Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

I enjoyed playing this game for a while until I inevitably ran into many of the game's limitations and its bad balancing. My first disappointment was when I realised that magic and tech were at odds. Really fantastic doodads that mix magic and tech are impossible. Strange then how many unrealistic and unworkable devices exist in the tech branch we haven't figured out yet to this day. If you opt for the Jules-Vernian-side of this divide, be in for a few rough surprises. Any ranged attack character needs ammo, and ammo is expensive, basically eating up your early gold resources quickly. Since half the time monsters rush you, ranged attacking is not much of an advantage. When the ore golems showed up, being a firearms expert was suddenly worth nothing. This is still early-to-mid-game, mind you. None of the NPCs become more useful through levelling really, you cannot control them much, so everything you really want to do your PC has to do for you. This means that you can't mix and match your party, because the really useful character has to do almost all except cast some minor healing spells - because that's all your first friend can do in magic after even 15 level upgrades. Etc. It is not a bad game per se, but to see a good idea marred by such dismal execution... Very disappointing.

I saw Theme Hospital on sale but decided to buy this instead as I'm a long time RPG fan, thought I was getting something like Fallout or Baldur's Gate but turned out to be an awful game with an awful interface and engine. Dont waste your money on this one.

it was good

this game is very good, used to play it a while ago and wanted to get back into it.

Good grief this game is mediocre. I was really excited to play this, I'm not the best at CRPG games because I'm not much of a tabletop player, but I do like the open worlds and quests these games have. I've played many of the greats- Baldurs Gate, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights to name a few. Lets just address the elephant in the room. This game is bad. I'm suprised it is so highly regarded by some, but as my friend likes to joke "It's okay to be wrong". And I say that jokingly here too- I suppose some might like this but it definitely was not for me. The good things? The town designs. I really liked the modern grid-like cities that filled the game, one in particular feels pretty big compared to what I have experienced in other isometric CRPGS. But that is where the fun ends for me. So much is bad. The combat is outright broken. There is physical, magical, and technological paths to follow. Technological is an enormous handicap in the game. Guns are worse than swords. You can put all your points to spec into your stats instead of learning skills. The list goes on. The story is also really bad. You would think a steampunk game would have a really cool steampunk story right? Nope. You will visit Dwarves in mountains. You will visit Elves in trees. It's another high fantasy game with a touch of steampunk flavor to pull you in, but you soon realize the story is boring doesn't feel original at all. Lastly, there are bunch of terrible design choices that will piss you off. Two recent examples are a portion of the map you lose access to without warning- forcing you to abandon quests you picked up, and a "door" near the end of the game requiring an item that you should have held on to from the first area of the game. Don't have it? Sold it? Guess you will spend 10 hours grinding random encounters until an enemy drops one. Some people like the novelty of these kinds of games despite their flaws, but I impore you to look elsewhere for a good CRPG.