First, a few words : I like RPG since I played the Exile games by Spiderweb, I liked WIz 7 when it came out. I loved daggerfall. I like ugly graphisms and tons of numbers in a huge world. Yeah. Now what about Arkania ? - the character creation include a lot of numbers. A clever system of "negative attributes" you have to deal with, and 50+ skills. Before getting your dream party, be prepared to "reroll" a lot. The whole process is a part of the pleasure in this kind of old rpg, it's so rewarding to start a game after reading carefully the manual (not much IG informations about the effects of skills, and very difficult to know what each spell do from the name only). Really consider if you like that before buying this game. - the city maps are classical : tile by tile, a map will tell you where are the shops, inns and temples. - the world map... hum... Cities spread on the map, linked by roads. Travelling from A to B suppose to meet scripted events (km 9 from A : "a firecamp has been recently abandonned. Will you 1. install your own camp here for the night 2. send your best scout to investigate the camp and search for the former campers 3. just keep travelling". Km 20 : "the trail divide by two. One way seems to make a detour over a hill, losing time and efforts, but on the other one it seems you would be very vulnerable to an ambush". Etc, etc. ANd some random events of course. It's rather cool, even if long travels become tedious (If you go from A to C, and B is on the way, you'll have to cross the city map of B. You can't just stay on the world map during long journeys). - Resting. Ok. So you travel in the wild. Your chars will get tired, ask for a break. Set your camp, decide that your priest/alchemist will go fetch some healing herbs, your ranger will hunt or search for water. Choose your watchmen, when each one goes guard during the night . Get attacked anyway, fight while trying to wake up. ... You will go throu this process a lot of time. A lot. And again. And there is no way to automate this. Resting will become a job. A great backpacking sim it is. - the fight system : tile by tile, action points according to agility, charge of equipement... Not much to say, the system is not very smooth but it's ok. You'll need the printed manual (or a printed faq) here too because it's hard to know what each spell do before using it. At least until you get used to the system. - the dongeons : well... hard to say. You can play a long time without going into the dongeons. The freedom of the world map has a downside : it's hard to find what you're expected to do for the main quest. You can stay far from the trail for a long time. Hard to know if a dongeon is of your level before entering (and dying, probably). I had fun creating my characters, I had fun exploring the wilderness... Until I got really bored by the repetitive and unrewarding process. Then I had forgotten about my quest, but nothing could get me on the trail. I found a dongeon, and died inside (a lot). So I kept looking for an easier dongeon, and couln't find any. So I kept grinding and exploring, but... well... I had no quest to complete, no npc to talk to (just random clues after paying for my round at the local pub are not what I call social interactions). I think the pleasure you will get from this game will vary, depending how long you can stand the backpacking sim which is the price of freedom in this game. The char creation was the best part for me, imagining all the fun I But the feeling of adventure, epic fights and is very thin and left me disapointed...
