Customer Reviews

Arcanum : Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I couldn't in good conscience give this game 5 stars like the other reviewers. One thing to note as I kick this review off. This game does work with Windows 7 on my computer...with only a few hitches. There is a minor graphical glitch with the cursor that is easy to ignore for the most part. What wasn't easy to ignore was right toward the end of the game when I hit level 50 (the max level in the game) The game would crash every time. I had to go back to one of my older save games and replay a portion of the game and purposely avoid gaining experience.

With that out of the way I'm gonna do this old school pro and con review here to try to avoid being too long winded.

Pros
-Story is fairly interesting involving technology being introduced into a magical world
-Interacting with the NPC's is great, one of my favorite parts of the game, the dialogue trees are great and often humorous
-Lots of sidequests that flesh out the gameworld

Cons
-"real time" combat option is useless as it happens so fast you don't have time to do anything
-Graphics are bland, even for a game 10 years old
-You have to read a strategy guide if you want to make the most out of the game, there are a lot of nuances that you WILL miss if you just play through on your own

I noted the sidequests as a pro, but you need to be careful with them as there are enough that you could go a while ignoring the main story and forget what is going on.

You can be good or evil in this game (theres even an evil alternate ending), it actually reminds me a bit of Oblivion in the variety of gameplay, often the quests are varied and fun.

Being how old this game is there are modern games that do all this same stuff with more production value (Oblivion) But if you like lively NPC's to chat with and great humorous dialogue trees this is certainly one way to go.

First, a disclaimer: Arcanum is buggy, and even the patches don't fix EVERYTHING. The graphics are dated, even for an older game. There, now that's out of the way.

Upon playing Arcanum the first time, what really struck me was the sheer love that went into the game. By love, I don't mean "truckloads of money for graphics tweaks and all-star dialogue". I mean the world of Arcanum seems almost to live and breathe because of the amount of care and effort put into fleshing it out.

Arcanum is set in a Steampunk fantasy world -- magic and the mysteries of 'nature' are disappearing, being pushed deeper and deeper into dwindling areas of wilderness while technology and urbanization spread across the land. Wizards and railroads; swords and rifles; crystal balls and telescopes... it's all in this game. While the storyline keeps you moving in a fairly straightforward path from objective to objective, there are TONS of side-quests to do, and they're pretty compelling. None of the bland 'go to x and gather x number of x items' quests that plague modern RPGs.

The story is creative and full of genuine surprises; item creation and management is fun in and of itself; combat is nothing special but not bad either; the many races and cultures are historically and sociologically fleshed-out, giving the player a sense of being in a 'real' world that's going along at its own pace, not a world that's 'frozen' and waiting for the player to complete quests and move from point to point. Also, the soundtrack (almost entirely in pieces for string quartet) is unique and outstanding.

I could go on and on about the game but will summarize it like this: if you want a compelling plotline, opportunity to explore, mature storywriting, and a 'fresh' spin on fantasy RPGs, but are not overly concerned with cutting edge graphics... this is worth a shot.

Arcanum is one of those games that few people know about, but should be heralded as one of the better CRPGs of the last 15 years. In Arcanum, you are presented with one of the most unique scifi-fantasy universes, a land where steampunk and high fantasy meet! In fact, they not only meet, but are at odds with one another! A key theme to the series is that an industrial revolution has hit the land and those who once held power through magic and the old ways are now falling to the rise of technology and mass production.

The character creation screen, as with most isometric games like Baldur's Gate and the like, you choose a race, their portrait (a small set of premade portraits are available), and their attributes. One can focus on being a warrior or archer, mage or priest. But the interesting aspect is the inclusion of technology into the mix. Technology and magic don't get along in this world. If you're a technologist, magic doesn't work so well for you and can oftentimes either not work or hurt your character. The same goes for magic users. According to the game lore, magic alters the way reality works, so instead of having easily turning gears in a machine, they start to seize up and break. Technology has a greater chance of failing in the hands of a magic user.

The story is pretty straight forward as far as epics go. Humble beginnings, dangerous enemy, twists and turns in the plot. A number of the characters are memorable, mainly your first companion Virgil, but a good many of them are so stereotypical it makes one wonder if the developer couldn't have tried a little bit harder to make them more dynamic. For instance, there is a dwarf. What do dwarves do? Drink and fight and talk about honor. Congratulations, you've described one of the characters. The elves are the same way. Reclusive, good with bows, and wise. Its hardly honorable to talk bad about dead men, but Troika really kicked themselves in the butt by making such forgettable characters.

Luckily, its the plot that shines and not the characters. I don't want to spoil it, so I won't say much, but be prepared for an adventure unlike any you've had in a game before!

If you love CRPGs, have a deal of patience, and want to see a good story like you haven't seen in this genre before, this is a game you must play. If you can only play games with gorgeous visuals, the latest graphics, and everything voiced over, go play Call of Duty. Anyone who loved Baldur's Gate will love this game.

I recieved my copy of Arcanum today. Already have it installed. While installing, the game gave me a lovely suggestion, "This may take a few minutes...while you are waiting now would be a good time to check out the game manual. Chapter 1 deals with..." OH!!! Such good advice!! But the game DID NOT come with a manual! Just two disc. <Dissapointing> I like game manuals!!! It's part of the experience for me!

I have ordered the Prima for this game too...but it has not yet arrived.

My negatives aside...I love this game and will surely be putting hours of play into it. Especially after I have the Prima in my hands. It is the MOST open ended RPG to date. Released in 2001...come on game developers!!! Bring us some more fresh games like arcanum!! OPEN ENDED RPG!

If you order this game be sure to order the Prima strategy guide as well. Otherwise you will find yourself scratching your head alot. I also hear that patches will need to be downloaded to go with it. Full game with a patch can be downloaded for 5.99 @ good old games ([...]). After you purchase you can download manual and some other swag for free. I'm old school though and want a hard copy in my hands.

This game is FUN though. Bottom line.

The game is ok. Everything came as advertised. It could of come with a game manual. I enjoyed playing it, but I don't know why after a while it kinds of becomes boring. Even thoug I recomed it for occasional gaming.

Arcanum is one of the greatest role-playing games of all-time. It has to rank up there with Fallout 1 & 2, though it presents a different fantasy / steampunk world. Incidentially, the developer, Troika Games, was founded by Fallout vets Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky and Jason D. Anderson. The graphics don't stand up to today's games, but the classic role gameplay does. They really don't makes 'em like they used to. Choose a path of good or evil. Become a spellcaster, a bruising melee fighter, a diplomat, a thief, a sniper--you name it. Build your own armor, weapons, and chemicals. There are so many quests and subplots in this game, many of them optional; it feels so much bigger than Fallout 2. And, the main plot is very engrossing. In spite of its length, the game is very replayable.

When released, Arcanum was a very buggy game. The official patch helped, but if not for the tireless work of a fan, known on the web as Drogg Black Tooth, Arcanum would almost be too tedious and flawed. Drogg's unofficial patch, however, fixes just about every bug and makes the game far more enjoyable. In addition, Drogg has activated a lot of original content that Troika put in the game but apparently never got around to finishing. So, even if you've played Arcanum before, you owe it to yourself to install Drogg's patch and play it anew. Drogg also has made high resolution town maps, a screen resolution utility that allows playing the game on HD size screens, and he has provided lossless audio tracks, which you should add as well.

Additional thoughts: You may need XP. I don't beleive it will play on Vista or Windows 7 (though another reviewer reported it would play on the latter). Although not specified for XP, it is quite stable in my experience. You can toggle between turn based and real time combat. Neither mode is exceptional, and the combat can get tedious. I prefer the control and strategy afforded by turn based combat, but when the enemy is weak and repetitive, switching to real time is a nice option. People say playing as a technologist is harder than being a spellcaster. I disagree. It's just different. What is hard is not becoming a melee fighter! That is probably the easiest path to victory (though still fun). There are very powerful firearms in the game, but they aren't available for a while, unless you become your own gunsmithy. There is a lot of combat in this game, so if you are planning to be a diplomat, then you better not travel alone. Sadly there isn't a lot of gameplay difference between being a male and a female character. The different races impart more differences.

If you need help, gamebanshee has an excellent database--everything you could need to know. This is not a game that you need a walkthrough, however, unless you are just feeling lazy! It's still a popular game and there are several mods available if you want to continue exploring the Arcanum world.

This is one of the best Old Type RPG's from day's past. Over all it is a Fun game with the option of not haveing a class and you can make you own like a gun-fighter, Make's it one of the top games in my stock of other old game's like FreeLancer, Fallout 1 and 2 and other's.

Awesome game - great viewing for anytime and anyone. Great music, great artwork, terrific game play.

he character building in this game is great. Lots of options from tech to magic characters. it is sad that troika games is no more in business would like to have seen new additions come out. This one is definitley worth a look for RPG fans. If you are new to Arcanum, purchase a manual it will be well worth the money.

I bought this game 8 or 9 years ago for $20 in a discount walmart bin. It was well worth the $20 back then. But be warned, it is a 9 year old game built around the old school RPG style that was popular back in the 1990's

If you are an old school RPG gamer and you haven't played this yet, pick it up if you can get it for a decent price (not sure why amazon is still charging [...] for it). If you are expecting a "new" game, skip it, it already felt old school even when I picked it up 9 years ago.

As for the game itself, its a steam punk world of magic and turn of the century (1800 to 1900) stylization with an interesting character development system and massive explorable world. Always reminded me a bit of shadowrun (if it had been set 200 years prior without the high end sci fi elements)