Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

Arcanum's charm lies in its unique 1885 setting. In comparison with RPGs such as Baldur's Gate, Planescape : Torment, Icewind Dale, or even Fallout, it offers sense of realism in its portrayal of a colourful people of humans, elves, dwarves, orcs and ogres co-existing in the very beginning of a modern era. Steam engines and newfangled revovlers are the craze, phasing out old-school magicks.

The depiction of magick, swords and shields as old-fashioned and unpredictable, in contrast with modern steamworks and guns as the heralders of a new era, is attractive and makes for immersive role-playing that is believable and fantastic at the same time.

As far as your character is concerned, he/she can be anything he wants - a madcap inventor, femme fatale, wise mage, sharpshooting rogue, even a dumb brute whose entire vocabulary consists of monosyllabic words. And the NPCs (non-player characters) you'll meet are not your typical bewildering array of nymphs, giants, stone monsters, annoying insects, bugs and monsters of every shape and size. The bulk of them will be just like you, with distinct personalities - shopkeepers, aristocrats, factory workers, politicians, gangsters, and the like.

The story starts of with a bang as your chracter meets a mysterious ally who seems to think of you as an elven god reincarnated. As it goes on the element of suspense is tastefullly executed as you gradually uncover more and more of the mysterious happenings in Arcanum. However, the story is anything but linear, and players will be given every oppurtunity to interact with the world around them. They can rob unsespecting shopkeepers, pick fights with the local Mafia, visit the library, or simply explore the country for some adventure.

Arcanum's Achilles' Heel lies in the fact that experience is only gained either by completing quests or by the amount of damage done to an enemy. This makes playing a dumb, unintelligent, sword-wielding, all-out-melee, ogre the easiest way by far to finish the game. Coupled with the fact that weapon combat in Arcanum is decidedly unattractively animated, most casual gamers will be put off by this.

Other weak aspects to the game would include a case of too-many-spells-spoil-the-broth, as some spell schools simply don't cut it compared to the others; the lack of powerful spellcasting foes; the ease with which thieves can rob stores, and mid-level graphics.

For role-playing fans, however, the unique setting and non-linear gameplay will more than make up for its drawbacks.

This game's most important feature is its impressive character creation abilities. As a tool in every RPG game, this has seen constant development and interesting new looks in most every game that it is used in. Arcanum, in my opinion, has yet to be beaten by another game in its superb consideration of nearly all types of players and catering to them all without a specific class system.

Also, an interesting and genuinely intriguing tool that the game's developers inserted into the game was the rising conflict between Magics of the past and the rising Technologies in the world of Arcanum. Escelating into a miniature Cold War, Magic wielders would sabotage the trains in cities while the followers of technology would use these conflicts as an excuse to limit all magic users' freedoms with their powers. This, I found, led into an intriguing study of what "magic" means to people, even in the world outside of the game, and what technology meant to people, likewise in and out of the game.

Being a plot driven game with extreme freedoms, Arcanum might have been a little before its time and now has been mostly forgotten with its parent company declaring its bankruptcy and closure. A classic, nearly perfect example of the ideal for RPG games of the late 90's, the style in which Arcanum was made was both practical and brilliantly presented; a true classic of its time.