Posted July 06, 2010
Arcanum has got to be one of my favorite RPGs ever. It just has so much to offer.
Unfortunately, when the game came out, it had about 9001 bugs and issues in it; some of these were as benign as a misspelled word or a misused comma, and others could occasionally prevent you from completing sidequests--or even the main quest. A pack of psychos latched onto ths game and slogged through all the files and coding to eventually fix most of the bugs and even restore some content that was inexplicably removed from the final game.
Now, the game itself . . . my God. There's almost too much to do. Your character can progress in any way you want, without regard to the background or race you chose. Magickal dwarves who speak like morons? Sure. Eloquent, gentle half-ogres? Absolutely. You could even have sex with a sheep if you wanted. The main story, unlike many open-ended RPGs, is actually pretty interesting, and they're about a million endings. Throughout this story, you will inevitably become sidetracked by one of the plethora of sidequests, almost all of which can be completed with the use of combat, persuasion, or stealth; this level of freedom holds throughout almost all of the game, with the exception of a few quests that are more geared towards certain types of characters.
The loss of one star comes from a couple different things. First off, stealth-based characters, though possible, feel severely gimped in comparison to fighters or mages, or even talkers. It is incredibly hard to manage some of the stealth specific quests--look out for one involving a gem and a path surrounded by monsters--and even the quests that can be optionally completed with stealth are difficult. Second, there's the real-time combat, which is almost useless. Most characters are going to end up with scores of spells or items to use in combat, and the overly-frantic real-time mode completely negates the use of most of these. Luckily, there is turn-based combat available.
The main reason for removing that fifth star, however, is because of the presentation. The hand-drawn sprites are rather nice, but there aren't that many of them: monsters often look very similar, and half-elves and half-orcs have the same sprite. Armor and weapons do display, of course, but all swords look the same, all axes, all hammers, all suits of chainmail, all plate; the only difference is an occasional palette swap. Helmets, hats, boots, and gloves don't even show up; your character's appearance is based solely on race and armor. The HUD, too, is kind of annoying, and is probably my biggest qualm with the game; it takes up a huge amount of space and is a little bit clunky, what with text in the chat box appearing and instantly disappearing, requiring you to page back up to find it, and with the rather odd layout of the buttons along the bottom. The sound, on the other hand, practically makes up for the rest of the game's presentation issues. Voice acting is actually quite good, though only the most important characters have voices. Spells, guns, hits, deaths, howls, growls, screams . . . these things all come through pretty good in combat. The best part, however, is the music, which just HAS to be heard.
Arcanum is great, and I really wish that Troika were still around to make a real sequel. A lot of people compare this to Fallout 1 + 2 and say that they're better than Arcanum, but I disagree. The Fallout games laid the foundation, but Arcanum really took advantage of the system.
Unfortunately, when the game came out, it had about 9001 bugs and issues in it; some of these were as benign as a misspelled word or a misused comma, and others could occasionally prevent you from completing sidequests--or even the main quest. A pack of psychos latched onto ths game and slogged through all the files and coding to eventually fix most of the bugs and even restore some content that was inexplicably removed from the final game.
Now, the game itself . . . my God. There's almost too much to do. Your character can progress in any way you want, without regard to the background or race you chose. Magickal dwarves who speak like morons? Sure. Eloquent, gentle half-ogres? Absolutely. You could even have sex with a sheep if you wanted. The main story, unlike many open-ended RPGs, is actually pretty interesting, and they're about a million endings. Throughout this story, you will inevitably become sidetracked by one of the plethora of sidequests, almost all of which can be completed with the use of combat, persuasion, or stealth; this level of freedom holds throughout almost all of the game, with the exception of a few quests that are more geared towards certain types of characters.
The loss of one star comes from a couple different things. First off, stealth-based characters, though possible, feel severely gimped in comparison to fighters or mages, or even talkers. It is incredibly hard to manage some of the stealth specific quests--look out for one involving a gem and a path surrounded by monsters--and even the quests that can be optionally completed with stealth are difficult. Second, there's the real-time combat, which is almost useless. Most characters are going to end up with scores of spells or items to use in combat, and the overly-frantic real-time mode completely negates the use of most of these. Luckily, there is turn-based combat available.
The main reason for removing that fifth star, however, is because of the presentation. The hand-drawn sprites are rather nice, but there aren't that many of them: monsters often look very similar, and half-elves and half-orcs have the same sprite. Armor and weapons do display, of course, but all swords look the same, all axes, all hammers, all suits of chainmail, all plate; the only difference is an occasional palette swap. Helmets, hats, boots, and gloves don't even show up; your character's appearance is based solely on race and armor. The HUD, too, is kind of annoying, and is probably my biggest qualm with the game; it takes up a huge amount of space and is a little bit clunky, what with text in the chat box appearing and instantly disappearing, requiring you to page back up to find it, and with the rather odd layout of the buttons along the bottom. The sound, on the other hand, practically makes up for the rest of the game's presentation issues. Voice acting is actually quite good, though only the most important characters have voices. Spells, guns, hits, deaths, howls, growls, screams . . . these things all come through pretty good in combat. The best part, however, is the music, which just HAS to be heard.
Arcanum is great, and I really wish that Troika were still around to make a real sequel. A lot of people compare this to Fallout 1 + 2 and say that they're better than Arcanum, but I disagree. The Fallout games laid the foundation, but Arcanum really took advantage of the system.