Posted February 23, 2010
A large, open-ended RPG that wear its Fallout roots with pride, Arcanum offers a wide range of variety for character and plot development. There's plenty of well-earned praise here for Arcanum, so let me point out my one little quibble...
It's simply much easier to focus in magic. To quantify that, magic development requires you raise one attribute (Willpower). You can add a little to your Constitution for fatigue (which doubles as your "mana"), but that's it. Technology skill requires you develop your Intelligence to purchase certain level skills, often requires Dexterity and Perception if you want to use guns you make, Strength (to carry things you make), sink some points into Firearms potentially, and you often have to pay for parts when you can't randomly find them.
While you can purchase schematics that broaden the number of nifty items you can make, creating a good technologist can be tricky. Not impossible, but when you can take Harm and Shield spells right off the bat as a first level magic user and blow the doors off of most of things you encounter early on, it's a little frustrating shooting off the crappy flintlock you just made, missing two out of three shots, and wishing you didn't have to invest in three different things to improve effectiveness shooting. And when you only get 1-2 points to spend improving a level, that hurts. Add to that the fact that spell casters can level up faster because they can become killing machines and get a lot of the XP, and it seems a bit unfair.
You get one companion early on, and another (provided your Charisma is high enough). The first can heal you, but the further you progress in technological skill the harder it is for his (magical) healing to work on you. Sigh.
I don't want it to seem as though there's nothing but negatives, but I imagine for some people who have imagined a well-balanced game that gives equal share to the two major disciplines in the game there will be some disappointment. And don't forget, you can develop as a fighter type, thief, diplomat or hybrid - there are no classes, only skill development.
All in all, if you're patient, Arcanum will provide hours of entertainment -the story is compelling, the strange string chamber music works amazingly well, and all the ambiance and detail you would want in a solid RPG is there. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this game to anyone who likes a good RPG (and doesn't mind a few minor bugs). Buy it in a box from Amazon for $50, or spend $5.99 here, it's worth it.
It's simply much easier to focus in magic. To quantify that, magic development requires you raise one attribute (Willpower). You can add a little to your Constitution for fatigue (which doubles as your "mana"), but that's it. Technology skill requires you develop your Intelligence to purchase certain level skills, often requires Dexterity and Perception if you want to use guns you make, Strength (to carry things you make), sink some points into Firearms potentially, and you often have to pay for parts when you can't randomly find them.
While you can purchase schematics that broaden the number of nifty items you can make, creating a good technologist can be tricky. Not impossible, but when you can take Harm and Shield spells right off the bat as a first level magic user and blow the doors off of most of things you encounter early on, it's a little frustrating shooting off the crappy flintlock you just made, missing two out of three shots, and wishing you didn't have to invest in three different things to improve effectiveness shooting. And when you only get 1-2 points to spend improving a level, that hurts. Add to that the fact that spell casters can level up faster because they can become killing machines and get a lot of the XP, and it seems a bit unfair.
You get one companion early on, and another (provided your Charisma is high enough). The first can heal you, but the further you progress in technological skill the harder it is for his (magical) healing to work on you. Sigh.
I don't want it to seem as though there's nothing but negatives, but I imagine for some people who have imagined a well-balanced game that gives equal share to the two major disciplines in the game there will be some disappointment. And don't forget, you can develop as a fighter type, thief, diplomat or hybrid - there are no classes, only skill development.
All in all, if you're patient, Arcanum will provide hours of entertainment -the story is compelling, the strange string chamber music works amazingly well, and all the ambiance and detail you would want in a solid RPG is there. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this game to anyone who likes a good RPG (and doesn't mind a few minor bugs). Buy it in a box from Amazon for $50, or spend $5.99 here, it's worth it.