Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

The controls of this game are clunky. The map is gigantic and not helpful. Generic story. If you are a fan of more modern RPGs skip this one. If you remember games like this fondly in your past then it may be enjoyable to you.

I bought it because I was looking for an RPG, and the screenshots looked nice. Should have watched some video footage. Because what you don’t see on the screenshots is how bad the animation is. I like retro graphics, I really do, but this was bad even in its own time. The controls are clunky, and the combat is… it simply does not work. The RPG elements seem to be in place at least. I guess you can force yourself to play it if you really like RPGs, but you are probably better off with getting a beer instead.

Steam sold me a game I cannot play! Despite all efforts, I cannot get this game to work on my laptop and it would seem many others have encountered issues with this title! I have tried every single suggestion found on this site and on the internet at large. I have foraged around Google for some small tip I may have overlooked to no avail! This is not the first 'glitch' I have encountered here on Gog, which is very disappointing as I highly respect Gog and want to support their particular niche in this market. First, some of the older games I purchased years ago disappeared from my library when they revamped the site and now this! Highly frustrated, disappointed and disheartened!

This game has one of the best settings, and ability to roleplay I've seen in most RPG's, and this is why Arcanum gets all of it's praise. However, the actual combat and story at times tends to be terrible and limiting. The technology using or dual siding characters are extremely limited against Magic users, thanks to terrible balance, the partner AI and classing options are terrible and can hinder your progress at times, and the game can be extremely hard at points for seemingly no reason unless you have a certain magic build. The storyline is mostly pretty decent, but at many points it's too vague and leaves you without any idea where to go or how to progress, and it can just seem to vanish at a few choice points. The game is indeed fun, if you can get around these major flaws, but to me, they make it unfun to replay, and stressing to play the first time.

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.