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At a Crossroads, Ultima IV or Arcanum?

Wich would you recommend?

  • Ultima IV

    Votes: 7 22.6%
  • Arcanum: of steamworks and magick obscura

    Votes: 24 77.4%

  • Total voters
    31
  • Poll closed .

Clotstein

Augur
Joined
Jul 17, 2012
Messages
128
Location
At the back of your skull.
So.... after giving up, or at least halting VTM redemption and being unable to draw sustenance from 'newer' titles, i find myself digging through other oldies, never experienced by yours truly.
And so fate has put two paths before me: Ultima IV and Arcanum.
Me being a lazy bum unwilling to navigate trough forum chaos i ask thee: ¿Wich one should i play?
Also, if relevant, i'm more of a storyfag than a combatfag, but willing to adapt either way.
 

Rpgsaurus Rex

Guest
Storyfag => Arcanum.

Make a pure diplo character (focus on INT + CHA first, some Perception and Beauty may help too) and talk your way out of things. Get companions who do their fighting for you and switch to real-time to minimize the tedious combat (Arcanum's weakest point).
 

jonnypolen

Liturgist
Joined
Dec 11, 2007
Messages
271
Try Arcanum. I finally managed to find the time to play through it about a year ago, and it was a thoroughly pleasant experience. Also, i agree with the above suggestion of going with a diplo character. I started playing it with a combat oriented character countless times, and I always ended up losing interest after a couple of hours.

Edit: And play through VTM, you faggot!
 
Joined
Feb 19, 2005
Messages
4,565
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Well Ultima IV and Arcanum are really games from two complete different eras, it's hard to compare them. To be honest, I always have to get into the right retro mindset to play games with really outdated interface and graphics like Ultima IV. If you're playing them for the first time, it takes some time to adjust to these older games before you can fully appreciate them. At least that's my experience.

With Arcanum you will have no such problems, you can just jump right in without having to adjust much, the game offers you all the comfort that comes with modern graphics and GUI.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,228
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
To play Ultima 4, just tell yourself you're playing a roguelike.
 
Joined
Mar 13, 2012
Messages
3,438
Location
Lost Hills bunker
I vote Arcanum. I know quite a few Codexers dislike it, but it really is an gigantic and interesting crpg, and I really enjoyed it, and would recommend it to anyone, who likes crpgs. Use Drog's unofficial patch and enjoy. Combat is shitty, but it can be avoided and quickly finished. But if you truly want to enjoy Arcanum I suggest to be prepared to lose a large amount of time in it. I tried to complete everything in the game and played through the game a huge number of hours, but I still missed a lot of content and even some major locations. If you don't talk or explore even more thoroughly, I recon, you too won't be able to see everything in one playthrough. An excelent rpg. I would like to playthrough it now, but unfortunately, no time. Would write more but I'm typing from my cellphone this whole week...

And yeah, Talesfromthecrypt said it right, Ultima and Arcanum are quite different games... If you like oldies I recommend Ultima, if you like '90s rpgs and Fallout-style rpgs Arcanum is the way to go.
 

Erzherzog

Magister
Joined
Jul 16, 2007
Messages
2,887
Location
Mid-Atlantic
I vote Arcanum. I know quite a few Codexers dislike it

Well it owns a spot in the Codex's once-vaunted Holy Trinity, so I can either chalk it up to the haters just getting more vocal about it or consolefags.

At any rate, Arcanum is one of the RPGs that I've enjoyed the most. The biggest issue is that certain aspects feel stillborn.

Don't go in feeling you HAVE to go either Tech or Magic. You can always play as a diplomat or generic fighter.
 
Joined
Mar 13, 2012
Messages
3,438
Location
Lost Hills bunker
I vote Arcanum. I know quite a few Codexers dislike it

Well it owns a spot in the Codex's once-vaunted Holy Trinity, so I can either chalk it up to the haters just getting more vocal about it or consolefags.

At any rate, Arcanum is one of the RPGs that I've enjoyed the most. The biggest issue is that certain aspects feel stillborn.

Don't go in feeling you HAVE to go either Tech or Magic. You can always play as a diplomat or generic fighter.

Yeah, fighters rule in quick combat ending. :D
 

Rpgsaurus Rex

Guest
It's best to stay neutral if you're a fighter - that way you can use both magic and tech gear, as well as healing with both tech and magic stuff (e.g. Virgil's heal won't do anything to you if you go heavy into tech).
 

Clotstein

Augur
Joined
Jul 17, 2012
Messages
128
Location
At the back of your skull.
So far, crushing victory for Arcanum, but i'll wait another day until the poll is closed and do actually productive stuff. I'll still play ultima IV after finishing Arcanum.

Edit: And play through VTM, you faggot!

It's VTM ----Redemption------. Don't know if you played it, but if you have, then you know why i couldn't stomach it anymore if only for the sake of finishing the story. Already done bloodlines.

Combat is shitty, but it can be avoided and quickly finished. But if you truly want to enjoy Arcanum I suggest to be prepared to lose a large amount of time in it.

I fully intend to explore it to the best of my posibilities, college doesn't begin for me until 2 weeks from now and i have most of my day free.
 

Tigranes

Arcane
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
10,350
Arcanum is an unmissable game. Give it your love and it will love you back.
 

Stabwound

Arcane
Joined
Dec 17, 2008
Messages
3,240
Play both at the same time? They're different enough that there's no big problem with doing that.
 

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