Arcanum is definitely a great game, although slightly unbalanced. I rate it up there with Baldur's Gate 1/2, Fallout 1/2 and Planescape:Torment for best RPG games.

Just a hint for anyone playing this, Terra-Arcanum. A lot of unofficial patches, fixes, extra content, all kinds of great stuff.

WiljushkA

Serbia1416 Posts

October 12 2010 14:18 GMT

#25

great game, great ides, but too many unpolished/unfinished stuff. story which wasnt too good to start with, gets much better a few hours in, but takes a turn for the worse in the endgame. the game also suffers from an often rpg ailment, rushed and horrible endgame and bad combat. at least there isnt too much of the combat before the last part. the part where most of the world opens up was brilliant though.

On October 12 2010 22:57 Fraidnot wrote:
Pro tip for everyone thinking about playing this game: Make sure Virgil holds onto all your important quest items and best gear.

that is fucking mean dude.

zdubius

Slovakia126 Posts

October 12 2010 14:27 GMT

#26

Being an avid RPG fan, I started playing this game couple of yeras ago, but was quite disappointed. The steampunk setting seems like a good idea, but the story, visuals, controls and overall game 'feel' didn't get me. Not to mention it was quite buggy (looks like this has been solved already). There was no way this game was comparable to the jewels like BG2, Torment or Icewind Dale.

However, reading the comments in this thread about bug fixes and additional fan content, I may give it another shot. There aren't many good RPGs being released lately anyway.

Catyoul

France2377 Posts

October 12 2010 14:40 GMT

#27

Played it when it came out, I remember it being really cool.

Harm so OP :D

Catyoul

France2377 Posts

October 12 2010 14:41 GMT

#28

Oh and I played a bit of multiplayer at the time, but it was buggy as hell.

disformation

Germany8352 Posts

October 12 2010 14:58 GMT

#29

Yeah, I played it for a while, but somehow I could not get far into it.
Way to much stuff to think of when creating a character, which is in a way awesome, but like a child in a candy store I can't decide what to get, since everything looks awesome.
Also I hated to discover, that I am too used to all these modern games and was a little bit overwhelmed.

xLethargicax

United States469 Posts

October 12 2010 15:46 GMT

#30

On October 12 2010 23:41 Catyoul wrote:
Oh and I played a bit of multiplayer at the time, but it was buggy as hell.

Might have been on the original patch. Troika games was forced to rush the release and in turn, there were A LOT of bugs. If you go to http://www.terra-arcanum.com/ you can download the unofficial community patches which fixed it up a lot.

MandoRelease

France374 Posts

October 12 2010 16:09 GMT

#31

I love that game so much. Spent so many hours on it.
Going either temporal magic or electricity was so awesome.
And i think the storyline was really good too, very unique game. Definitely one of my best game ever.

r33k

Italy3402 Posts

October 12 2010 16:58 GMT

#32

Arcanum was amazing, played it inside and out. Loved the fact that Troika would allow me to complete the game by playing a completely non-combat shopkeeper.

The only downsides were the hero AI (VIRGIL FFS FUCKING STAY HERE DONT GO CROSS THAT LAVA PIT TO FISTFIGHT AN ELEMENTAL 10 LVLS HIGHER THAN YOU) and to an extent the fact that the only 100% stealth character one could play was a sniper in turn-based mode (which didn't even make much sense since you were forced into headshotting people with an ELEPHANT GUN, but mobs were apparently deaf so all is good.

The musics are amazing, the steampunk elements get bigger and bigger as you progress with the game, and although you are "the chosen one" and all that funky business you can feel that the world lives perfectly even without you saving everyone and everything.

JohannesH

Finland1364 Posts

October 13 2010 00:11 GMT

#33

Its really great for the quests choices, freedom and exploration, interesting world.

Too bad its pretty badly balanced, and NPCs should be smarter/directly controllable, and some dungeons be less repetitively designed.

It's still 1 of best rpg's I think - there just seems to be no rpgs made that really nailed all aspects well

Playing a thief is the most fun I think, planning how to break into shops and peoples houses unnoticed is just damn fun. At least when you don't have all relevant skills maxed, need more thought then :D

Oh and "chosen one" my ass, just leave Virgil in the crash site :D

Haemonculus

United States6980 Posts

October 13 2010 00:40 GMT

#34

Hmmm.... I might have to check this game out!

PinkPrincess

United States149 Posts

October 13 2010 00:48 GMT

#35

On October 13 2010 09:40 Haemonculus wrote:
Hmmm.... I might have to check this game out!

You should--it's super cheap off gog.com, and it's a ton of fun.

Imo by far the easiest way to play the game is to start off going mass strength/dexterity melee/dodge. It basically makes combat a complete joke such that your companions just kind of watch as you rip through everything (well, except Dog. Dog does such sick damage...)

TheYango

United States47024 Posts

October 13 2010 00:56 GMT

#36

On October 13 2010 09:48 PinkPrincess wrote:

Show nested quote +

Don't go combat-oriented the first time. It makes the content so dry because of how much stuff you can miss for not having the prerequisite social stats.

PinkPrincess

United States149 Posts

October 13 2010 00:59 GMT

#37

On October 13 2010 09:56 TheYango wrote:

Show nested quote +

Don't go combat-oriented the first time. It makes the content so dry because of how much stuff you can miss for not having the prerequisite social stats.

Hmm a decent point I suppose. You don't really need to master persuade though. Just go for a paramour opening and get a couple points in persuade and you'll get nearly everything and can go max melee/dodge.

For what it's worth, my first playthrough I went total max on charisma/beauty first and just let my followers basically do everything... I had max conveyance and harm/heal, but didn't really do anything in battles except run around avoiding dying.