Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

Most CRPG's can be filtered down to several genre's; fantasy, sci-fi, horror, post apocalyptic, etc. Arcanum combines a few of these into a thoroughly enjoyable game. At the outset you can select from your generic retinue of races; human, elf, dwarf, orc, half-ogre, halfling. You are not pigeon holed into a specific role or class, rather you refine and develop your character as you progess in the game. You receive skill points at level up that you can use to increase your stats, skills, hit points, fatigue points, schematics, and spells. This way you can develop your character into a magic using type, or one skilled in technology. This is one of those games in which you can gather many objects in order to create things like armor and hand cannons. Another enjoyable aspect of Arcanum is the music. I usually turn music off but in this case it adds to the atmosphere, not detracts from it. I bought this game when it first came out and still have the disks (I love Gog and want to support them, so I purchased it again) but due to computers that have failed me, have been unable to finish the game so I'm making a concerted effort to complete this magnificent endeavor. One last note, the only reason I gave this 4 stars instead of 5 is that sometimes it takes time for combat to pause when turn based and can get frustrating especialy when you have several members in your party and they all manage to attack and kill opponents while you stand there dumbstruck.

it's an awesome game with the fallout type combat and dialogue system with races from the D&D series. From what i can tell from the ruins of the previous empire, it's maybe 1000 years after fallout 2. but just a funny guess. ;) :D But a fun game. As advice, i'd say, invest in the tech skill healing salve in the beginning unless you're relying on magic. As the combat can get kinda brutal unless you choose an ugly or crazy character on purpose.

When I first saw this game, was little confused by it. Not only music was not fitting to any cRPG I ever played (dramatic strings with melancholy of lost times) but as well point your story take you, without usual pack of friends to help and mix of orcs and aeroplanes was very Warcraft-type, unusual. The choices for your character creation were very Falloutish, if you choose one, then you cannot add this fine other one. Race matters. Attributes matters. Fine blend of magic skills and technical skills allowing you to play many time same story just to unlock them and made this nice-looking spell or big gin for elephants that requires a lot elelments to combine. I personally was very into magic this time, but it was a first time I got difficult choice because it was so tempting to add items into mechanismus, produce every needed item to survive and keep things going. Very nice world, especially much to visit in towns, great atmosphere. And did I mentioned music? Marvelous, one of many game great soundtracks I heard. Fine addition to your shelf. Story is interesting, tough you can be confused about the choices in game later on. The only issue with that game - it is requiring a lot of time to get into, exploit and complete. Definitely a must have for me.

Arcanum is a rarely seen mix of magic, technology, good and evil in a steampunk world setting full of mystery that you will discover bit by bit in a really facinating story. the only and i mean the ONLY downside to this game is the muliplayer is lacking.

Arcanum was masterpiece, a unique setting and ultra-open areas with best quests have been ever made. You are free to explore land of Arcanum and follow a fantastic complex storyline with or without a lot of companions scattered around. Confrontation between good/evil and technology/magic was remarkable. Maximum freedom of choice I've ever seen. Dialogs were ambiguous, many of dialog options were really dilemmas, even the evil side of game would always give me temptation! The only problem was combat system that were not challenging enough but in fact the quests didn't have any focus on combat. I adjusted game options on turn-based combat system and Hard difficulty and the final experience was superlative. Voice acting, music, graphic style ... all are gems. Arcanum is a must for all.