I never played Arcanum before seeing on Gog and I wondered for several months before considering to buy it. Then I gave it a try, and what try it was ! If you asked me what was my top 3 games I would without any hesitation put Baldur’s Gates 1 & 2 in my overall. I’ve been looking for years for a game that would involve a true old role-play and had more than two lines of dialog. (Like all these games that begins with the You-are-the-hero followed by “arrrrghhhh” (enemies dieing words) and They-lived-for-long-years-and-had-many-children) Arcanum takes you into a universe where magic and technology are competitors ; game’s background is so rich that will spend hours understanding the history of this land. It will bring you inside a mysterious plot that you want to undercover at all costs. Combat system will both fulfils players that like turn per turn or active combat with an easy way to change the system while playing. Progressions of characters are most interesting because you there’s no class system : you build through the game your own profession. In a way that makes me think about Morrowind or Myst you could go almost immediately to the solution of the game but you will only be able to do so if you have played the game at least once. And in the same spirit you are free to go wherever you want. The game also have a nice companion system with interactions, AI battle scripts, own personalities and skills. Furthermore the thing that makes the game more interesting is that you can spend all you skills points in a single skills but it will remain useless until you find a mentor to teach you how to use it, preventing munchkin attitude. A word about the music, it was the first time I heard vanilla classic music inside a game and it really fits to the ambiance. Though it can becomes a bit boring after hours. But it remains definitely a good soundtrack. As a conclusion : buy it, try it, love it.
