Reasons I sorta dislike Arcanum

[Lumpy]

Arcanum had potential for greatness, with the great idea behind its world, the awesome character creation system, and the great amounts of role playing, but I think it's not really one of the greatest RPGs evah.
First thing, the main story sucks. Badly. The world of Arcanum is interesting, and there was tons of potential for a mature plot, with political intrigue and the likes. Instead, they went for the old "Ancient evil is arising". Furthermore, you have no real reason to give a fuck about the story, the dwarves disappearing, and such. Except for the crappy assassins attacking you every now and then, which is itself a cliche and a horrible plot device.
Furthermore, the main story will take you through a dwarven dungeon, a prison isle, another dwarven dungeon, an elven city which loves nature, a dark elven city which loves nature and hates humans, and some other, all of which might as well be placed in Generic Fantasy RPG #3543 and nobody would notice any discrepancy. They are bland as fuck.
The combat is pretty much atrocious, and requires hardly any tactics. Which wouldn't be so bad, if there wasn't a fuckton of combat in the game. Did Tim Cain forget how nice it was in Fallout that there weren't any dungeon crawls?
As a minor nitpick, bullets were too rare, especially if you used the mechanized gun. Admittedly, bullets were rare in that time period, but people didn't have to slaughter basements full of zombies twice a day.
All in all, Arcanum just wasn't a fun game, like PS:T, MotB and the Fallouts were. Which basically means it's not really worth playing.

 

[Jasede]

Story & Plot is one of the strong points of Arcanum, hth.


And there were dungeon crawls in Fallout and they -all- sucked. There were, in fact, many of them.

 

[Trash]

The dungeons and combat sucked very badly in arcanum. It's what almost killed the game for me. There was a gem underneat, but you had to look quite hard to see it.

 

[Jasede]

The combat isn't much worse than Fallout's in TB mode. But that's not saying much.

And yeah, there's way too many dungeons; and the worst: they're all too easy. (In before some retard having trouble with the golems.)

You shouldn't look for Arcanum's goodness in the combat. It's in the world, the setting, the scope, the mood, the music, the many paths you can take, the relative freedom.

 

[MetalCraze]

don't forget about the urge you couldn't resist to kill your companions when they were summoning golems.

and a horrible balance.

Arcanum is worth playing though, but only if you will play it because of actual role-playing and not because of the combat. yeah it sucked - but it was very fast even in tb mode which is a plus.

oh and cheat a repair 5 skill for everyone from the start

 

[Jasede]

Why'd you cheat 5 Repair? You never need repair in the game...

 

[Lumpy]

Story & Plot is one of the strong points of Arcanum, hth.


And there were dungeon crawls in Fallout and they -all- sucked. There were, in fact, many of them.

Where? I remember some underground areas where you shot like 5 ghouls but mostly interacted with the old computers. I wouldn't classify those as dungeon crawls.
And Fallout's combat wasn't the pinnacle of TB gameplay. It was still decent, and occasionally fun. Arcanum's was neither.

Oh yeah, I forgot about companions. Besides about 3 or 4 of them, they were about on par with BG1's, which is pretty much rock bottom. Virgil wasn't that interesting either. Okay he has a dark past, was a scumbag and got his brother killed, then found religion. K let's kill some more zombies.

 

[Trash]

Combat in fallout was more fun with the discriptions and the many gory deaths. I enjoyed it immensely at the time.

 

[MetalCraze]

Why'd you cheat 5 Repair? You never need repair in the game...

but of course if you're (or your companions) anyone but close-combat fighter. of course it happens that many of your companions are. so after you will break your 10th super cool sword of pure awesomeness you just crafted from extremely rare materials while killing the one single stone golem in the dungeon full of them you will understand.

 

[Jasede]

Well, it was more fun because of details like that, that's true. I enjoy the variety in Arcanum though - in Fallout you end up always fighting the same things and never need to change your strategy, ever. In Arcanum you have to... sometimes. Rarely. If you feel like it.

Dungeons in Fallout? That endless Military Base that dragged on and on, the horrible, horrible Vault 15 (what a bore-fest!), the awful Necropolis. Then the Rad-Scorpion cave, and the Raider Camp. That's of course still less than Arcanum, and, importantly, most of them do offer you a non-violent path (which is really great), but Arcanum has other strengths: novel story - finally not the chosen one!; incredible atmosphere, debatably much better music, and, and I enjoy this one the most, it allows you to actually -play- different characters. In Fallout you can be a Sneak, a Shoot Stuff guy, or a Diplomat, and combinations of these; in Fallout you can be a -lot- more and there's many, many viable combat tactics.

See, here's a good one: in Arcanum I can wait until a shoopkeeper sleeps, unlock his windows while spelled invisible and steal his whole inventory... this is so damn... RPGish. Arcanum just has that RPG spark that's sorely lacking these days. There's many solutions for most things, and I enjoy that the large variety of characters you can play and the many solutions there are to any given problem.

 

[Lumpy]

novel story - finally not the chosen one!

Yeah, Arcanum must have been the first RPG where you weren't the Chosen One. Except for Fallout 1 and 2. And PS:T. And BG2. And IWD. And probably some others I never played.

 

[Jasede]

Since when do you have Asperger's too? Don't take everything literally. The refreshing thing about Arcanum is that it first makes you think "meh, another chosen one" and then pulls the carpet from under your feet.

And you're most definitely "chosen" in PS:T since you're a nearly immortal, ancient being of incredible power (as opposed to a nobody in Fallout/Arcanum), and in BG 2 you're the chosen of the chosen a Bhaalspawn; can't get more chosen than that.

Edit: I'd suggest you replay Arcanum when you have grown up; play it with a mature mind. Maybe you'll like it more then; it's not really a game for kids.

 

[ghostdog]

I had more fun with arcanum than I had with fallout but both games are very similar. In both games you must accept the fact that there isn't a real main quest just many interesting side quests in a very well structured world. And combat isn't that bad, it's better than nwn2 for instance.

 

[Korgan]

Arcanum must have been the first RPG where you weren't the Chosen One. Except for Fallout 2

Um, what are you smoking?

 

[Lumpy]

Since when do you have Asperger's too? Don't take everything literally. The refreshing thing about Arcanum is that it first makes you think "meh, another chosen one" and then pulls the carpet from under your feet.

Awesome. But I'd rather the game didn't have cliches at all, rather than turning them on their head.

And you're most definitely "chosen" in PS:T since you're a nearly immortal, ancient being of incredible power (as opposed to a nobody in Fallout/Arcanum), and in BG 2 you're the chosen of the chosen a Bhaalspawn; can't get more chosen than that.

Do you even know what "chosen" means? It implies that you were chosen by destiny or a god or some other entity to perform some heroic feat. Which is not the case in either PS:T and BG 2.

Edit: I'd suggest you replay Arcanum when you have grown up; play it with a mature mind. Maybe you'll like it more then; it's not really a game for kids.

Cute. Care to explain which of my criticisms are the product of my amazingly juvenile mind?

 

[Jasede]

No.

 

[Trash]

Awesome. But I'd rather the game didn't have cliches at all, rather than turning them on their head.

Well, it's kinda the point of arcanum. Steampunk meets fantasy and all.

 

[Gnidrologist]

<snip>

I'm willing to agree with most of your points except:

As a minor nitpick, bullets were too rare, especially if you used the mechanized gun. Admittedly, bullets were rare in that time period, but people didn't have to slaughter basements full of zombies twice a day.

When i played techno dude i was rarely short of bullets. In fact, i usually had about 2-5 thousands of them in my nifty little pocket. There are lots of saltpeter and coal to make them. You should avoid using the ''machine gun'' as it depleats those resources in no time. Not a significant flaw as there were mutch more effective single shot weapons in the game and why would you even engage in combat yourself when you can stand on the side wearing top hat, smoke a cigar and watch your meches do all the dirty work.

All in all, Arcanum just wasn't a fun game, like PS:T, MotB and the Fallouts were. Which basically means it's not really worth playing.

That's just not true no matter how you flip it. You could say that all rpgs ar like total stinkin' crap, but there are some that stink a little less revolting than the others. Arcanum is certainly one of those.

Why'd you cheat 5 Repair? You never need repair in the game...

but of course if you're (or your companions) anyone but close-combat fighter. of course it happens that many of your companions are. so after you will break your 10th super cool sword of pure awesomeness you just crafted from extremely rare materials while killing the one single stone golem in the dungeon full of them you will understand.

You *are* a fucking n00b. I was playing with all melee ''party'' counting me (melee monster) and Virgil (had Magnus at the start, but ditched the bitch eventually) recently and never broke any valuable weapon in any fights. Have long since cleared all the golem dungeons without sutch problems. Just go to the blacksmith and pay him few coins to repair stuff every now and then.
Sutch a nab.

waaa waaaa i will keep saying that Fallout sucks using stupid unfounded ''arguments'' just cuz everyone on Codex loves it so i can maintain my image of sad, rebellious, hysterical furfag seeking for love on the internetz and maybe become adopted by Cleve Blakemore WAAAAAAAAA

 

[Relayer71]

Admittedly, bullets were rare in that time period, but people didn't have to slaughter basements full of zombies twice a day.

Which time period are you speaking of which included Dwarves, Elves, Magicka, etc., ?

The only fault I find with Arcanum (so far, admittedly have never gotten more than 10 hours into it the several times I've played but actually playing it again now with intentions of finishing!) is the awful combat.

It seems like it was tacked on as an after thought. Arcanum remade using TOEE's engine would undoubtedly rock.

 

[Faceless]

Bullets weren't rare...
You just had to pay for or make them; and really, how often are you going to find a pack of bullets in a forest or a cave?

Some of your criticisms are valid, and other sound like you've either willed yourself into believing them or that you have such incredibly high standards that next to nothing will satisfy you.

 

[Xor]

With all the renewed interest about it, someone should do an Arcanum LP.

 

[SimpleComplexity]

And combat isn't that bad, it's better than nwn2 for instance.

The only combat related thing which is better in Arcanum is the camera perspective.

 

[dagorkan]

The combat isn't much worse than Fallout's in TB mode. But that's not saying much.

And yeah, there's way too many dungeons; and the worst: they're all too easy. (In before some retard having trouble with the golems.)

You shouldn't look for Arcanum's goodness in the combat. It's in the world, the setting, the scope, the mood, the music, the many paths you can take, the relative freedom.

So how did you deal with the Golems? Is there something I missed?

I thought it was managable and quite boring except for the fact that your companions constantly run into melee and get themselves killed. Apart from the big Ogre guy most your friends will get killed with two or three blows. The second time around I just waited until I was higher level and solo'd it saving a lot of frustration.

Also dungeons in Fallout are just not comparable. Combat was shitty I agree but a lot of the examples you mentioned at least were tolerable, the Raider camp I complete in a couple of minutes, the Rad Scorpion cave is seven minutes max, the Military Base was quite varied and also relatively short, half an hour to three quarters of an hour...

Nothing like Arcanum dungeons which can take an hour or more over several maps with very little variation. Most Fallout 1 locations were quite compact and meaningful, the only places that are truly annoying are the Necropolis and maybe the never-ending corridors of the Cathedral but they're still relatively short compared to other RPGs.

 

[MetalCraze]

You *are* a fucking n00b. I was playing with all melee ''party'' counting me (melee monster) and Virgil (had Magnus at the start, but ditched the bitch eventually) recently and never broke any valuable weapon in any fights. Have long since cleared all the golem dungeons without sutch problems. Just go to the blacksmith and pay him few coins to repair stuff every now and then.

you took that stuff too seriously. I of course broke pair of my swords when I was just starting to play the game but
I can repair my stuff without the blacksmith thanks, it is just really annoying that I have to repair swords after every gholem. because on every gholem I was getting that *weapon damaged* spam.

 

[Jasede]

There seems to be a little misunderstanding, Gnidrologist, or you're just projecting. I like Fallout a lot - even if it isn't as fun as Arcanum. (Except for the dungeons - they're awfully long and similar in Arcanum. Especially mountain-dungeons). Err, I meant:

And golems? Well... I haven't actually played Arcanum in four years, but I remember that thrown weapons destroy them, as do all reasonably "tough" melee weapons, like hammers. I do remember a steel dagger also worked okay.