I remember being very disappointed with the combat. And the graphics was really bad, even for the time it was released. The fact that it felt (to me) very unbalanced for some builds meant that your first playthrough could end up very difficult. A problem since the game didn’t really give you any hints on this beforehand.
I dunno. To me it was a great concept executed poorly.
I played Arcanum 5 times completely through. Most times I replayed any RPG
Story and world was excellent, so I can fully understand wanting to spend more time in Arcanum. But the mechanics just didn’t work for me. Plus I accidentally picked a fairly gimped character for my first playthrough, which soured my first impressions quite a lot.
I did my first play through with a set of skills that were generally considered to be “gimped” (gunslinging inventor-type character) and I did just fine. I won’t deny that the skills are not balanced–magic characters are definitely more powerful than technologist characters–but it’s not like any of them are unplayable, and I don’t think class balance is that big a deal in a singleplayer game. Especially one that lets you augment your weaknesses by recruiting companions.
As for the combat, the realtime combat was terrible, but the turn-based mode was fine, and not much different than Fallout. Realtime was the default mode, though, and I can see how someone might be turned off if that was how they tried to play the game.
I’ll give it a shot next time I go to my storage unit and dig through all of my old cds. I think I tried playing a balanced character and ended up getting more frustrated with a quest I couldn’t figure out how to complete rather than with the mechanics (I know I definitely opted out of realtime ASAP).
Yeah, that’s a good summary. Just to add to it, it’s certainly very unbalanced, but that never bothers me like it does some people - I actually like the challenge of playing different characters and having different experiences. But some of the unbalancing is goofy and doesn’t seem to fit the setting – a brute carrying a club, for instance, is exponentially more powerful than a gunslinger, especially if the brute incorporates some stealth.
The graphics were really terrible even for the time though, the UI is pretty bad, and the real-time combat is awful. And a lot of the character development depth is illusory, since some options are so dominating. But it’s definitely a deep RPG and a huge game - it’s basically a much bigger Fallout by the original development team in a fantasy setting, so it’s worth tracking down.
I asked this at RPS and cannot figure it out. How come when I hover over people and objects with my mouse, occasionally the info box that comes up will go away immediately, even without moving the mouse. I have all the tooltip delay maxed out and occasionally it works right, but most of the time I have trouble seeing the stats on characters I’m interacting with.
I don’t mind the challenge as long as I’m aware that my choices will lead to it.
Just had to post that I finally “get” Arcanum. It really didn’t grab me the first 5 or 10 hours but now I am having a blast with everything: the combat, the quests, even the user interface. Feels like a late 90s RPG, almost like a Fallout 2.5 thanks to the history behind Troika.
One of my favorite games. The whole thing with the blue bunny/monster was brilliant.
I just started playing this for the first time about a month ago. I made super high Dex thief and my low (I’m guessing, I don’t really know what the scale is) level char. (25, maybe?) seems to be so ridiculously good at killing things (run up behind, sneak, backstab, repeat) that the game kinda lost a bit of its challenge. Then again, I might of spent so much time goofing around in the first main city before I went to the abandoned dwarf mine, that that I’ve broken the balance, at least in the mine. It was fun killing every one in the slums though, lousy gang bangers… Also I’m not taking any guff; I’ve resolved to change my usual game play for this game and have a strict anti-NPC guff policy.
Yeah I am glancing at a walkthrough to make sure I get most of the side quests and it warned me not to grind too much or it’ll make the game too easy. I didn’t do any of that, but I did clear out the closed Tarant sewers and at that point the fights stopped being challenging. Five or ten hours later and I have 20 STR and 20 DEX with expert in melee and dodge and I’m only getting to Ashbury, so I don’t expect it to be very difficult for a while now.
I don’t mind much because I’m having a great time, and having fun kitting out my companions. I’d definitely like to replay this with a different character type.
The character development system is a total mess. It has a lot of promise, though; some refining and it would have easily equaled SPECIAL. Flaws (imo) aside, it did offer a ton of flexibility (and really this is something that is too rare in RPGs of this nature). You don’t need to approach with a good plan in mind but many would probably be happier thinking about it first. It would be overwhelming to n00bs (much moreso than SPECIAL or D&D).
There were also a number of bugs that hurt the game out of the gate.
And the real time combat really was an abomination.
Melee builds are definately super powerful, and magic did rock.
I have tried to play Arcanum three or four different times, borrowing it from a friend of mine who absolutely adored every second of it. I never got past the first town. I love the mood of the game, and the overall style (orcs in biplanes gunning down zeppelins!), but it never really clicked for me. And, since it’s so niche, I don’t really know what I’m missing. So I’m really hoping that people keep talking about their experiences in here so I have more reasons to give it a fair shot.
I do remember killing about a day and a half, real-time, gaming Ristezze in the first town. With a thief-type character, you sell him all the scrap from the wreckage, with the camera being the big moneymaker. Then you wander into his back room, ostensibly looking for the bathroom or something. Swipe the camera you just sold him, and then sell it to him again and again and again.
“Wow, ANOTHER camera? This is great! I can open a camera shop soon!”
“Yeah, no kidding. I’ll, uh, find another source tomorrow after your deposit hits and you’ve taken out the day’s budget.”
“Sounds great! Thanks!”
“Nonono. Thank YOU, Ristezze.”
This is the first game I can remember in my backlog where it actually did take some effort to get into it. I am still on my first try but let it sit for a couple of months after playing 10 or 15 hours.
I highly recommend the high-resolution patch. That way you can keep the full interface on at all times and it’s a bit easier to work with. I think that’s what did it for me.
Did you ever play Fallout? It is exactly like those games, which is why people adore it.
I did play Fallout. Well, Fallout 2, but I never finished it either. That’s more my fault than the game’s, though – I get to a point in Fallout 2 that I just want to putter around and see everything, as opposed to actually do what they want me to do.
I’ll track it down for myself and give it another shot this year, since I’m spending 2009 playing old games that I haven’t given a fair chance, and I’ll try out that high-res patch too.
It actually threw me off that the keyboard shortcuts weren’t identical, since I threw away the manual and packaging years ago. How do you activate the “full interface”? Also, is the high res patch you are referring to the same as the high res maps pack?
Finally, is this game supposed to be inscrutably dark at times?
The high res patch is a new one from the guy that did the unofficial arcanum patch (which you definitely want unless you have a saved game well into the game). I set it to 1024x768, which I felt was a good screen size for a game of that era. The map pack just improves the quality of the image on the map screen, I believe. Of course grab that too.
F10 is the full interface. I posted above that I was annoyed beyond belief that with the status bars minimized, every time I hovered over a character or object, its information would blip up quickly and go away. I think the extra screen real-estate from the high res patch that allowed the full interface is what finally helped me. Easier to click for inventory/quests/etc. and also see what’s going on when you hover the mouse over something.
I turned the brightness up on my end. None of the dungeons require a lantern or anything. Not sure if it was designed another way but I don’t care. Looks fine.
I am playing fast turn based combat. It’s quick and pretty simple now that I get it. The green dots are all your action points, and moving the mouse over a character (to attack) or spot on the ground (to move) shows you how many points you’d use up, kind of like they did in ToEE. I’m not sure what it means when you are low on points and it shows a red one or two; maybe your attack isn’t as effective?
Also make sure the music is just above invisible background noise level, because it’s pretty nice.
Thanks for the tips. When you say “turned up the brightness on your end”, do you mean using a graphics card control panel? Anyway, I’ll try the real high res patch, that should help.
For me, the big turning point was figuring out how the right click was the way to exit combat mode. Sad but true.
I just meant the brightness slider in the game. I don’t know if everyone’s card/monitor combination requires them to do so.
Right-click is also a good one. Speeds low-level combat way up even if you used turn-based.