Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura

The Good
As was with Fallout 1+2, the gameplay was, by and by, the main attraction of this game. The options for character development are massive; they put the majority of other games on the market to shame. The character creation is simple (and full of easy ways to waste your points if you haven't played the game before, or haven't consulted a guide), but as the game progresses, the player is given a massive range of options for character development. One of the nicer points about this game is that it is impossible to even come close to mastering more then a handful of the wide range of skills and abilities, it makes replays of the game a completely different experience.

Also worth noting is the great Steampunk setting, that is integral to the story, and also allows for a huge range of environments and characters for the player to explore and interact with. The background graphics add to the atmosphere; your characters explore everything from a industrial revolutionized town, to ancient elven cities in trees.

The story in this game is also well done, but often is ignored for long stretches of time in lieu of exploration and sidequests.

The Bad
The character graphics were abysmal for their time; the animation was jerky, the detail was low, and, in addition to that, the style was weak and generic feeling.

The battle system is good, but flawed. It is very close to Fallout's system, just not as well planned out and executed. There is also a "real-time" setting that is worthless except for the easy battles, as it moves far far faster then the player is able to command his character.

Also, even with it's final patch, the game still has terrible crashes and will occasionally eat a save game.

The Bottom Line
A brilliant RPG that needed just a little bit more polish to have achieved true classic status.

The Good
This game generally fulfilled its vision of a new setting and story with the same sort of flexibility that worked for the Fallouts. The number of possible character choices and development paths is significantly greater and more diverse than in the earlier games. The interplay of magic and technology, and the different feel of each, is interesting. The evocation of a Victorian English feeling (with some more modern conspiracies below the surface) is particularly wonderful.

Perhaps most promising, the developers seem to have mostly grown up since Fallout2. The sophomoric "humor" is mostly replaced by more interesting and better developed characters. There are moral dilemmas and issues to think about. Many of the factions are drawn in moral grays instead of melodramatic monochrome.

Although some have complained about the "sexism" in the game, including both the lack of female art for two of the playable races (a production cost decision) and the inclusion of some gender discrimination in the world and character reactions (an integral part of the success in producing a Victorian flavor for the game world), I did not find the game particularly prejudiced, and in fact there is a strong subplot around issues of racism and racial exploitation.

The Bad
Not all characters are created equal - there were some balance issues.

One of the most interesting side quests was unfinished, and just leaves the player dangling.

The desire to make a "toolbox" game was not carried far enough to really catch on - in particular third-party adventures can't have a world map - but it was carried far enough to limit options for game scripting.

There were some annoying bugs in the UI even in the final patch.

Managing NPCs in your party was done well in general, but a technical character was not allowed to purchase items for magical followers and vice versa - shopkeepers refused to interact with opposite-aligned characters entirely.

The game was a slug on the best machines available when it shipped.

The Bottom Line
A fine, though not perfect, game and a landmark in CPRGs.

The Good
Arcanum's setting is great. The blend of steampunk and fantasy is a welcome change from the Forgotten Realms or uninspired clones thereof that are all too often found in computer role-playing games. The setting goes far beyond just having gnomes with guns. It manages to capture a Victorian atmosphere and fuse it believably to its Tolkienesque world with a lot of attention to detail, from exploited orcish factory workers and a certain degree of racism towards orcs and half-orcs, including player characters, in general to mages not being allowed near locomotives out of fear of malfunctions, because the conflicting nature of magic and technology.

This conflict is also present in character generation, with a character that is strong in both magic and technology being just about the only thing you can't generate. Other than that you're pretty much free to do what you want. Like in Fallout, which was made by many of the same people, your character can be anything you want and the game is playable as almost everything as well. From stupid thieves to pacifistic chemists and from homicidal gunslingers to goody two shoes necromancers, anything goes. Many quests, including the main one, have more than one way to solve them, so the choice is really up to you, giving the game a lot of replay value.

The storyline is good, although it starts a bit slowly and even though is mainly linear, there are different paths and different endings depending on your choices along the way. The story will take you across the whole continent of Arcanum, from jungle islands to desert wastelands and from elven cities to dwarven caverns. All of these places are filled with side quests which range from simple delivery boy and assassination quests to elaborate conspiracies and political machinations. Still, there are entire villages that are completely optional, leaving much room for exploration. An interesting feature in this regard is that the whole world is like a huge canvas. If you keep on walking to the north east from Shrouded Hills, without going to the world map, you will eventually arrive at Tarant, just as if you'd traveled there via the world map. While doing this would be tedious and pointless, I appreciate that there's the possibility as it gives, to me at least, the whole world a sense of coherence as it doesn't just consist of isolated locations but also of the wilderness between them.

I also enjoyed how characters react to you differently, depending on your race, gender, reputation and technological or magical aptitude, even on some your equipment, like barbarian armor or a smoking jacket and that a character's equipment is reflected in both his graphics and his inventory. If you kill a servant, you'll be able to take and wear their uniform and if somebody attacks you wearing plate mail and wielding a broadsword, you will be able to take and use them as well after you defeat him. Assuming, of course, that the armor is your size, because small armor will only fit half-lings, dwarves and gnomes and elven chainmail is too small for half-ogres.

The Bad
However, just as most of Fallout's good aspects are present in this game, so are some of its not so good ones, unfortunately. First of all, there's the issue of bugs. The release version had lots of them and even after the final patch a couple of them remain. Mostly minor stuff, but annoying nonetheless and distracting from the game's otherwise great atmosphere. Also, the tile-based graphics are best described as functional. Streets are always at right angles and most buildings look exactly the same. There's little variety in the way dungeons look and most animations are wooden. Even special effects like spell animations aren't really spectacular. The graphics weren't state of the art when the game came out and certainly aren't now, but they get their job done.

Finally, there's one aspect that wasn't handled quite as well as in previous games and that's the combat. The game offers both a trendy real-time mode and a turn-based alternative. Unfortunately, neither works as well as those in other games. The real-time mode is not pausable and very hectic whereas the turn-based mode doesn't give you clear information how many action points each action is going to take. Additionally, real-time combat seems to favor ranged fighters whereas melee specialists seem to have the edge in the turn-based mode. Combat is arguably neither the focus of the game nor is it very hard as characters can get very powerful very quickly, but it's a pity it wasn't executed better.

The Bottom Line
Overall, the game is a worthy successor to Fallout and a true computer role-playing game. If you like role-playing games in general or Fallout in particular, this game is for you. If you like unusual settings in general or steampunk in particular, this game is also for you. However, if you like flashy graphics and lots of gunslinging action, you'll probably have to look elsewhere.