Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

Although the playstyle is similar to Fallout 1&2, with the isometric view looking very familiar; however, I had to force myself to play the original Fallout series, where as I loved this game from the get-go. As other people have noted, initially this game can be rather unfair towards specific races or builds, specifically low INT builds. My freind and I were playing through this game simultaneously and he missed a very important quest item at a place that doesn't allow you to return and as such had to start over. Arcanum is a game that doesn't wrap you in cotton wool; it exposes you to the harsh realities of its universe quite spectacularly.

There's enough reviews out there already that speaks to how great this game is. Just make sure you get the fan patches.

As good as I remembered. "Easy to lear, hard to master" - this game requires a lot of patience and You might get bored or discouraged, but later You won't be able to get up from your computer...

Oh, to have a review system more nuanced than 5 stars. There are things this game does better than Baldur's Gate, there are things it does better than Fallout, and there are things it does better than Planescape. On a straight scale, however, it falls gallingly short of any of them. The take: This is a must-play for anyone that is in love with the crpg genre, but go for the aforementioned titles first if you haven't played them yet. The good: The atmosphere and world building are top-notch. There is a "tech" system by which you craft superweapons and grenades and such from blueprints, and it is deeply satisfying. The world is open in a really delightful way and Arcanum features one of the best-thought-out urban areas in the genre. You will come to care about the characters and the progression is extremely open-ended, with many ways to handle each situation. The story is rich and character development meaningful. The bad: This game is unfinished. It was pushed out before all the bugs were dealt with, which range from annoying (get out of that wall!) to frustrating (I swear I got enough of these macguffins to finish this quest!) to exploitable (don't want to progress in the levels the usual way? Take advantage of these never ending wolves in the first area! Welcome to level 12!) All of these are things that will become so much background noise if you play just far enough in to get hooked by the story, which will happen fairly soon for most. The Ugly: It is obvious that the game was rushed out the door, but nowhere does that show more than the plainly truncated ending. Without giving anything away, you *will* get a sense towards the end that huge chunks were left out, when the pacing goes haywire and the endgame just kinda, shows up. That said, you can't miss something you didn't care about, and I found myself missing the end, rather hard. This game gets 5 stars for being an awesome game, but loses because it weren't done.

I was really excited to play this. I think the industrialization of a magical world is a great idea. I really enjoyed creating my character, and the story captivated me as I started to play. However, the game is buggy and the combat is laughable. Your party members are more of a liability than an asset. I read reviews that had said similar things, and I thought, "I'm more interested in the story than the combat." Unfortunately, I was so turned off by the combat that I eventually stopped playing. It's a shame.