Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

The only reason I personally haven't downloaded this game from GoG.com yet is because I still have my copy and it is one of the few games that will work on XP, though I haven't tried Vista or Windows 7 yet. I have never played fallout so I can't say if is like fallout or not. This game gives you a great deal of freedom. You can be as evil or as good as you want but there will be repercussions regardless of what you do. Some people of course will not help you if you are too evil likewise they may not join your party if you are just good for their taste. In addition to how good or bad you want to be there is also how tech or magic you want to be. The more tech you are the less magic will effect you, for good or for ill just as tech will stop working the more magic you become. If you are one of those people who likes playing these kind of games for the story and exploring the world this is about as good as it gets. The entire world is open to you, you can go almost anywhere at any time. The game's character creation system offers a good deal of depth I haven't seen in a lot of games recently. Not only do you get to mess with your starting skills and attributes but you can also select a back ground which gives you even more depth. Now for the bad stuff. There are a number of noob traps in the game that can easily kill you or get you stuck if your not watching for them, like the wolves just outside the crash sight. It is also possible that you might create a character that is simply not suited to a particular part of the game. Probably the worse part of it all is the leveling system. Like most games you get points with each level that you can spend on...whatever problem is there is a lot of 'whatever'. In addition to 8, count them 8, basic attributes to up there is also around ten different types of skills not to mention twelve different technical disciplines and twenty schools or magic. The leveling system needs work but they do offer a way out, if you really can't get around it and still want to play. You can choose an level script which will spend your points automatically. If you like fallout, or just want to play something a bit different, check it out.

No game to this day has ever captured the feel of table-top role-playing like Arcanum. It's varied, non-linear, open world style is just awesome. Unlike modern games where there are a thousand places to go kill people, Arcanum has a fairly small world. But almost every NPC has an interesting story to tell, a fun quest to give, and atmosphere to add. Arcanum's greatest strength by far is that you can play through it in many different styles. You can kill your way through in a dozen ways: as a deft swordsman, a brutish ogre, a master of the bow; you can be a master gunsmith and craft yourself a machine gun; you can master the many schools of magic. In addition to force, nearly every quest can be solved in other ways. You can sneak past enemies and steal whatever you need. You can seduce NPC's with your beauty, or use your gilt tongue to persuade them to see your point of view. The character creation system isn't always balanced, but it has so many wonderful options. Charisma may seem like a dump stat to some, but a high score allows you to recruit additional party members. I once played through as an orc with the background "just plain ugly"- I figured how much could a low beauty score really hurt? Well, aside from constant racial slurs, merchants would charge me 5 times as much as in my last game. Sometimes people would outright attack me on the streets. The story is a bit standard at first, but before long it takes off and twists into a really epic tale. Honestly, the ending of Arcanum might be one of the most sadly beautiful in any game. Humor, philosophy, creativity, ethical dilemmas- Arcanum is really a treat for anyone looking for more than just a dungeon romp. The combat system is pretty bad though. You can switch between real-time and turn-based and exploit the game with this. Spamming molotov cocktails is an easy way to get through the game. Magic is clearly better than technology, though less rewarding. Most of the items in the game are not very interesting. There are also a good number of annoying glitches. Baldur's Gate this is not. If you just want to run through the game killing monsters and amassing treasure, this isn't the game for you. If you want to be immersed in a crazy, funny, different world, to try new things, you will LOVE it. Since getting this from GOG, I've played through the game 4 times already.

... for releasing such an awesome game. This game is made by (nearly) same developers from Fallout series. Instead, This game is set on Victorian Steampunk-ish Fantasy theme instead of Post Apocalypse. There are LOADS of freedom and options offered for your characters, and character development possibility is near-infinite. (I played as a Gnome Gunman, while my friend did an Elf with 8 companions at a time, and other friend did a Half-Orc Berserker who tried to destroy everything on sight) There are no class but you can spend stat point on skills or stats, including 16 types of magic(5 spells each) and 8 types of technology(7 item recipes each, plus obtainable recipes that require combined knowledges). Only the sad thing in this game is that it's filled with bugs, exploits and some other problems. Fans are working on them to make them better, as another Troika's game, Vampire Bloodlines did. If you love Fallout. Buy Arcanum. NOW.

If you liked Fallout 1 or 2, you will really like Arcanum. The game / play style is very similar, but the world / setting is very different. You create a character (or chose a pre-made) and allow you to develop your character along technology skill pathways, or magic (not both). A great mix of magic and tech competing with each other in fantasy 1920's feel.

I remember playing Arcanum, when I was younger, during the Fallout/Baldur's Gate years and I thought it was absolutely amazing! I'm glad that GOG finally put themselves together and released this game :D Oh, and by the way, there's an high resolution patch available to this game, it higly reccomended you try this game out with the high res patch: http://www.terra-arcanum.com/downloads/ and here's a link for a couple of unoficial patches, mostly fixing typo's and other stuff: http://www.gamershell.com/all/arcanum/downloads.html Anyways, this is a great game, and it comes highly reccomended! :D