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Arcanum, you know that old troika game.
Tcheldor
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
A friend of mine was telling me about Bloodlines, and afterwards decided to lend me Arcanum as well. He was really trying to sell the game as pretty damn awesome, and I was wondering what you guys thought about it. I couldn't find an existing thread, so I thought I'd ask here.
League of Legends: Sorakanmyworld
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
Tcheldor on
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Also, make sure it's patched up.
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
Not to say there aren't problems with it. There is a massive amount of skills to choose from, and it's very possible to gimp yourself. I'd recommend melee or magic to be your focus for a first playthrough. Combat isn't the main draw anyway though, it's the huge world and large amount of quests that make it so much fun.
The latter is due to a pretty crappy graphics engine. The game world just doesn't look like what they're trying to convey. Your industrial city is a dingy looking place where all the buildings look the same, whether it's a factory or a flophouse. Your vibrant city is a better looking place where all the buildings look the same.
Balance wise, tech just plain sucks compared to magic. Guns in particular get the shaft. The strongest characters are those that tend towards magic or are pretty neutral in regards to the two (fighters or rogue types that just use melee weapons to fight). I'll also note that evil mages get screwed out of a few things too, you can tell that some of the bonuses Troika had for skilled mages were afterthoughts put in at the end (I'm quite literal here. They didn't put them in until the idea was mentioned in a lot of forum threads at an IGN board), not that it mattered too much since you still destroyed everything as a mage.
Now that that's out of the way, I'll toss in that this was the RPG where it was the most fun to be a rogue before Morrowind. Guards weren't instantly alerted to your crimes if they weren't around and your weapon wasn't too loud (daggers great, swords good, clubs okay, guns bad). If they came across the body later and you were nowhere nearby, they might blame another NPC for the crime. NPCs followed schedules and went to sleep so you could sneak in and rob them. If you were really gutsy, you could literally steal the pants off of NPCs. That's worth a few points on a review right there.
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3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
http://www.terra-arcanum.com/phpBB/dload.php is the only site I know of with working links for arcanum mods. "krupp_aio_arcanumhackv1" under Dimensions of Arcanum Downloads Rebalances the firearms and gunsmithy techs without adding a bunch of retarded crap to the game, or breaking the skills.
It's flawed as hell, it looks more dated than Fallout, and techies get screwed hard without fan mods (I second the recommendation of Krupp's all-in-one), but it's one of my favorite games of all time. It's got a big world, a great concept, some beautiful music, excellent writing and acting, one hell of a plot twist, a versatile engine (what's the last RPG that let you blow open a locked door, or take a mallet to that trapped chest, or kill the chatty plotline NPC without breaking the story?), and a great character building system.
Of course, the thing it's missing is good gameplay to tie all that together. And yet, Arcanum is one of those special titles that keeps me coming back long, long after I've grown tired of more recent ones. Troika may not have been all that competent in development terms, but the RPG world is a darker place without them
Edit: If you'll pardon the blatant plug, I wrote a more formal review a while back. Had a heck of a time finding the mods all over again, I swear each year these older games get harder to set up properly.
Now playing: Teardown and Baldur's Gate 3 (co-op)
Sunday Spotlight: Horror Tales: The Wine
Shit, I have a game going right now actually.
The game world is just dripping with content, my thirst cannot be quenched.
Valve had a sequel planned in late 2006, but legal pressure from Sierra caused the project to be shelved indefinitely.
Uh, I thought Troika had a sequel in the works utilizing the Source engine. Then they went out of business.
After that though, the game becomes pure, concentrated spectacular. My first run was as a gun-toting Dwarf, and when I discovered the Mechanical Man Schematic, well, I had nearly thirty of them running around with me after a point. I'd just shoot an enemy, let them charge me, and in the split second it takes them to realise they should be attacking my clanking horde, they were torn to shreds. Worked on literally everything.
I think Troika was gone by December 2006 no? When I read the PR I thought it said Valve.
Valve wouldn't start production on a sequel to game they didn't own the right to.
Oh, I found it, Valve was involved because it was planned to be made on the Source engine.
Also, if you're an ugly enough evil halfling, your reaction will be so low people will try to kill you on sight
Well, they made a Vampire game somewhere between those two things. A Vampire game even better than Arcanum.
Well, they made a Vampire game somewhere between those two things. A Vampire game even better than Arcanum.
Ugly, evil, NAKED half-orc gets even more hate. Nothing like having people spit in your direction because you decided to steak through town one day.
One issue the gameplay had was that it took a while to actually grow into your abilities if you weren't a half-ogre or half-orc fighter. Melee depended on having good strength or backstab, dexterity, and a melee skill of 3 or 4 to be consistent. Ranged combat was even worse. I think the game would have benefited from making you feel competent more quickly. The system seemed to really be balanced towards the mid to high levels.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
Ugly, evil, NAKED half-orc gets even more hate. Nothing like having people spit in your direction because you decided to steak through town one day.
One issue the gameplay had was that it took a while to actually grow into your abilities if you weren't a half-ogre or half-orc fighter. Melee depended on having good strength or backstab, dexterity, and a melee skill of 3 or 4 to be consistent. Ranged combat was even worse. I think the game would have benefited from making you feel competent more quickly. The system seemed to really be balanced towards the mid to high levels.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
Ugly, evil, NAKED half-orc gets even more hate. Nothing like having people spit in your direction because you decided to steak through town one day.
One issue the gameplay had was that it took a while to actually grow into your abilities if you weren't a half-ogre or half-orc fighter. Melee depended on having good strength or backstab, dexterity, and a melee skill of 3 or 4 to be consistent. Ranged combat was even worse. I think the game would have benefited from making you feel competent more quickly. The system seemed to really be balanced towards the mid to high levels.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
Ugly, evil, NAKED half-orc gets even more hate. Nothing like having people spit in your direction because you decided to steak through town one day.
One issue the gameplay had was that it took a while to actually grow into your abilities if you weren't a half-ogre or half-orc fighter. Melee depended on having good strength or backstab, dexterity, and a melee skill of 3 or 4 to be consistent. Ranged combat was even worse. I think the game would have benefited from making you feel competent more quickly. The system seemed to really be balanced towards the mid to high levels.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
Ugly, evil, NAKED half-orc gets even more hate. Nothing like having people spit in your direction because you decided to steak through town one day.
One issue the gameplay had was that it took a while to actually grow into your abilities if you weren't a half-ogre or half-orc fighter. Melee depended on having good strength or backstab, dexterity, and a melee skill of 3 or 4 to be consistent. Ranged combat was even worse. I think the game would have benefited from making you feel competent more quickly. The system seemed to really be balanced towards the mid to high levels.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
Anyway, I recall being able to max out several skill paths through normal leveling, so you shouldn't be able to gimp yourself unless you really want to try everything out. Also, at the start make a decision whether to go tech or magic. If you start out in tech then decide that magic is cooler and start throwing points into that, then you're just making everything suck.
My favorite character was a half-elf with full Charisma, Beauty, Wisdom, and Dark Necromancy. He'd walk around in a smoking jacket, and everyone who wasn't actually in combat with me was at +150 reaction or something. If anybody started making trouble, I'd summon 8 mummies or skeletons around them and just watch.
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As others have said, the music, writing, and voice acting are absolutely fantastic. What I did this last time, and what I recommend for a new player, was a human fighter type with the occasional point thrown in charisma and persuasion for more dialogue and party options. High str/dex and a pyrotechnic axe makes combat a joke, but combat was one of the game's weakest points so it isn't a big deal.
I'm rather glad I have no idea where my Arcanum disks are, otherwise I doubt I'd be posting right now.
Why isn't it on GameTap! They have Sierra games!
Why isn't it on Steam? Bloodlines is.
I never got around to buying it either. Or acquiring it from friends in any other manner, either.
Kind of want to give it a shot.
I WONDER WHO HE IS SUPPOSED TO BE
*starts digging*
This link isn't working for me -- ftp.sierra.com never connects. Is it working for anyone else? If not, is there anywhere else to get it?
I remember going to insane lengths to get my Human Archer's Charisma as high as possible so as to have the maximum number of companions. Sogg Mead Mug with a Pyrotechnic Axe, along with that Dwarf fellow you find close to the beginning, also with a Pyrotechnic Axe? It wasn't even fair.