Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura (2001,RPG) Review

An RPG Classic

Graphics -5
Sound -7
Gameplay -7
Difficulty - 8
Overall - 7





 In a time where all adventure games for the PC seem to be console ports or have been designed keeping consoles in mind I decided to search for a true PC adventure game. And that search resulted in me finding Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. I know.. I know even the name doesnt sound too cool and even i was skeptical at first. But having played the game i must admit that it was a true suprise package filled with a lot of good and a lot of bad stuff.

Set in a alternate universe Arcanum's setting is by far one of the most unique settings i have come across. Elves, Humans, Dwarfs, Gnomes and all other types of humanoid creatures live in the world of Arcanum along with hideous monsters that you would expect to see in a Dungeons and Dragons adventure game. But the game is set in a industrial age where these creatures have either accepted or rejected the advancement of technology.
Technology plays a important part in the world of Arcanum

 As the player, you get to create a character from among one of listed races above. You also have to define your stats in such a way that's either tech heavy, magic heavy or in the middle. Gameplay wise its similar to classics such as Fallout and Ice wind dale with a heavy reliance on adventure based questing. Combat can either be done on a turn by turn basis or in real time. You get to adventure along with a set of party members that are not fully under your control. And as you gain more experience you can choose to improve the set of skills that you have chosen. This sounds very typical of a role playing game of the early 2000s. But for me Arcanum seems to have done a bit too much in trying to incoporate a lot of new concepts while not sacrifising existing aspects. This leads to the creation of a game that at first can be both interesting and overwhelming for the player. The lack of a tutorial of course can further confuse new players and you may have to rely on your experience of playing similar games to move forward.


Arcanum is full of weird and dangerous monsters.


The world of Arcanum is open and huge world. And if you decide to complete most of the quests its likely to keep you entertained for a very long time. The story is at best mediocre and really serves very little purpose. The game tries to lure you into a interesting and compelling storyline, but with too many loose ends and a very high degree of complexity you end up wondering what your purpose was in the first place.

The other aspects such as graphics and sounds aren't that great. And i would rank the graphics and sounds of Arcanum lesser than games such as fallout and Ice wind dale. To give credit to the game it has very few bugs so you should expect smooth gameplay. But the game is broken in other aspects such as leveling and combat that tarnish its image.

The Bottom line:
Arcanum is not the best game out there. But it should appeal to players who like old school RPG Games.



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