Amazon.com
Review
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
Amazon.com Product Description
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.
DailyRadar Review
Arcanum's
subtitle,
Steamworks and Magick Obscura, sums up what is probably
the most distinctive feature in Troika's forthcoming RPG title: the
rabid antagonism between technology and magic. In a world securely based
on high magic and low technology -- a fantasyland occupied by elves,
dwarves, humans, orcs, and ogres -- the last 75 years has abruptly seen
understanding of the principles of science escalate to roughly mid-19th
century level.
Such a development would throw any culture into
turmoil. But
Arcanum's universe is further challenged because
these two methods of relating to the world are mutually exclusive. The
more an inhabitant knows of magic, the less they're able to use a
technology-based item effectively -- and the less it affects them, in
turn. This works the other way around as well. Those who completely
master the sciences won't get zapped by wands, but, by the same token,
they'll discover that high-level mages laugh at the threat posed by a
gun.
This magic/technology dichotomy divides
Arcanum as
forcefully as religion split England under Charles I. No rapprochement
is possible. Many villages and cities try to show a conciliatory face to
the world, but they're only masks, hiding tensions that seethe beneath
the surface between individuals and among groups.
Arcanum isn't a
postapocalyptic world, like
Fallout, but one lurching toward
disaster.
All this you will discover firsthand, as your character
crash-lands on a zeppelin (it was attacked by orcs in WWI-style planes)
and alone, of all the crew and passengers, survives unscathed. In
typical RPG fashion, you'll have many immediate opportunities to take on
quests. Unlike the
Fallout games, however, your quests will
often deal with the ramifications of cultural disintegration. Some of
these are on a purely personal level, like the request of a village
alchemist who wants you to sabotage the local sheriff's steam engine out
of spite and a lost sense of personal prestige. Others have more to do
with powerful groups wishing to take advantage of the present malaise
and change the social order to favor themselves.
Your
Arcanum
character starts weak but has enormous potential. You can gain up to 50
levels in the game, investing character points on the technology and/or
spell side of the equation. There are seven possible technological
disciplines (Chemistry, Electrical, etc) that can each be increased
seven times, from Novice to Doctor. It's the combination of expertise in
various disciplines that lets a character read schematics that are
found, purchased or gifted (after completing a quest) during the game.
Once you've acquired the components described on the schematic, you can
proceed to create some pretty nifty items -- like an Elephant Gun, or a
Mind Marvel that boosts brain functions. (Can you say Jules Verne?)
Spellcasters
aren't neglected either. They have a choice of 16 spell categories,
called "colleges." Each college provides five spells that must be
studied in a specific order. Multiple spells can be held in effect at
the same time, though all spells cause fatigue in the caster -- unless,
of course, you're using magical artifacts that supply their own spell
charges.
Note that
Arcanum, again like the
Fallout
games, encourages character choices based on attributes, rather than
profession. An intelligent main character receives more dialog options,
and charismatic souls will provoke favorable responses in those they
meet. You can't create a mage or fighter, but you can design a hero (or
villain, since you can play successfully either way) who concentrates
over time on learning a specific skill set.
An entirely separate
area of character development (neutral, from a magic vs. technology
standpoint) is that of generic skills. There are 16 skills that include
subcategories of fighting, thieving and the all-inclusive other
(healing, haggle, persuasion, etc). You don't put character points into
advancing these skills, but seek out,
Might & Magic fashion, a
trainer who can improve a specific skill to the Apprentice, Expert or
Master level. At lower levels, these trainers can be found in standard
cities, but to find the best training, you have to search far and wide,
pay potentially exorbitant prices and engage in major quests. Rumor has
it that you may even be required to kill an opposing trainer in some
cases, thus preventing you from acquiring all skills at their highest
level.
You'll be able to pick up a variety of followers in
Arcanum.
Some will join you willingly; others will come along only because
they're required to do so, as a result, perhaps, of a quest. Each
follower has a personal agenda too. I've had several that backed out of
specific fights because they didn't like my reason for undertaking them
(though they remained in my party).
The
Arcanum I've become
acquainted with through a beta is a fascinating place, with a level of
quest and social complexity and character configuration that surpasses
Troika's previous work. Balancing is still in progress -- what else
would you expect in a product like this? -- but the team is still
promising a target date of February 2001. Pencil out a week or two now;
every RPGer will want to check it out.
Customer Reviews
A Game for a Specialized Audience
Arcanum is a game that
appeals to a certain audience. If you like figuring out alternate
solutions to problems, you may enjoy this game. Fans of the Fallout
games will find a similarly well-thought-out setting and sense of humor.
Fans of complex RPGs will be delighted by the depth and length of the
game.
If you thought Diablo was a great RPG, well, don't bother
with Arcanum. The only thing they have in common is that you have a
character that grows over time. Diablo was a linear hack-and-slash
adventure with clearly defined characters and simple mechanics. Arcanum
has a non-linear path and complex character options. Furthermore, if you
try to bash through every situation, you will have your head handed to
you, especially at the beginning of the game.
Specific likes: The
setting, that of a fantasy realm going through an industrial revolution
(with some Steampunk-like technology thrown in), is fantastic. The
character creation options are varied and give you a great deal of
control. The plot is long and involved. Some of the voice acting is
quite good, and the background music is very appropriate, if a little
monotonous at times. The system for using technology is a lot of fun.
Characters can literally take bits and pieces of things and assemble
them into everything from hand grenades to healing salves.
Specific
dislikes: The combat system has a few odd points. Grenades and such
somehow never harm you or your party, so you can throw them with
impunity at folks standing right next to you. Critical hits and misses
are ludicrously common, with sometimes drastic results, such as
self-inflicted damage, dropped or damaged weapons, scarring or even
crippled limbs. It reminds me of the old D&D Wandering Damage table
some pundit proposed, with entries like, "Cut yourself shaving, consult
limb loss table."
Graphics are pretty bland. You can't really tell
your party members from people on the street -- although the clothes
they wear do make a difference in appearance, at least. The graphics
seem to be at about the same level as X-COM: UFO Defense in terms of
utility, although they are far more detailed in Arcanum than in that
game.
The interface for interacting with party members can be
pretty frustrating. You can tell them what to do and what to use, but
they have minds of their own, and sometimes they aren't so bright. They
will quite willingly run between a gun and a target, and they pick up
anything that might be lying around, including stones, old shoes, and
bits of fluff. Sometimes, this is useful, but you'll find yourself
scanning their inventories on a regular basis.
Overall, if you are
in the target audience mentioned above, you can expect a four or even
five star rating for this game. If you are not, then three would
probably be more acurate for the average gamer, and those addicted to
different genres that require a fast mouse and a short attention span
will probably rate it as a two or less.
The
Best RPG since Fallout
This game has A HUGE about of
depth and options. It has an incredible amount of re-playability and a
giant world. (it would take 48 real-time hours to just cross the
world... thank god for the map function :) ) It is NOT a Diablo clone!
although I can see how one might think so... if you are accustomed to
playing Diablo you will play a character that has emphasis on fighting
skills, and not on such things as building items, gambling, thieving and
diplomatic skills. That is the great beauty of this game. You can play
it as a Half-Ogre brute, a wealthy Human upper-class gunslinger, a
spell-casting gnome that builds grenades on the side, a halfling mage
that ran away with the circus and wears gnomish chainmail... just about
any character that you can think up you can play. Also Arcanum has GREAT
re-playability. It is possible to kill every living creature in the
game and win. It is also possible to kill nothing and win. The great
amount of options will make you want to play again and again. For
instance, each NPC has a unique personality and will respond differently
to you based upon your race, magick/tech alignment, background, how
beautiful or charismatic you are, and a host of other variables. People
that snubbed you as a Dwarf will greet you with open arms when you play
an Elf. All this makes sure that no two Arcanum games are EVER the same.
All I can say is... If you like RPGs you will love Arcanum.
It's what you expect, but that's about it
Having played through
Arcanum, I can't really say I either love or hate it. It was definitely
one of those games that inspired both feelings at one time or another.
Since I think it's about average in general, I would recommend you wait
until the price goes down to about $20 before getting it.
Let's
start with the good things:
Your character is endlessly
customizable. This is immediately evident from the point system, which
has few restrictions. About the only thing you can't do is have magic
and technology at once, but otherwise you have a free hand. There's also
a lot of trait and race-specific things to explore in the game, which
makes it fun to play again.
The story and quests are very well
done. There's a TON of things to do, and you will actually have fun
doing most of it. A lot of the quests are challenging, but none are
impossible, especially if you're patient with them. You should find that
you get at least double the experience from quests than you do from
fighting, which goes to show just how many there are.
The setting
is cool. Who wouldn't want to see a place where magic and guns exist
together? It's definitely a unique world. I actually liked the graphics,
and I think that anyone who complains about them should (a) play
Fallout, and (b) start focusing on the gameplay instead. This isn't
Baldur's Gate. It's not supposed to look gorgeous.
It plays like
Fallout, for the most part. You really can't go wrong with a game that
tries to emulate that one. In fact, the only places where it DOES go
wrong are where it deviates from that tried-and-true formula. I wish the
designers had stuck to the program.
And now for the bad stuff:
Load
times are way too long. They're way longer than Baldur's Gate 2, which I
find odd considering the simple 2-d graphics. The game often stops to
load something (don't ask me what) during battles, which is highly
annoying. It also seems to load small areas one at a time, making a walk
through town a pain.
The game is buggy. I'm not going to complain
too much about this, since it can be remedied, but the version it ships
in is absolutely full of problems. You'll find yourself saving
pedantically to avert disaster at various crashes. Some quests don't
work right, and your followers and minions act very stupid in battle.
They are especially retarded when fighting around small doors.
A
lot of the features don't work well enough to be useful. Among these are
the real time combat (very risky until you're of godly power), your
follower's skills (you can't tell a thief to go look ahead for traps),
the inventory (you'll notice this right off the bat), and multiplay
(it's simply lousy).
The game is too easy. I'm not sure if anyone
else agrees, but I found the whole thing to be a milk run. I suppose if
you don't bother to do quests, you might find it difficult, but I found
that battles actually got easier as the game progressed. I suggest that
any veteran Fallout player turn the difficulty up to hardest if you want
a challenge.
When all is said and done, I think Arcanum is a
pretty decent game. The thing is, it could have been SO much better. It
really is a pity they didn't streamline it a bit more.
Click to view larger image
Click to view larger image
Click to view larger image
Click to view larger image
The stage
is set for you to gain power and influence over one of the greatest
civilizations in history. Click to enlarge.
Journey to
ancient Gaul, Britannia, Egypt, and more to colonize barbarians and
establish new trade routes. Click to enlarge.
Help build
the empire through military conquest and economic prowess. Click to
enlarge.
Take
command of 18 different military units, including naval command,
elephant cavalry, and mercenary forces. Click to enlarge.
Raze
barbarian villages for riches, labor, and property. Click to enlarge.
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