September
13th - PC
Arcanum
Stems From Roots
Arcanum is considered by most people to be the next
incarnation of the excellent Fallout series, since some of the key members who worked on
Fallout have moved under the Troika games title and developed this game. The setting of Arcanum, a fantasy world caught between a time of magic and
an industrial revolution, brings with it a great deal of potential. Unfortunately, as is the case with most things, in the end this game falls a
good deal short of meeting the potential that it held. Technically speaking, Arcanum looks and feels like something from 1995.
Character design is bland and washed-out, sporting only 4 or 5 basic animations, none of which are worthy of praise. The backgrounds are well
drawn, but become very repetitive after looking at the small amount that is
available over and over throughout the different locales of Arcanum. The sound of the game moves from inconsequential to bothersome and then to down
right annoying towards the end. The combat system is very unrefined,
consisting of either the frantic and hard to follow melee of real-time or the slow and arduous turn-based. This system is set off even more by the
ridiculously stupid AI of both followers and enemies, who's preferred method
of attack is simply charging into a big pile of flying fists and steel with whatever weapon they can find, no matter what skills they may possess. It
was humorous the first time a supposedly powerful mage charged in and starting hitting me with a little stick, but when every single enemy in the
game does this it detracts a great deal from the potential depth of
combat. Along with all of this, Arcanum is riddled with a great plethora of bugs
which at times merely annoy players while destroying games altogether at others. One week after shipping and already two patches have been
released to fix bugs, both of which left a great many more unresolved, as well as
adding a few new ones into the fold. And then, on top of all this, the
game suffers from horrendous slow-downs, stalling for minutes at a time while performing even the simplest of tasks. If this game had spent a little
while longer in testing and debugging stages, it would be a lot more playable. But as it stands Arcanum is more often frustrating than it is
fun. Past all of the many technical problems that plague Arcanum, there is actually a very deep and engrossing RPG. The story plays out through some
well-written dialogue from the various creatures you will encounter, and a few ho-hum FMVs tossed in during the big plot twists. The last few areas
of the game do seem a bit rushed, but everything before is pure RPG gold.
The character creation and development system is vast, with several hundred different skills, magical spells, and technological degrees available to the players, allowing a good number of different characters to be developed, all
of which will have to find their own way through the quests of the game.
In the end, if you are fresh off of such games as Baldur's Gate, PlaneScape: Torment, or even Fallout 2, you will be sadly disappointed with the lack of
polish that is presented in this game. However if you are a die-hard RPG fan (like me), you will be able to get past the technical flaws that Arcanum has and enjoy the game that is buried deep beneath them.
-Jacob
Perry
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