Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

MUSIC: the game is great. i dont care for the music despite everyone loving it but hell youll probably like love it since it is well made. COMBAT AND BALANCE: the combat is enjoyable in how jank it is. that sounds bad but being able to be bodied whilst also having the power to turn the odds just as quickly is fun in a realistic ways most CRPGs arent able to do. violence in real life is unpredicatable and can very easily turn on the person winning just as often as a fight goes as expected. STORY AND CHARACTERS: the story is good if you give it time and dont put your expectations too high and dont believe the people trying to make it sound way more deeper than it is (including the dev with a yt channel). this is one of the few games along with F:NV and planescape to actually have good likeable companions even if theres a lot of them who are nothing like in F1 but the standouts are amazing ROLE PLAYING AND BALANCE: the ability for roleplaying is lesser than in other good crpgs due to the main quest arbitrarily locking you out of certain areas for no reason and many areas being places youll only visit once or twice at most. one of the most damning things for roleplaying however is the even more arbitrary decisions for what skills assign to what stats. a Thief will have to basically have to wait until around level 20 until they come into being a proper thief where as a fighter is set to go about level 6 due to fighting having only 2 stats, 2 skills which matter, Constituion & Strength, melee & dodge where as a thief needs Perception & Dexterity, Prowling, Pickpocketing and Picklocks. id recommened only to those who are interested in unique games. this game will likely never get a sequel and honestly if they did the returning devs would probably make it insufferable

I have always enjoyed this game, since its release. I played with my cousin Michael (well, he showed me it) and it was a great bond before he OD'd. I miss him and playing this great game makes me feel connected to him while having fun. I hit cool moments on my own and will turn to almost say something to him. Its been 8 years but feels like yesterday.

fallout 2 in semi medevil times with steam engines and magic and fun for hours

This game deserves a remaster or even remake. Great story and overall concept!

Ambitious classic that failed to really do everything it wanted but still pretty good, better than Fallout in terms of quests, worse in terms of interface. Tech vs. Magick is like, do you want Tech summoning (automata) or Magic summon (necro), do you want Tech healing (herbology) or potions etc. - but it's also the thematic question that made FFVI so good and it does interesting character arcs here with Bates and the classic Gnomish conspiracy. You can play it like a weak Diablo I with a sword fighter or as a gunslinger, which could be balanced to pack some more punch for the effor in upkeep, or as a mage, thieving can be tucked in to any of these with some unlock spells or a few skill ranks. A kitchen sink game which nonetheless whips up a mean sugar cookie batter, with the right utensiles.