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A Game for a Specialized Audience

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 68 / 75
Date: November 13, 2001
Author: Amazon User

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 most thoroughly enjoyable game since Half-Life

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 44 / 47
Date: October 29, 2001
Author: Amazon User

THE BASICS:
I played Baldur's Gate, and found it lacking action and fun.
I played Diablo II, but became bored with constant hack-n-slash.
I played Arcanum, and fell in love with its combination of action, storytelling, and sheer freedom.

THE GOODS:
This game has an original and engrossing story, complete with great dialogue and written items the main character finds. There is unrivalled variety when creating and advancing your character. The game does a great job at balancing the effectiveness of magic and technology. The game gives the player a surprising amount of control in how the main character develops. Will the protagonist become a great hero (or despicable thief)? A crusader against technology (or magic)? A hero loved by the people (or villains)? The protagonist can be some of these things, or none of them, but not all. One thing I love about this game is how, if you choose sides, there will be consequences to your choosing. Do you take the side of the wizard being disrupted by the local steam engine, or an engineer, trying to keep his machines (and self) safe with saboteurs lurking about? Or will you avoid the situation? This game offers even more freedom than Fallout/Fallout 2 did.

THE BADS:
There are decently long load times, which can be frustrating if you're a person who does not like to be kept waiting. Also, during gameplay, the game paused for a few seconds if my character was casting a spell that had complex grapics. This is nothing that will keep me from playing the game, though.

THE BOTTOM LINE:
Buy this game, download the patch, and enjoy, my friend!

The Best RPG since Fallout

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 28 / 29
Date: August 19, 2001
Author: Amazon User

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.

Bugs play minimal part in this excellent RPG Adventure

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 23 / 23
Date: August 30, 2001
Author: Amazon User

If you were to take the best aspects of the Fallout series and throw in some elements from the Baldur's Gate series and then combine them to form this excellent RPG Adventure. From the get go every decision you make will alter the path of the game. From choosing a Male Elf or a Female Human your decisions effect the outcome of the game. The First overwhelming aspect of the game is the leveling system. Unlike games such as Diablo, Arcanum has a vast array of stats, skills, technology, and magick to distribute ability points to. Trying to stay balance among all of the available options will result in a very difficult game. However if you specialize in a certain skill, technology, or Magick you will have a stronger character. The combat engine is a very unique one that adjusts to your playing style. If you are used to hack and slash RPG's you might enjoy the Real-Time combat. However if your used to Fallout or Baldur's Gate turn based approach you can choose the turn based mode. There is even a cross between the two called Fast Turn based Mode which speeds up the turn based movement a bit. In any case there is a mode for everyone.
Another large part of this game is the development of your character. Through conversations and your actions you will develop a reputation. In addition if you focus your talents on Magick or Technology certain people will treat you differently. The entire land of Arcanum is divided between magick and technology. Choosing a focus is the most difficult task. Throughout the game you will have the ability to meet other characters that will join you on your quest if your leadership ability is high enough and you request their assistance. When you gain control of these NPC's they act as real people. Each one having its own personality and objective. They all can be upset by your actions and sometime might even decide to attack you and the rest of your party. Some NPC's are good some are evil. Based on your characters alignment you will get along better with some than others. However, this is half the fun.
On the negative side you will find several bugs, most of which should be fixed with the release of the new patch. On a unfortunate note the multiplayer was designed to be played on what used to be WON.net. Being won.net has officially closed shop and is currently being run by a minimal staff large lag times and several bugs a present here. Most people are hoping for an addition of TCP/IP to the network settings allowing players to play on GameSpy or Kali. On another note the biggest flaw in this games release was the Manual. It is completely unorganized and will provide little to any assistance. There is no Table of Contents or Glossary and to find the information you want you will have to a. read it from cover to cover. b. visit a Arcanum web site. or c. Buy the Strategy Guide. It is unfortunate that a game so fun and well thought out would place its manual on its lowest priority.
All in all this game is a very exciting and unique game that will be a sure fire nominee for game of the year. If you are a fan of Baldur's Gate and Fallout 1 & 2 this just may be the game for you. I do however suggest that when purchasing the game you also purchase the strategy guide. It is very well written and contains a complete guide to all of the characters and weapons you will run across.

Intriguing, but frustrating... and macho

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 31 / 38
Date: January 13, 2002
Author: Amazon User

The concept, world design, and overarching plot was as good as any game out there. It's too bad the details couldn't live up to it. The game is slow, the movement interface involves constant low-speed scrolling to get where you're going, the inventory interface is painful, combat lacks tactics or strategy, and most of your playing time winds up being spent in boring, frustrating trivial tasks like constantly taking NPC's armor off and transferring it into your own inventory so you can fix it, then transferring it back and making them wear it again. Yawn. The NPCs have so little, sporadic interaction with the world they're like a throwback to pre-Ultima days, and the characters all look exactly the same except for clothing color (even when it's in direct contradiction to the game text--you'll see a woman who supposedly has "flaming red" hair, but it will still be black).

The game is also heavily, heavily geared towards male characters. A female player--or a male player who has chosen a female character--has to go back to the dry old days of watching female NPCs giving you the same "flirt" lines they give the men. The main concession to a female character is having dirty old gnomes grope you in the bars, believe it or not. There are also at least two subplots that not only fail to take sexual abuse of females at all seriously and joke around about it, but assume that YOU won't take it very seriously and don't give you the option of punishing the wrongdoers. This is not a game a lot of female players are going to enjoy a tremendous amount. Who really wants to deal with rape and incest on your leisure time--especially when you're not going to be able to cathartically kick anyone's butt over it?

I wish I'd liked this game better, since it had a really good gameworld and excellent alternative solutions to the quests for players who came at the problem in different ways (something not enough games do). But it's too slow, flawed, and irritating for me to really recommend.

An excellent RPG for the enthusiast

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 22 / 24
Date: November 25, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Before you approach Arcanum, you have to consider what kind of gamer you are; do you enjoy the click-kill activity and furious multiplayer action of Diablo, or the intricate storyline / character development system as seen in Baldur's Gate, Fallout, etc.?

If you answered Diablo, then, please use the door marked "Exit", as you probably won't enjoy Arcanum.

Still here? Good. For the rest of us, Arcanum proves to be a real treat; an expansive role playing game that allows you to customize your character in many different ways. You tweak-junkies with be pleased with the depth of character development available, although I'm still not decided on the single-point-to-distribute-per-level system. (You gain 2 points every 5th level, however, instead of 1.)

One of my favorite aspects of Arcanum is the ability to solve quests and situations in different ways; perhaps you can coerce the character in question to your way of thinking, via your persuasive talents. If that fails, you might be able to pick pocket a crucial item from his or her person. If that fails, you can often resort to the more vulgar solution of violence.

Lots of dialogue and original quests make this one a keeper. However, the storyline is a bit cliched... you are the chosen one, sent to battle great evil. Wow, I haven't seen that one before! In all fairness, though, the execution of the story is great, and will keep you playing late into the night.

Gooey role-playing steampunk goodness.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 22 / 24
Date: January 05, 2002
Author: Amazon User

There is one reason this game sticks out in my mind. I've been a die-hard gamer for fifteen years. In the last two years, this was one of ten games out of the sixty or so I've purchased that I've been able to install and run without a patch and enjoy in what I consider a satisfactory fashion. Satisfactory fashion is defined by, no "fatal" bugs and no impedment of the game itself either by bad design or technical trouble.

Arcanum is a seamless transition into the world of Victorian Steampunk that is located in a fantasy-based world. The tone is H.G. Wells crossed with high fantasy. It works surprisingly well.

The logic of the world works. It is unfortunately extremley complex, even more so than similar games (of the Fallout mein) are. There are several stats and skills, and to play through unimpeded by the system takes starting over once or twice for the average person. My advice is that before you start the game, scan a few webpages relating to it and design your character *before* you're level fifteen and realize that one point in three dozen skills more or less isn't necessarily so much fun.

This is in truth the one down side to Arcanum; the manual is thorough, but it is written primarily in character. This is somewhat cool...but since it's also a *technical* manual teaching about the very out of character fact of stats, skills, etc...such in-character things can be a bit grating. There is also no index for specific subjects, which for a game complex as Arcanum can be tedious. I'd love to see a very thorough table of contents and index both in future games.

The graphics are better than Fallout. The sound is wonderful. Battles can be a bit repetitive. There were not nearly as many magical enemies as I'd have liked, considering the entire theme of the story is based on the outcome of an ancient myth/prophecy. Of course, the world is also slowly killing magic off (or at least that's the implication), so I guess it makes a sort of sense. Still, it was somewhat disappointing.

All-in-all, Arcanum is a fascinating game, and a captivating one. The story is excellent, the characters intriguing, and it's just plain fun. It's one of those games where days pass and you haven't realized it's already six days from when you started. The only drawback to the treasure-trove of its complexity, is if you pick the wrong character, you end up being utterly frustrated. Research before you play definetly, and avoid some of that potent annoyance. I sure wish I did! However, I'm grateful I gave it another try.

It is all things considered, worth the money. The frustrations I experienced were minimal compared to other snafu from other RPG's -- the most recent Ultima disaster and the Fallout2 problems to name a few.

You make me sad, Troika.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 23 / 26
Date: October 01, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I hate writing negative reviews. I like writing positive reviews about things that have entertained or educated me, but sometimes something gets me frustrated enough that I feel obligated to inform others.

While I normally start with complaints, I feel it necessary to start with the good things about Arcanum. Arcanum has the potential to be one of the coolest games ever made. It has an original story, an immersive world with colorful characters, and a variety of playing styles to suit anyones prefernces.

Unfortunately, all of these positive things are shrouded in one of the buggiest pieces of code that has ever come across my PC. Characters and Items either fail to appear, or disapppear for no apparent reason making the main plot impossible to further. It's one thing to get stuck in a little subplot, but it's another thing to get stuck in the middle of the story simply because of technical errors.

I spent hours trying to figure out what I was doing wrong at times, only to visit the game forum at the official site and find message after message complaining about "bug this" and "fix that". The current patch has done nothing to help me. I think my bugs maybe a little worse than others, but almost everyone has experienced at least minor bugs and glitches.

If this were some impulse buy I would have just given up and moved on to something else, but Arcanum, when working properly, is a really great game. That's what makes it SO frustrating, the fact that hidden under all that bad programming a great concept is dying to come out. I expect more from the guys that created the Fallout series which are some of the most entertaining games ever made. The guys over at Troika should be ashamed of themselves for releasing this game as a finished product.

Hopefully you won't experience as many showstopping bugs as I did, but be warned, they are out there. If you don't believe me, just visit the official site boards and look for yourself. Hopefully, Troika will make this game playable, and if they do I will gladly come back here and edit my review.

For the RPG enthusiast

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 12
Date: November 20, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I'm a big fan of computer role playing games (especially the two Fallouts) and as a result, Arcanum has been a treat. It's rare that you find a game with such a huge world and vast variety of options in creating and developing your character. I've already put well over 100 hours into it, and expect to replay it all the way through several more times.

For casual RPG players, there are many elements of Arcanum that may make your experience less enjoyable. The graphics are probably the biggest drawback: not only do they look dated, they seem washed out with too many grays and browns. The richness of the character development system and size of the world may also make it difficult to get into the game. The interface itself can take some getting used to, and the combat system is merely adequate. If you can get past those things, though, you'll probably enjoy the game.

Hardcore RPG players won't care about most of those factors, but there are a few other things that may bother them. One is that there are some balance issues; the most notable is a weapon which you can get relatively early in the game which is powerful enough to kill almost any enemy with 2-3 blows. Even though my character wasn't combat-oriented, I never had a difficult combat after obtaining that weapon. Another issue is that money is probably too easy to come by. Finally, the game has quite a few bugs; most of them are minor and being addressed with patches, but there is one bug (obviously a memory leak) which causes performance to gradually deteriorate until the game is unplayable. I had to restart the game every few hours to get around this.

The ranking I give to a game is based on one factor alone: how much fun I had playing it, and despite some of the negatives I've mentioned, I've really had a blast playing Arcanum. I look forward to future games by Troika.

Pretty Good Game Could Have Been Fabulous

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 15 / 17
Date: November 14, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Arcanum was one of my most-anticipated games this year, and I bought it as soon as it came out. I wasn't disappointed at all, but it didn't blow me away like I thought it would.

The graphics are fine, but a little washed out and grainy. The story is engaging, but not as compelling as (for example) "Fallout 2" (which was made by the same company).

The class-free character creation system -- in which any character can learn any skill -- was a nice change from D&D-based RPGs like "Baldur's Gate."

The steampunk world was well-realized, and I especially liked being able to make useful items from junk I found in garbage cans. The game did a great job of making the struggle between magic and technology affect the individual character. That gives Arcanum good replay value, because it will really be a different game for a technological character than it was for a magical one.

Overall, Arcanum is a good game, even if it didn't live up to my stratospheric expectations.

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