GAME - Arcanum

It has come to my attention that I have friends who have not played (some not ever heard of) Arcanum. This is nothing less then a travesty. This is not because I would call this a "must play" game so much as it is an unsung cultural experience. As I play other more recent games, both video games and tabletop, this game has become, to me, a relative standard which I compare all other games to. Without question, it has influenced a number of my other gaming experiences, especially those in D&D and Pathfinder. No doubt, this is a game worthy of some attention especially by anyone who fancies themselves as a RPG fan.

Arcanum marries both the Steampunk and Fantasy genres into a RPG so seamlessly that you'd hardly consider them different or separate while playing the game. The world of Arcanum is one of elves and dwarves, magick and spells, engines and firearms, civilized brutality and brutal civility. As the game begins, you find yourself in classic Victorian garb and the flaming wreckage of Arcanum's first lighter-then-air flying transport (a.k.a. a blimp).

There is a dynamic dichotomy between magic and technology in the world of Arcanum. Technology, which operates by use of natural laws, is fowled up by the presence of magick as it alters natural laws. Somehow, technology impedes the operation of magic as well though I never understood exactly how. Arcanum's culture reflects this, and while heavily influenced by it, treats it as common knowledge. How you decide to straddle the powers of magick and technology will have definite implications to your gaming experience. While playing a heavy magick user, I found my character exiled to the "Mage's Caboose" in order to keep her magickal auras away form the engine. Later, once I had mastered some more spells, they wouldn't let her near the train at all.

What really makes this game novel is its unique style and the depth of that style. As I said above, it's a combination of Fantasy and Steampunk, magick and technology. The history, character interactions, dialog, and settings really don't miss much of the natural implications of this and are full of all sorts of engaging nuances. You could drown yourself in the Arcanum culture.

The problem: the vast majority of that is dialog. That's where a lot of the culture lives. This game is very dialog heavy. If you find this lengthy review a troublesome thing to focus on, then don't bother trying Arcanum unless you can buy it or borrow it for real cheap.



The world of Arcanum seems very large and has plenty to explore. In general, you have free reign to run around and explore. The map is fairly large, there are only a few natural barriers preventing "premature" progress, and you won't run out of side quests or things to explore unless you really try.

The map system is neat; think Indiana Jones style map with spots and dotted lines. In this case you get to choose where those spots and dotted lines go on the map. After you plot a course, your dot moves across the map along the line. Of course, if you stumble upon an interesting site or a hostile monster...

The music is appropriate: a Victorian style violin quartet type thing. It really helps with the feel of the game and I personally enjoyed it quite a bit. Very different then what I'm used to in a very good way. However, since I'm a completionist when it comes to games, I get to hear this music a lot and it does get repetitive.

The graphics, I admit, really stink. Think the original Baldur's Gate except the artists took about half the time to do it and reused most of the artwork across the majority of the game. What makes that analogy even worse is that Baldur's Gate came out in 1998 and Arcanum was 2001. Shame shame. Some of the graphics are buggy as well.

None of that really bothers me though. I like the classic games so good yet repetitive music and bad graphics hardly phase me. These things do not detract from my experience.

The poor resolution (small screen size) may make you want to pull your hair out though.

This is an RPG with a hell-of-a-lot of freedom, quite possibly the most freedom I've had with an RPG when it comes to character making. There are no classes, just points you get when you go up levels. Put the points in anything you want: ability scores, skills, spells, techs. Not only do you have freedom in character creation, you have good freedom with character actions. Do whatever you feel you can get away with. Stealing can be lots of fun in this game.

The game screen and combat look and feel a great deal like Baldur's Gate: an overhead view with people running about and swinging weapons when you click on enemies. In Arcanum though, you get a choice between real-time and round based combat and can freely switch between them during combat.

Freedom aside, the game controls are clunky. Some commands and options aren't even available on the user interface and can only be accessed from the keyboard. Even worse, the manual doesn't have a table with keyboard commands, you have to read through all the text to find anything. The simple functions are easy enough to use but if you want to use all of the functions available, you're going to have to do some major reading in the manual and online.



If you have patience for old games and lots of dialog, play Arcanum. It will easily ignite your imagination and you'll find yourself wishing you could see elements of the Arcanum world in other games and nerdly hobbies. It will have a special place in your heart.

If not, I can easily see how someone might want to pass this one over. But, if you do, there is something you're missing out on. Just understand: the good things about this game will stay with you while the annoyances can be overlooked and will likely be forgotten.


 * Skills, spells, and techs require high ability scores to master. When planning your character, keep track of which abilities each skill/spell/tech requires you to have in order to master and acknowledge that those scores will have to be increased. It may be wise to center selections around only a small number of ability scores.
 * Magic specialists will have a much easier time with the game then the tech specialists. Tech specialists will spend much of the game managing supplies and walking between destinations.
 * There is a good place in Tarant to set up a base of operations. When you first enter the city, cross the bridge and take the first right. Continue down the street until it hits a building and turns. That building is a warehouse filled with rats that the owner wants you to clear out. Once you clear them out, you have a large area with many containers that are good for keeping things.
 * Harm (the 1st level Black Necromantic spell) is one of the better single target combat spells, especially at low levels.
 * Conjure Spirit (the 2nd level Black Necromantic spell) sounds really cool but has extremely limited use in the game. Only take it if you plan on taking higher level spells of that college.
 * The most useful spells are likely Disintegrate (level 5 Force) and Teleport (level 5 Conveyance).


 * Official English Patch 1.0.7.4
 * Unofficial High Resolution Patch - Allow the game to use higher resolutions (highly recommended).
 * Arcanum Walkthrough and Info on GameBanshee - Even if you don't want a walkthrough (which is excellent), it is still a valuable library of information for Arcanum.
 * The House of Lords - An online community for Arcanum that has a number of mods and unofficial patches.