Arcanum - worth a punt?

[Jaesun]

I hated the music in Arcanum as well. I wish Tim would have stuck to using Dark Ambient music for it.

 

[Neanderthal]

Arcanum soundtrack is the tits for me.

So much good content in Caladon, and so many approaches and ways to solve them, and first off i'd just like to say FUCKING GNOMES! Ah well may as well sell twin skulls now. The Whitechurch murders have given me the name of a demon, L'Anamelach or something and i'm off to Tarant to find out about him, I could have telegraphed the demonologist but i've got loads of other stuff to do. Want to find Elmer Burbottom who bribed Mrs Minsk's butler, and find out about Virgil's name on the gravestone, Drummond. Think Victor Minsk buried himself with his book but i'll sort that out when i've found this Burbottom bloke. Also got to go to Wreck Point and see if Praetor's daughter kicked bucket.

Shafted Tarant in the trade deal with Caladon, not too much but enough so that I think they'll get the worst part of that deal. Fucking gnomes and industrial council deserve no less. As Nasrudin reborn I think that Caladon should be dominant, Magnus thinks i'm the Living One and has unlocked his temple to me, wonder what secrets that'll uncover and why the High Priest has declared me an imposter? Sort this out later.

 

[Agesilaus]

Arcanum is not worth a punt.

 

[Beastro]

I hated the music in Arcanum as well. I wish Tim would have stuck to using Dark Ambient music for it.

It suits the Victorian setting of some of the game. At its worst it's non-offensive, not like some of the repeated sound effects in Geneforge that pass for "music" in those games, like the kids babble in towns.

The problem with the games music is that there's just not enough of it and they needed different styles for more medieval/fantastical areas instead of one song covering most of the entire game.

 

[Morality Games]

Depends on the interests and priorities of the player. If you love exploring and discovering weird/cool NPCs and scenarios blended together with genius level world building in a Steampunk/Fantasy environment, Arcanum is the game for you. As far as other elements go: although there are a handful of companions whose dialogue boxes can be probed at different and often counter-intuitive ways to dig out gold nuggets, but nothing on the level of satisfaction you would get from discovering/creating a relationship with your party members in a story-driven Black Isle/Bioware/Obsidian game. If you ask to deeply why any of them have joined your party, you'll quickly find yourself asking questions about motivation and logic. Mostly such things are conveyed through the power of the suggestion: there is a "suggestion" that a relationship of great significance exists between this or that party member and the PC, but the narrative rarely attempts to develop it in a concrete way. Similarly, there is no satisfying deep turn based combat. ]

It's a game about exploration, investigation, and discovery of a world and its inhabitants, pretty much, and not a study of the personalities and motives of companions or a well conceived dungeon crawl.

I guess an example would be, in Dragon Age II ex-slave companion character Fenris tells you a lot about the Tevinter Imperium and how horrible it is as part of a fairly involved sub plot that has you fighting gangs of Tevinters who are coming to Kirkwall City to re-enslave him.

In Arcanum if you wanted to know about the Tevinter Imperium and how horrible it is then you would take a train to the Tevinter Imperium and see how horrible it is.

 

[Astral Rag]

yes

 

[Lord Andre]

Arcanum has some of the best emergent gameplay ever done, unmarked quests that you get from books, incredible reactivity, lore mysteries that can be discovered and uncovered organically if you do the right stuff or search for/meet the right person, incredible character creation and one of the best cities ever done in an RPG...not to mention regular branching and multi-stage quests.

The altars quest to gather all the blessings and become a demigod is something that would make brainwashed console fags' heads explode in today's world.

At the end you can:

Spoiler

Agree with the final boss, commit genocide, kill the betraying faggot and watch the sun set over a dead world as the last remaining living thing on the planet.

Yes, the combat is pretty bad with shitty AI, bad encounter design and late game guns being useless.

Even so, this game is a piece of art, one of the the genres finest achievements and whoever says otherwise is a popamole faggot.

 

[Neanderthal]

I've only really got one problem with the companions i've got so far, mechanically some of them are a bit useless. Gar and Torian Kel for instance, they're fighters but have strength topped out at 19, denying them the big bucks when it comes to damage. Still small complaint and as characters they're interesting enough to keep anyway, especially Torian.

Keep noting down these altars i'm finding, and I think i'll do that quest later, got a shit load of offerings gathering dust at university in Tarant along with that book.

Did all my quests on the eastern side of Arcanum, and finished the Dodge and Melee master quests, really intertwined with each other. Felt like a double hard bastard with my spells and combat abilities, that is until I got to the Cave of Fire and got fucking raped by Fire Elementals, they ruined my bloody Dread Armour. Still got the dagger to slay that L'Anamelach bloke. Stopped by Shrouded Hills to pick up that camera from intro for Maxim and see what had happened with clearing the mine, Sarah Toone taking lease had put ghost to rest and I felt like a big damn hero, shopkeepers were near sucking me dick in appreciation an all. Think King Praetor might top himsen, make way for his brother from Black Isle.

Off back to Caladon, kick some demon arse and see if I can become a god.

 

[MilesBeyond]

I've only really got one problem with the companions i've got so far, mechanically some of them are a bit useless. Gar and Torian Kel for instance, they're fighters but have strength topped out at 19, denying them the big bucks when it comes to damage. Still small complaint and as characters they're interesting enough to keep anyway, especially Torian.

There's a program that will "unlock" your companions and allow you to change their level-up scheme, including setting it to custom so you can allocate points yourself. It's not foolproof - the AI will only use spells they're scripted to use, so for example giving Virgil points in Water magic will do nothing, and adding tech to a character won't add in the dialogue to see their schematics, which means that if a character wasn't already tech it's useless - but it's a huge help in both making your companions stronger as well as overcoming the bizarre limit where no follower can progress beyond level 4 in any given tech tree. It's also handy for unlocking character's spells faster than they'd ordinarily get them.

Unfortunately, as terra arcanum is still being silly, I'm not sure where you'd get it.

 

[Neanderthal]

Cheers i'll look for that, Virgil's lockpick skill is fairly fucking useless and i'd rather see him get a few more useful spells or a bit more melee oomph. Isn't it funny, these are same blokes who made the bloody tight mechanics and crappy story of ToEE, seems like a 180" turn there. Fuck imagine Arcanum in ToEE engine.

 

[MilesBeyond]

Fuck imagine Arcanum in ToEE engine.

Stop! I can only get so erect

 

[hoverdog]

Fuck imagine Arcanum in ToEE engine.

You'd stop playing after the tenth wolf

 

[Leitz]

Arcanum has some of the best emergent gameplay ever done, unmarked quests that you get from books, incredible reactivity, lore mysteries that can be discovered and uncovered organically if you do the right stuff or search for/meet the right person, incredible character creation and one of the best cities ever done in an RPG...not to mention regular branching and multi-stage quests.

The altars quest to gather all the blessings and become a demigod is something that would make brainwashed console fags' heads explode in today's world.
[...]
Even so, this game is a piece of art, one of the the genres finest achievements and whoever says otherwise is a popamole faggot.

You're using way to many buzzwords. You are unable to say something nice about the game in your own words. You're just recycling words that you have read somewhere. Please reconsider your post and say something substantial.

 

[Lord Andre]

You're using way to many buzzwords. You are unable to say something nice about the game in your own words. You're just recycling words that you have read somewhere. Please reconsider your post and say something substantial.

I'm not gonna' write a wall a text to prove something that every seasoned rpg player already knows. Not my fault if you are late to the party.

 

[Jaesun]

I hated the music in Arcanum as well. I wish Tim would have stuck to using Dark Ambient music for it.

It suits the Victorian setting of some of the game. The problem with the games music is that there's just not enough of it and they needed different styles for more medieval/fantastical areas instead of one song covering most of the entire game.

I do agree that it fit the setting, I still wish they would have gone more for a dark ambient tone though. And yes, there were just not enough songs for the game, to fully flesh out a feeling for all the different areas.

 

[Leitz]

I'm not gonna' write a wall a text to prove something that every seasoned rpg player already knows. Not my fault if you are late to the party.

You did it again. It seems like you're unable to say something without bleak buzzwords. "Seasoned rpg player", LOL.

 

[Starwars]

I enjoy what music is there quite a lot, but I agree with Jaesun that the game needed a lot more of it overall. Some of the themes get extremely repetitive.

 

[Lord Andre]

You did it again. It seems like you're unable to say something without bleak buzzwords. "Seasoned rpg player", LOL.

Joined: Apr 13, 2015

I did it again, I'm such a shit poster...

 

[Dragula]

Arcanum is great.

 

[Neanderthal]

Can't get into the back of the Panarri temple, got to wait for some shmuck Alexander to appear, I really wanted to be worshipped. Still reading the Archaeon was interesting, Kraka Tur, Gorgoth the Demon, the Bane of Kree and Kerghan the Terrible all banished to the void, this raises a few questions: What is the void? Did contact with the void affect Arcanum? Is it possible that contacting this plane caused the supernatural evolution of Arcanum? What fucking right did the Elven Council have to sentence such creatures to that place, did they know of what lived there and what they were doing? Bloody interesting.

Anyway killed L'Anamalech and the old Elf binding the creature in his flesh (Diablo-ish) thanked me as he died, satisfying but I wish there were other options to deal with that thing.

Dug up old Victor Misk and found a clue to where his book is hidden, a village called Roseborough up the coast. I really like how the Dark Elves are pursuing this book and all its owners, kinda cool how they are making a curse come true, smart.

 

[Tigranes]

Yep, got to finish the Misk/Tsen-Ang arc before you hit the temple. Some nice plot lore secrets to be found at temple if you are inquisitive.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Caladan will rise again!

You mean Cumbria will rise Again! Komrade and yes getting the ending in which Cumbria beats Tarant Joos and Yanks Gnomes and Industrialists to pulp was most satisfying. You can decide the fate of every location btw and game has now SJW. If only graphics were a bit better and trash mob locations cut by half it would be 10/10 and best RPG ever; Also game does feel empty after Tarant somehow but its still much better RP and Game than Pillows of Banality were for sure.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Half elven supermodel incoming.

That's actually best race for a Diplomat build thanks to high innate beauty, charisma and fact that half elves are liked by all races. Its good for magic too which saves you all those tedium and indignity of LARPing the Hobo for parts.

 

[RK47]

New tarant music

 

[gestalt11]

I find this thread very amusing as it seems to constantly attract people who haven't read any of the OPs later descriptions of playing the game and just tell him its bad and none of the statement towards that effect counter the stuff he seems to be enjoying. OP's also right about Torian cool guy to have but a bit crippled build wise.