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Imagine a place of wonder, where magic and technology hold equal sway, and an adventurer might just as easily wield a flintlock pistol as a flaming sword. A place where great industrial cities house castle keeps and factories, home to Dwarves, Humans, Orcs and Elves alike. A place of ancient runes and steamworks, of magic and machines, of sorcery and science. Welcome to the land of Arcanum.
Most role-playing games are set in a fantasy world, and if they're not directly related to Dungeons & Dragons, they at least follow the blueprint of the D&D rules. Not so with Arcanum. Set in the world of steampunk--a genre of fiction that puts forth the idea that computers and other advanced technology existed back in the late 1800s--Arcanum's world is fantastic and instantly recognizable at the same time. The game begins with the crash of the L.F.S. Zephyr, which you were aboard. Things go from bad to worse as assassins try to kill you. Meanwhile, you struggle to understand why people think you are the reincarnation of "The Living One." Developed by Troika Games--which is staffed by many of the people who created the excellent Fallout games--Arcanum takes the conventions of the RPG genre and turns them on their head. Instead of binding players to a specific character class, such as Paladin or Barbarian, Arcanum lets you create a completely unique character. Experience points can be distributed in any area, so you can create a character that's a thief, magic user, and gunslinger all in one. In addition, you can specialize in either magic or technology, which will impact how the other characters in the game deal with you. The world of Arcanum is simply massive, and the story is extremely detailed. The main plot will provide you with 30 to 40 hours of gameplay, and the side quests will add another 10 to 20 hours to that figure. The quests run the gambit from fetching items to finding a cure for lycanthropy, and they're all well designed. Arcanum is viewed from a third-person isometric view--similar to Diablo II and Baldur's Gate II--and the graphics easily compare with any other RPG on the market. The characters are modeled nicely, and the backgrounds and structures are very detailed and really add substance to the game. Unfortunately, even on a high-end system such as an Athlon 1.33 GHz, the game suffers from long loading times, and will occasionally slow down during combat. Those minor problems aside, Arcanum is a sensational game. The open-ended nature of the character-creation system guarantees replayability, and the setting and story will offer relief for anyone tired of Diablo II's dungeon crawls. --Kilmic Robbins Pros:- Great story
- Numerous quests
- Ability to completely customize character
Cons:- Long loading times
- Interface can be overwhelming at times
Imagine a place of wonder, where magic and technology hold equal sway, and an adventurer might just as easily wield a flintlock pistol as a flaming sword. A place where great industrial cities house castle keeps and factories, and home to dwarves, humans, orcs, and elves alike. A place of ancient ruins and steam works, of magic and machines, of sorcery and science. Welcome to the land of Arcanum.
Arcanum: of Steamworks & Magick Obscura Accessories
 Baldur's Gate 2: Ultimate Collection (Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal)
Fallout Collection (Fallout, Fallout Tactics, Fallout A Post Nuclear RPG)
Fallout Collection
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Temple of Elemental Evil: A Classic Greyhawk Adventure
Fallout 1 / Fallout 2 Bundle (Jewel Case)
Fallout 3
Baldur's Gate - 4 in 1 Box Set Compilation
Sacred: Gold Edition
Icewind Dale Ultimate Collection
Arcanum: of Steamworks & Magick Obscura Reviews
If you love RPGs, you've probably already played this, but if you haven't you owe it to yourself to give it a try. It does what any good RPG can do, let's you role play, and it does it magnificently well. Ok, pretty much everything I have to say about this game has been said numerous times already. This is one of the finest RPGs ever made. It ranks up there with Fallout, Planescape, and the Ultima series. Yes it's old, yes the graphics are dated, but none of that seems to matter once you start playing.
There is no fix for it that I can find. I loved this game, and wanted to play it again, but I had gotten a new computer since I last played, and now that the new computer has Windows Vista, I can't play my game any longer. So make sure you have an older version of Windows, and not Vista if you want to buy this game. It's WAY worth it if you have the right computer. And I've looked everywhere.
The game is balanced far more than either Fallout 1 or Baldur's Gate was. If you weren't either a brawler or an energy weapons person by the end, your character just wasn't as powerful. In Fallout there were a lot of things that were just useless as far as skills and money and items were concerned. I played Fallout 1 and 2, Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 with all of the Expansions, Diablo 1 and 2 and Hellfire (for those that remember it) and many many more games. In Arcanum every class is balanced to the very end, and certain areas are simply inaccessible to certain player types. The game can be played live action like Baldur's Gate or like Fallout 1.
. The Thieves guild in Fallout 1 really was pretty lame comparatively. Of course, if you are a big ogre you can kill everyone and break doors down and just steal things like that. Also, NPCs are very sensitive to your alignment, you can't just go killing people expecting to keep your party members around. Mechanical players can build robots to protect them use guns (which are NOT all powerful or even necessary to winning).
How cool is that. Baldur's Gate on the other hand allowed EVERY class to become incredibly powerful by the end of the game after doing side quests. The catch is that, the more mechanical stuff you use, the less magic will work around you so you need to strike that balance. Magic in a tale that is epic and nothing short of genius. I've played this game many times over and my favorite archetype is the thief for these reasons. There are uses for just about everything you pick up, you can make potions and salves and such using certain skills. You get the most freedom to explore the game, with a big guy on your team you can run behind opponents and backstab them for more damage and you can join the thieves guild. This classic steampunk game pits Machine vs.
Anyway, this game rocks, best game ever and the controls are much more intuitive. Both the mechanical player archetype and magic player archetype have variations (magic players have MANY different classes of magic to invest points into and you can choose more than one). For instance, playing a thief will allow you to deftly maneuver into areas of the game that might otherwise be off limits. This game is a perfect mix between Fallout 1 and Baldur's Gate 1.
I hope they make movie one day. SAVE OFTEN. GOOD: Magics are very well thought out, you can even charm enemy or revive and use him as your foot soldier to wipe out stronger monsters than yourself. I also liked the thing that dialogue can solve a lot if you have persuasion and charisma. BAD: There are some skills which prove to be useless, ask someone who played a game before which are they.
Elf, male, 200 years, level 50. -. GOOD: Having expert and maxed out persuasion skill gives you opportunity to solve things with words. ADVICES:. Can't beat Cursed Paladins. You tell someone to wait and can't pick him up after. READ ABOUT LAST QUEST ITEMS FROM FAQ I AM LEVEL 50 AND PLAYED 5 HOURS TO GET BONE DAGGER AND CAN'T FIND ONE. So, get charisma and low level chars (NPC) early.
Open door, run down-left to get to teleport and teleport yourself to main boss. BEFORE GOING TO VOID: get high level people, like Francis Payne , Gilbert's security Ogre and summon Familiar if you can. Molotov knowledge, usable to kill thieves at bridge. He is not so difficult if you know how, read FAQ if you are stuck. You can pick him up and don't see pic of him on the left. Run, get cursed sword, run to furnace, throw, use exit scroll. IMPRESSIONS AFTER BEATING THE GAME:. STATISTICS OF MY CHARACTER (yeah, people will hate me but.).:.
Knowledge of Black Necromantic magic ('Harm' spell is important), Summoning, Conveyance(Unlock is good) and White Necro magic (important at the end to heal and revive). VERY BAD: to end game with major quest called altar quest, you need some items that seem useless and you can't find them easily later in game. Can't beat 6 giant knights near teleport in void. My mage was great and I beat main boss (OK, I knew strategy) without much trouble. It is put in 1800s but imagine you got dwarves, halflings and elves instead of humans only, and magic alongside with guns, electronic devices, traps, swords etc. SWORDS ARE GOOD.
GOOD: Playing a magical character is great. GOOD: There is still enough points to become formidable melee fighter although strength is not your forte. BAD IS, YOUR CHARACTERS DON'T GET XP FROM FIGHTS AND THEY WILL BE STUCK AT BASE LEVEL. Mellee and Persuasion expert, progress bar one step from full. This is a game done by original authors of Fallout one. PATCH IS SAID TO FIX THING ABOUT LEVELING UP NPC WHEN YOU ARE AT LEVEL 50.
BAD: BUGS. ST 8 CN 8 DX 15 BE 9 IN 10 WP 18 PE 7 CH 18. And there is no place in inventory for all stuff, so you have to use your friends to carry. Great story, better than Fallout 2. This quest is major but, thanks goodness, not mandatory.
BAD: You never know what you will and will not need. VERY VERY BAD: You can't level up after level fifty.
This one still has one of the greatest character builds around. patches are available and the game keeps me entertained. I'm hooked.
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