armor, or both. However, you can also critically miss. How bad the result is seems somewhat random on critical misses. Sometimes you drop your weapon. Other times you hit yourself and damage you armor or yourself. Other times you damage you weapon. This things never get annoying, however. The plot is another great thing about the game. When it begins, it seems like a cliche fantasy story. But as the game progresses, it becomes evident that it is not completely cliche. So overall, this is a really great game. The myriad of options allow for numerous playthroughs, and the fun combat and good story keep you going throughout the game.

So there I am, wandering the streets of Tarant, one of Arcanum's larger cities. I'm poking around garbage bins trying to find a pair of shoes for my embarrassingly naked companion - a rather intelligent half-orc who had been serving as an indentured servant at a freak show. He'd been made to act stupider than he truly was, but I managed to get him to fess up about his brains by guiding the conversation toward black tea preferences... But I digress. So me and my Earl Grey sipping chum are wandering around looking for some free clothes when we bump into what appears to be a group of striking workers. They, too, are half-orcs (and a few full orcs), and they're also finding themselves oppressed, in their case by harsh factory executives. It seems that there's a particular man guiding the orcs in their strike, so I walk up to him, but before I know it the cops are on the scene. I know this is bad; it must be, the intensely anti-union (and anti-orc) newspaper has made it clear that the chief of police is a genuine bigot and police brutalist extraordinaire. Naturally I shoot him. The chief of police. With a knife launched from an elephant gun. Things go downhill from there. So there I am, wandering the streets of Tarant, having massacred the bulk of the police force as well as the orc union after they got caught in the crossfire and attacked me as well. It's fair to say I'm feeling a little guilty about the whole thing. I probably could have talked my way out of that, used my persuasion skill to have the union and factory come to some agreement - but I can't help focusing my precious skill points elsewhere. There's this cool electric top hat I wanna learn to make. By some miracle my half-orc companion survived the riot, but with each bystander I gun down from the sidewalk (I can't let anyone find out about my massacre at the factory! Far too embarrassing) he gets more and more upset with me. Apparently attacking civilians isn't part of his moral code. Being a pragmatist, I take him out before he can betray me. Finally the city seems nigh-deserted and I wander back to my room at the local brothel. Although somewhat upset with me for destroying her town, the madame eventually sees reason and rents me a room. She asks if I'd like some company. After a hard day, who could say no to that? Unfortunately, I already spent most of my cash on some neat armor for my half-orc friend. You know, the one I left lying in a gutter somewhere. She offers a budget option. A decidedly quadrupedal budget option. So that's the story of how I went from cultured progressive to mass murderer in an evening, then went back to my hotel and had sex with a sheep.

So I got this game purely on recommendation from a friend. Being a fan of steampunk and all things steampunk related, I quickly fell in love with the concept. Now, you must be warned. This game may come across as quite dull because of its age. I won't mince words with you, the game's graphics are very dated, people move like robots, and the story can be slow get into. That said, this game is blast. You can do pretty much anything, and the more you explore the more you realize that there is alot to be valued in this little gem. The music itself is worth the price. I fully recommend this game to anyone who has a liking for a steampunk setting, and an appreciation for old school roleplay. If you don't like either, or you are looking for some good addictive hack and slash, I'd advise you to stay away. This is not that kind of game, and there are better games that pull off the mindless killing spree concept much more effectively.

I really loved Arcanum and recommend it to anyone that wants to play an RPG thats got a great story, very open ended worlds, and a different way about going about gameplay. The system isnt over complicated, as atmosphere, and keeps you busy. Not everything works perfectly, but its satifying to play and really the kind of game any hardcore RPG player needs in their collection. I Highly recommend it. I salute Troika for their efforts as this Game was well done and Id love to see Activision (who bought the rights to Arcanum) make a Sequel not straying to far away from what Arcanum was back in 2001.