Arcanum is what I call a true crpg where true reactivity happens and there is a role to play. Your action have consequence and character progression is amazing
A flawed game, but one that rewards you for having the dedication to see it to the end. Despite its numerous issues, it was something deeply different from its peers at the time, and I think that is something to be appreciated.
Since the same guy worked on them. Forget the name. But you're right. Arcanum has the same expolring the aftermath feeling when discovering the world and its history. And the reactivity. and so on
@@Superschokokeks it wasn't just one guy. Tim Cain and Leonard were fathers of original fallout. What is sad that when Interplay started to fall apart, they try to buy fallout IP so we could have Troyka's fallout, but Bethesda had more money...
I was obsessed with this game as a teen, it's absolutely crazy. I'm not much of a gamer especially not RPGs but sometime when I see my friends being super hyped for like BG3 about the reaction of the pnj or all the stuff you can do in game and alternate path to resolve conflicts and whatnot I'm almost confused. How are this kind of features still a novelty today? It was fully realized in Arcanum twenty years ago!
The choice and consequence thing just became truly mainstream in the past decade. "RPGs" for most people were final fantasy, before all this DnD CRPG revival stuff.
Having played this for the first time last year, I enjoyed Arcanum quite a lot. If the combat and encounter design were just just a bit better, or if there was less combat overall, Arcanum would probably be my GOAT RPG. It is within spitting distance however.
I agree. I'm even willing to forgive the clunky combat because it can be circumvented in some capacity and the rest of the the content is fantastic. But yes... as you say... it's probably within spitting distance of being my GOAT as well.
When you can't have reactive music in your budget.... because you're already months behind schedule and need to make only half the game playable... The fact that Arcanum 2 doesn't exist is a sin against humanity
There is a mod that allows you to allocate character points for the companions. Being able to "fix" the companions (make them useful in combat, or at the very least, not a liability) this patch DOES SO MUCH to fix combat. You could use it to make everyone OP as fuck, but if you have a bit of restraint, you can use it to make Jaina Styles for example at the very least strong enough to use semi decent armor and with enough dodge to not just immediately die every time you enter combat. This little mod is GAME CHANGING. Combat is everyone's big complaint and rightly so, and while you can't completely fix it, being able to allocate the points for companions to make them at least passable in combat is AWESOME. As far as the stability, there is a patch for that as well and it basically fixes 99% of the issues. Neither of these mods are hard to install, and they turn this from a flawed masterpiece into just a masterpiece.
My favorite weapon in the game was the Aerial Decapitator, and specializing in throwing made the early game fun since Molotov cocktails are really easy to come by just digging through trash bins and buying fuel. I loved all the explosives in this game, actually.
I remember a million years ago running into some blind guy in the middle of nowhere who was a master of throwing. But I found him through exploration, I didn't even a quest for him.
@@YeOldEntertainment I played both Torment and the BG series, but it seems like I'll venturing forth into this game. Thanks for the whole series of reviews, excelent content!
Great review of a fantastic game. I did notice you said Arcanum was an "infinity engine" game a few times. From what I know, Tim Cain actually wrote the engine from scratch for the most part, similar to the engine behind Fallout.
Yes, I think he smuggled a few bits of code over from the Fallout engine, though he denies it on his channel XD. I don't remember what I said specifically, but I probably meant something like "such-such-such game AND other games along those lines that were made with the inifinity engine" or something like that.
One of my top 3 games of all times and certainly my top 1 isometric RPG. I NEVER EVER used real time combat though as that was way too fast. But the "fast turnbased" combat worked pretty well for me though. And yeah: I never played with lots of followers as those did die like flies all the time
@@YeOldEntertainment After watching your video I can see why. It never occurred to me that one could cheese it like that and just kite the enemies. But after a disastrous real time combat I only ever did fast turn based. The battles where so much more manageable! Party members still where a huge problem though...
I have tried playing this game. Combat is just so bad but the game in general is great. Maybe a let's play would be a better choice then. I am currently playing Fallout 3. It's one of my favorite games of all time. Do you like Fallout 3 guys?
I was thinking of doing one, yes. As for Fallout 3. It originally broke my b... err... heart because it went in a completely different direction and it lacked many of the things I loved from the first two games. I think the "new style" Fallout reached its peak with New Vegas.
I wasn't going to try it, after the abomination that was Oblivion. But one of my friends was raving about it, so I gave it a go. I could not stand to play more than an hour a day. The shitty writing and design decisions made my stomach churn, literally. I felt like throwing up, forcing myself to play that thing. I tried for a week, that's about 7 hours before deciding to stop torturing myself and haven't touched that pile of manure again. Thanx to that awful experience I've never been able to get into New Vegas either. Coincidentally once I mentioned that to the friend that had recommended it, he said that he couldn't stand the game either anymore, after getting to about quarter of the way through.
Arcanum is one of those games whose setting and minutiae has me grimly fascinated, but I constantly hesitate when it comes to actually taking it out for a spin. Being treated to a cornucopia of glitches and bad, unenjoyable combat is usually a deal breaker for me, which is made all the more painful by how intriguing this game's setting and interactions seem. It's like a vintage gem of a car that your soul aches to buy and drive until the tread goes off the tires, except it's cursed like Little Bastard and you fear for your life while behind the wheel. At this point, I shouldn't be surprised that it's a brainchild of Troika. They had great ideas for their games but were just plain incompetent when it came to coding said games, leaving their playerbase to clean up their mess after them.
Man I love this game. If I had a gun to my head I’d say it was my favorite just beating Baldur’s Gate 2 and Planescape Torment. It absolutely has flaws but just hearing the music in this video makes me want to play it again.
Everytime someone reviews I start goshing all over it like a teengirl about some frontsinger and get all wet just by looking at it. Combat it so broken, you become very powerful if you know how to exploit it (going for speed for instances let you in TB kill everything before your turn ends) so you get your power fantasy if you want some, but the best thing is roleplay. This game let you roleplay and such many ways it's still unseen to this day. The game will react to it. That is truly the best part of it. To top at all off, the lore is compelling, while the main story is not that special, It's villian is one of the most interesting seen in gaming. The game furthermore raises some interesting questions to let you think about. And I stop here Before I write a whole unstructured essay about Arcanum again Did I mention how fitting the music is? Ok ok ok ok i stop
I think the realtime system was tacked on because sierra wanted it. Was supposed to be only TB. If you're going to replay at some point I suggest playing in TB only (and probably TB(fast) since it can drag on really really hard)
I have played this game five times including this last play-through for the review so I think I know how to get the best out of it. Throughout all my play-throughs I did find different ways to exploit its combat (one time I used guns, other times I used a combination of summoning and other magic talents) and I ended up cruising through the game without difficulty. But finding exploits does NOT make the combat good. I cheesed it with the same no-risk/super-high reward tactic and that is NOT good. As for turn based combat, I didn't even use it, as I didn't care for it in this game. My point is that the fact that you can circumvent some of the stuff that is NOT good doesn't mean this stuff is not there in the first place. This is absolutely my favorite isometric RPG of all time by far, but I have to call things as I see them.
@@YeOldEntertainment Oh by any means. This comment was never meant as "this makes it good" The combat system is broken beyond belief. Realtime is too fast, TB is too slow. Both aren't proper balanced. You may able to draw enjoyment out of it, but that means most of the time how to break in your favore. This is anything but good. I personally just think playing in TB only offers the better expierence( but then you encounter a bug in which the enemy turn does not end until you switch back and forth between RT and TB until the bug is gone)
@@Superschokokeks One problem with turn-based is that most creatures have tons of movement, so that ranged characters are always at a disadvantage. But virtually machine-gunning archers are among the most stupid looking things I have ever seen in any RPG, so real-time isn't much of an option either. Well, most of the combat in real-time just looks like people randomly and hysterically flailing their arms around.
Oof... I tired to play through this game back in the day and a couple of times recently... Every time I quit early on because of the combat. I believe it's the worst combat in any rpg I've played. Too bad because it was very engaging in character creation and setting and showed promise of great roleplay early on. But if a feature I'm gonna stumble upon constantly in the game is bad (not even decent) made, I can't go along :(
Noooooo! please don't miss out on this one man. There are ways to chee... err.. "circumvent" the problem so that it becomes a footnote. This game has the best gameplay and greatest replay value there is. Also the concept is mind-blowingly original. Perhaps I'll make a video on how to chee...err.. enjoy the game.
Turn-based mode makes things feel a bit better. Also, maybe just play a melee character for the first playthrough. I did and it didn't take too long before my magic-supported fighter became pretty much unstoppable. You just need to grind a bit. If things become too difficult for you, go to Ashbury and do some combat and quests around there.
@@YeOldEntertainment Harm is easily the most useful offensive spell in the early game. It’s pretty OP, and can carry your mage through the first half until you gain access to the top tier spells. Also, mages are an ideal class to play as for first timers. High Intelligence unlocks most dialogue options, and if you make a diplomatic mage, you can get more followers, and have an easier time passing dialogue checks.
I somehow missed this review, and man, you touch on everything (which is a running theme with these reviews). I played this 10 years ago the week I was waiting for my first gaming rig. A friend had pretty much bought everything in the GOG catalogue that came out before 2005 and this was the last game he had that I hadn't played. Combat sucked hard core, and I didn't even know you could toggle out of the turn-based option. But damned if I don't admit that the lore, and the specific place it has in the plot was my favorite aspect of this game. I still laugh hysterically when I think about this game. I play games more for the plot, setting and the characters than the mechanics and in that regard, this game was great.
It's a pretty great game, like all of Troika Games but aside from bugs, the characters and towns aren't as memorable as Baldur's Gate 2. The lore, presentation, the enemies and animations still beat this one in that regard. But definitely one of the greats.
A lot of people always talked about magic being much stronger than science. I had my heart set on a techie, and I think it was the guy in Tarant. But when you sleep, or leave the town and come back he keeps restocking the big engine that you need for automatons. It doesn't count towards your party limit. I had 15 automatons and still enough money to buy more, but the game began lagging and couldn't handle anymore. Spoilers It was also the first time I built an evil character, I joined forces with the last boss, was tasked with destroying cities, then the boss turned on me and my army of automatons beat him to a pulp. In the ending I was the last survivor on the planet. Finding out that Virgil was also a sadistic murderous prick trying to atone, and turning back into a monster once your character really begins doing evil deeds. No experience before, nor afterwards came close to this game for me as a kid.
Exactly! 100% agree on all those points. Virgil is THE ONLY character ever in any video game whose character arch depends on the way things go during your travels. Whether he becomes re-affirmed in is belief of Nasrudin, goes back to his straight-out-evil ways or decides that he can be a good person without subscribing to the ridiculous panarii doctrine, depends on THE PLAYER's journey. I didn't know about that dirty little trick you did with the automatons (you dirty fekker) but during one of my playthroughs I went full gun slinging and grenade tossing and aced the whole thing almost as easily as I did in the previous run with the cheap summon ogre champion and eat popcorn tactic. And I NEVER play an evil character, I have no interest in it, but this game gives you a run for your money if you play evil just as much as it does if you play the goodie two shoes! Becoming allies with Kan Hua and the dark elves translates into a completely different gaming experience. Yes this game ruined every RPG that came after it for me, because I always measure them to the standards set by Arcanum, and of course, they all fail.
I swear, I'm the only person on earth that actually enjoyed combat. Then again, I'm a psyco and really really loved tech and getting hopped up on **all** the drugs and shooting some fool in the face is fun to me....
I have recently finished it for a second time with a Gunslinger/Gunsmith-dwarf with high Intelligence. Unfortunately that wasn't a particularly enjoyable playthrough. Guns eventually became good enough, but for a while when I was using the Repeater Rifle I had to constantly use most of my money to buy more ammo. Even so I probably couldn't have done it without the dps of Worthless Mutt. Intelligence seemed to occasionally open up additional dialogue options, but it was kind of hard to tell since my first playthrough was some years ago and my Half-Elf back then had average Intelligence, so I don't know how much of a difference there really was. By the way, I have been thinking about trying a female character with high Beauty next time, but from what I hear it doesn't seem to do too much outside of the initial reactions. I guess I need to add in some interesting magic or so, to get a character that is both interesting and viable. It's just so easy to gimp your character in Arcanum.
Guns take their sweet little time before they start wrecking everything. I had that exact same experience: Smart Dwarf that's all about guns. It was very different from my previous experience but also significantly harder.
I think I installed a mod that made guns more viable. They really can't hold a candle to swords or magic otherwise. Especially since the latter two don't require resources.
I want to love this game but I’m having a really difficult time with it because of the awful combat. Literally anytime I have to fight I’m terrified that I’m gonna lose progress from an untimely death. I have the same problem to a much lesser extent with Bloodlines, but that wasn’t so bad so I was able to push through it. I feel like if any game needed a full remake with combat overall it’s this game. What it goes well it does very well but most people will not be able to fully enjoy that bc of the awful combat and performance issues
Have u played Deadfire? It's my favorite thing Obsidian has ever done after KOTOR 2. Also have u thought about reviewing Legend of Grimrock (1 and/or2)?
Yes, I've mentioned it a couple of times here in the channel. And though I think it is pretty good... I think I was less impressed with it than most of you guys (POE Deadfire, that is). I played the first Legend of Grimrock, and I think it's good but I have a hard time getting into that first person perspective. Is the second one significantly better? if it is I might revisit the first and then jump to the second.
@@YeOldEntertainment The second is a bit better I guess, but its mostly more of the same on a grander scale. I actually missed how comfy the lesser maps of the first games could be as they were much easier to get a grip off. It was a narrow and focused game and it benefited from that.
If you are taking suggestions I would like to see what you would make of the Might and Magic games from the nineties. 6+ preferably. But I liked 3 to 5 too. But the early ones are very different games. I think they are known as RPG blobbers. Great combat in first person, but not so much story (outside of MM7).
@@chuckwood3426 Was one of those called The restoration of Erathia for PC? I think that's the only one I played. For some reason that and Ultima IV Quest for the Avatar (I think IV is Quest for the Avatar) are games of which I remember little more than the fact that I had a good time with them. Any other Ultima or Heroes or Might and Magic I would have to go back to and play for the first time. I think some other people have asked for it.
@@YeOldEntertainment Ah! No! That was another game from the same developer. They made two series with similar names. One an RPG and the other a turn based strategy game. The strategy games were called Heroes and the RPG games were called Heroes of Might and Magic. They take place in the same world however and the plots intertwine. I was talking about the RPG's because this is an RPG channel, but the strategy games are more popular and well known. Fun fact Heroes 3: The Restoration of Erathia is currently the best selling retro game on Good old Games of all time. A lot of people must be nostalgic about it. If you want to know more about both series there is a youtuber called ssethtzeentach who have done short reviews of the important games in both series. Highly recommended.
This is the only game that you have reviewed I have a completely different experience of than you. I did not think Arcanum to be all that great. I loved the idea of it and there were sparks of greatness littered around. But I could never actually forced myself to finish this game. I have tried twice and I gave up on the other side of the mountains both times. It just feel stretched out and the interesting content becomes sparser and sparser. It did not help that I both times managed to break the combat system early so that I was max lvl before having seen even half the game. Seriously the way the game handles XP is stupid. You only get XP if you deal damage in combat. If your companions deal damage then neither them nor you get anything. But they lvl up at the same time as you do to any optimal build would have you do all the damage while your companions tank the damage and heal. You also got XP from quests I guess. Easiest way to break the combat system and which could be done by lvl 6 was to go for the elemental stat buffs. They allowed you to take your int stat and distribute it to your physical stats in increments of 4. If you started with 12 int and 12 strength then you could take 8 int and increase it to 20 strength. The stats was balanced so that you got exponentially more effect from them the higher they went. So strength 20 gives you +20 damage to all melee attacks. There is a dagger that you start with that only cost 3 AP to swing and if you also put the last 4 int into dex you should be able to swing 5-6 times a turn. This is doable in the first town you'll get to and will kill most things in one turn for the first half of the game. If you switch weapons to the balanced sword that your dwarf companion can forge then your attack only cost 2 AP. And you'll get full XP from every encounter as it is you doing the damage! You will have to download a mod that removes the sound effects from the buff spells though. Those are awful! I cant believe that a game would balance a spell around awful sound effects that makes you not want to use it but here we go! Arcanum did things in its own way!
Yes. Your second paragraph is a spot-on description of what's wrong with the combat in Arcanum. So yes... you have to do the "wait here guys" while you beat the crap out of everything. But if that gets sorted out and if you take the time to look around and talk to NPCs and go off the beaten trail (this is important in arcanum) then it truly is a unique experience.
I think part of the problem with Arcanum is also that it hides its reactivity. A lot of it is obvious enough, but it would have been nice to be able to see what is being checked in dialogue. The way it is now, you almost have to play through the game a few times in quick succession to really notice some of the differences.
To be fair, you do get xp for kills made by your companions. You level a lot slower as a non combat character, but for easy times, you don't need ogre champions. Just get Sogg and Chukka, give both of them a bunch of balanced swords and look at everything getting chunkified. And Sogg you can get in the first village.
It seems like no RPG gets everything right. Maybe they try to do too many different things. A typical RPG is a blend of narrative, exploration, and combat. (Puzzles sometimes play a role too, but that role is usually minor.) These aspects can be in conflict with each other. Combat is the most problematic of these, as it can easily get in the way and break the narrative flow or turn exploration into a painfully slow grind. In some games, I get the feeling that combat is there merely because it is supposed to be there, as it is an RPG genre convention, but it does little to advance the story or make exploration more interesting. Arcanum is this sort of game. It tries to expand RPG mechanics to areas other than combat and generally does a good job of it, but at the same time, it can't get away from combat. Most of the fights in the game feel like they are needless and superfluous - only there to take up time and increase the grind. This is a significant flaw in an otherwise masterful game. For a game like this where narrative and exploration are clearly in the driver's seat, I might argue that combat isn't even necessary, but if it is present, it should go for quality over quantity, and combat encounters should be designed specifically to serve the narrative. In RPGs, I'm drawn almost exclusively to narrative and exploration, but on the rare occasions that combat is so well designed that it presents an interesting tactical puzzle and serves the narrative, I don't mind its presence. (This goes only for turn based or real time with pause combat. I hate all action combat and can only tolerate it if it is really easy.) Naturally, combat-heavy RPGs that have bare bones stories don't interest me so much. In the early years, I was an Ultima fan and not a Wizardry fan, as Ultima put more of a focus on exploration (and later on story), even though the combat in the earlier games was a tedious grind, while Wizardry was all about combat. Arcanum is one of the all time best from a story and exploration standpoint. I find that I can sort-of tolerate the clunky combat if I play at the easy difficulty level, keep it in real time with pause, and use all available cheese tactics and exploits just to get it over with as quickly as possible so that I can spend more time on the parts of the game that are actually fun. This at least keeps the combat from grinding the experience to a halt, but still, the game would be better off if most of the fights were eliminated.
By “Infinity Engine-based game” do you mean games that use the IE or games that are similar? If you didn’t know, Arcanum actually uses its own engine. I’ve always found it similar to the first two Fallouts more than anything (which makes sense as Tim Cain worked on both). Anyways, great video. Arcanum is a game I love more for its ideas more than its execution. Classic flawed gem.
Thanks for pointing that out. I read somewhere that it was made with the infinity engine. But yes, that was a shady source. I particularly don't get Fallout vibes from Arcanum, but that's maybe because for me the post-apocalyptic theme is almost a subgenre on its own. And Arcanum feels vibrant, like a world pushing towards progress rather than a let's-do-the-best-with-what-little-we-got in the wake of a disaster kinda deal. But yes, I can see how these games might be thrown into the same sack.
@@YeOldEntertainment It’s not the aesthetic; it’s the game engine and the way it handles its systems. Even character movement in Arcanum reminds me of Fallout.
There is a niche rts called raise of legends that features davinci-inspired human faction with steam robots, tanks and airships. But also arabic sorcerers using crystals for magic and alien aztecs.
There is a niche rts called raise of legends that features davinci-inspired human faction with steam robots, tanks and airships. But also arabic sorcerers using crystals for magic and alien aztecs.
@@chuckwood3426 Nah, there are more, but a good few of them sound somewhat similar and others you will hear a lot, while some of them play almost never. And all of them are fairly short, so the ones that you will hear a lot will get repetitive quickly.
Arcanum is what I call a true crpg where true reactivity happens and there is a role to play. Your action have consequence and character progression is amazing
Just finished a Necromancer playthrough recently. Game is a bona fide masterpiece.
A flawed game, but one that rewards you for having the dedication to see it to the end. Despite its numerous issues, it was something deeply different from its peers at the time, and I think that is something to be appreciated.
I think Arcanum should be compared to Fallout, not Baldur's Gate. Despite different settings they are so similar.
Since the same guy worked on them. Forget the name.
But you're right.
Arcanum has the same expolring the aftermath feeling when discovering the world and its history.
And the reactivity. and so on
@@Superschokokeks it wasn't just one guy. Tim Cain and Leonard were fathers of original fallout. What is sad that when Interplay started to fall apart, they try to buy fallout IP so we could have Troyka's fallout, but Bethesda had more money...
@@pantonearqm2791 Yep, when there are tons of dialogue for dumb characters in an RPG chances are that Tim Cain was involved ;)
@@pantonearqm2791 I'm happy they made this, wish they'd made a medieval game. Not a fan of futuristic settings. Shame we never got medieval fallout.
I was obsessed with this game as a teen, it's absolutely crazy. I'm not much of a gamer especially not RPGs but sometime when I see my friends being super hyped for like BG3 about the reaction of the pnj or all the stuff you can do in game and alternate path to resolve conflicts and whatnot I'm almost confused. How are this kind of features still a novelty today? It was fully realized in Arcanum twenty years ago!
The choice and consequence thing just became truly mainstream in the past decade. "RPGs" for most people were final fantasy, before all this DnD CRPG revival stuff.
Having played this for the first time last year, I enjoyed Arcanum quite a lot. If the combat and encounter design were just just a bit better, or if there was less combat overall, Arcanum would probably be my GOAT RPG. It is within spitting distance however.
I agree. I'm even willing to forgive the clunky combat because it can be circumvented in some capacity and the rest of the the content is fantastic. But yes... as you say... it's probably within spitting distance of being my GOAT as well.
Main menu music is sooooo good first time I heard it I started crying. I just love the melancholic soundrack.
Also I had no crash so far, lucky me.
When you can't have reactive music in your budget.... because you're already months behind schedule and need to make only half the game playable...
The fact that Arcanum 2 doesn't exist is a sin against humanity
The greatest steampunk game ever made.
There is a mod that allows you to allocate character points for the companions. Being able to "fix" the companions (make them useful in combat, or at the very least, not a liability) this patch DOES SO MUCH to fix combat. You could use it to make everyone OP as fuck, but if you have a bit of restraint, you can use it to make Jaina Styles for example at the very least strong enough to use semi decent armor and with enough dodge to not just immediately die every time you enter combat. This little mod is GAME CHANGING. Combat is everyone's big complaint and rightly so, and while you can't completely fix it, being able to allocate the points for companions to make them at least passable in combat is AWESOME. As far as the stability, there is a patch for that as well and it basically fixes 99% of the issues. Neither of these mods are hard to install, and they turn this from a flawed masterpiece into just a masterpiece.
What are the names of the mods?
My favorite weapon in the game was the Aerial Decapitator, and specializing in throwing made the early game fun since Molotov cocktails are really easy to come by just digging through trash bins and buying fuel.
I loved all the explosives in this game, actually.
I remember a million years ago running into some blind guy in the middle of nowhere who was a master of throwing. But I found him through exploration, I didn't even a quest for him.
Arcanum and Fallout. Two very very very special things in entertainment. Both were made by Cain, Boyarsky and Anderson.
Wow,this is Christmas spirit,Merry Christmas by the way! Never played Arcanum ,almost,so it is going to be fun.
Definitely the ghost of Christmas past! Merry Christmas friend!
"What is the cost of its use?" Fucking brilliant piece of writing.
One of the best moments there's ever been in a video game.
@@YeOldEntertainment I played both Torment and the BG series, but it seems like I'll venturing forth into this game. Thanks for the whole series of reviews, excelent content!
Thanks man! It's comments like this that keep the reviewing flame alive.
Your videos are really good!
Thank you! I hope you continue to like them!
Great review of a fantastic game. I did notice you said Arcanum was an "infinity engine" game a few times. From what I know, Tim Cain actually wrote the engine from scratch for the most part, similar to the engine behind Fallout.
Yes, I think he smuggled a few bits of code over from the Fallout engine, though he denies it on his channel XD. I don't remember what I said specifically, but I probably meant something like "such-such-such game AND other games along those lines that were made with the inifinity engine" or something like that.
One of my top 3 games of all times and certainly my top 1 isometric RPG. I NEVER EVER used real time combat though as that was way too fast. But the "fast turnbased" combat worked pretty well for me though. And yeah: I never played with lots of followers as those did die like flies all the time
Same here. Top 1 isometric RPG of all time. But I always used real time combat.
@@YeOldEntertainment After watching your video I can see why. It never occurred to me that one could cheese it like that and just kite the enemies. But after a disastrous real time combat I only ever did fast turn based. The battles where so much more manageable! Party members still where a huge problem though...
I have tried playing this game. Combat is just so bad but the game in general is great. Maybe a let's play would be a better choice then. I am currently playing Fallout 3. It's one of my favorite games of all time. Do you like Fallout 3 guys?
No. I like Fallout 1,2 and New Vegas. Haven't liked anything from Bethesda since Morrowind and Daggerfall.
I was thinking of doing one, yes. As for Fallout 3. It originally broke my b... err... heart because it went in a completely different direction and it lacked many of the things I loved from the first two games. I think the "new style" Fallout reached its peak with New Vegas.
Fallout 3 had too many copypasted subway stations. It was fun initially but I quickly burned out.
I wasn't going to try it, after the abomination that was Oblivion. But one of my friends was raving about it, so I gave it a go. I could not stand to play more than an hour a day. The shitty writing and design decisions made my stomach churn, literally. I felt like throwing up, forcing myself to play that thing. I tried for a week, that's about 7 hours before deciding to stop torturing myself and haven't touched that pile of manure again. Thanx to that awful experience I've never been able to get into New Vegas either.
Coincidentally once I mentioned that to the friend that had recommended it, he said that he couldn't stand the game either anymore, after getting to about quarter of the way through.
Arcanum is one of those games whose setting and minutiae has me grimly fascinated, but I constantly hesitate when it comes to actually taking it out for a spin. Being treated to a cornucopia of glitches and bad, unenjoyable combat is usually a deal breaker for me, which is made all the more painful by how intriguing this game's setting and interactions seem. It's like a vintage gem of a car that your soul aches to buy and drive until the tread goes off the tires, except it's cursed like Little Bastard and you fear for your life while behind the wheel.
At this point, I shouldn't be surprised that it's a brainchild of Troika. They had great ideas for their games but were just plain incompetent when it came to coding said games, leaving their playerbase to clean up their mess after them.
hear, hear! I have nothing to add to this brilliant review of one of my favorite games!
and get the fan patch. It's necessary to avoid .. a lot of issues, save game corruption and other bugs
The dog is the best companion, ever.
Man I love this game. If I had a gun to my head I’d say it was my favorite just beating Baldur’s Gate 2 and Planescape Torment. It absolutely has flaws but just hearing the music in this video makes me want to play it again.
I would (did) say this EVEN if I had a gun to my head. This is my favorite isometric CRPG without a shadow of a doubt.
Everytime someone reviews I start goshing all over it like a teengirl about some frontsinger and get all wet just by looking at it.
Combat it so broken, you become very powerful if you know how to exploit it (going for speed for instances let you in TB kill everything before your turn ends)
so you get your power fantasy if you want some, but the best thing is roleplay.
This game let you roleplay and such many ways it's still unseen to this day. The game will react to it. That is truly the best part of it.
To top at all off, the lore is compelling, while the main story is not that special, It's villian is one of the most interesting seen in gaming.
The game furthermore raises some interesting questions to let you think about.
And
I stop here
Before I write a whole unstructured essay about Arcanum again
Did I mention how fitting the music is? Ok ok ok ok i stop
Game feels god but it crashes soooo often for me
I feel you.
Just download fan patch. Arcanum multiverse edition probably the best.
@@pantonearqm2791 what he says
Fan patch resolves most issues. Especially the gamebreaking bugs
I think the realtime system was tacked on because sierra wanted it. Was supposed to be only TB. If you're going to replay at some point I suggest playing in TB only (and probably TB(fast) since it can drag on really really hard)
I have played this game five times including this last play-through for the review so I think I know how to get the best out of it. Throughout all my play-throughs I did find different ways to exploit its combat (one time I used guns, other times I used a combination of summoning and other magic talents) and I ended up cruising through the game without difficulty. But finding exploits does NOT make the combat good. I cheesed it with the same no-risk/super-high reward tactic and that is NOT good.
As for turn based combat, I didn't even use it, as I didn't care for it in this game. My point is that the fact that you can circumvent some of the stuff that is NOT good doesn't mean this stuff is not there in the first place. This is absolutely my favorite isometric RPG of all time by far, but I have to call things as I see them.
@@YeOldEntertainment Oh by any means. This comment was never meant as "this makes it good"
The combat system is broken beyond belief. Realtime is too fast, TB is too slow. Both aren't proper balanced.
You may able to draw enjoyment out of it, but that means most of the time how to break in your favore. This is anything but good.
I personally just think playing in TB only offers the better expierence( but then you encounter a bug in which the enemy turn does not end until you switch back and forth between RT and TB until the bug is gone)
@@Superschokokeks One problem with turn-based is that most creatures have tons of movement, so that ranged characters are always at a disadvantage. But virtually machine-gunning archers are among the most stupid looking things I have ever seen in any RPG, so real-time isn't much of an option either. Well, most of the combat in real-time just looks like people randomly and hysterically flailing their arms around.
Worthless Mutt is the best companion.
I only remembered to save him once, and it was with a gun-slinger, so yes, it was worth it.
@@YeOldEntertainment He's basically the failsafe for weaker character builds.
Oof... I tired to play through this game back in the day and a couple of times recently... Every time I quit early on because of the combat. I believe it's the worst combat in any rpg I've played. Too bad because it was very engaging in character creation and setting and showed promise of great roleplay early on. But if a feature I'm gonna stumble upon constantly in the game is bad (not even decent) made, I can't go along :(
Noooooo! please don't miss out on this one man. There are ways to chee... err.. "circumvent" the problem so that it becomes a footnote. This game has the best gameplay and greatest replay value there is. Also the concept is mind-blowingly original. Perhaps I'll make a video on how to chee...err.. enjoy the game.
Turn-based mode makes things feel a bit better. Also, maybe just play a melee character for the first playthrough. I did and it didn't take too long before my magic-supported fighter became pretty much unstoppable. You just need to grind a bit. If things become too difficult for you, go to Ashbury and do some combat and quests around there.
@@YeOldEntertainment Harm, harm, and more harm.
@@matternicuss Care to elaborate...?
@@YeOldEntertainment Harm is easily the most useful offensive spell in the early game. It’s pretty OP, and can carry your mage through the first half until you gain access to the top tier spells.
Also, mages are an ideal class to play as for first timers. High Intelligence unlocks most dialogue options, and if you make a diplomatic mage, you can get more followers, and have an easier time passing dialogue checks.
I somehow missed this review, and man, you touch on everything (which is a running theme with these reviews). I played this 10 years ago the week I was waiting for my first gaming rig. A friend had pretty much bought everything in the GOG catalogue that came out before 2005 and this was the last game he had that I hadn't played.
Combat sucked hard core, and I didn't even know you could toggle out of the turn-based option. But damned if I don't admit that the lore, and the specific place it has in the plot was my favorite aspect of this game. I still laugh hysterically when I think about this game. I play games more for the plot, setting and the characters than the mechanics and in that regard, this game was great.
I can absolutely relate
Play this game's soundtrack at my funeral.
It's a pretty great game, like all of Troika Games but aside from bugs, the characters and towns aren't as memorable as Baldur's Gate 2. The lore, presentation, the enemies and animations still beat this one in that regard. But definitely one of the greats.
A lot of people always talked about magic being much stronger than science. I had my heart set on a techie, and I think it was the guy in Tarant.
But when you sleep, or leave the town and come back he keeps restocking the big engine that you need for automatons. It doesn't count towards your party limit. I had 15 automatons and still enough money to buy more, but the game began lagging and couldn't handle anymore.
Spoilers
It was also the first time I built an evil character, I joined forces with the last boss, was tasked with destroying cities, then the boss turned on me and my army of automatons beat him to a pulp. In the ending I was the last survivor on the planet.
Finding out that Virgil was also a sadistic murderous prick trying to atone, and turning back into a monster once your character really begins doing evil deeds. No experience before, nor afterwards came close to this game for me as a kid.
Exactly! 100% agree on all those points. Virgil is THE ONLY character ever in any video game whose character arch depends on the way things go during your travels. Whether he becomes re-affirmed in is belief of Nasrudin, goes back to his straight-out-evil ways or decides that he can be a good person without subscribing to the ridiculous panarii doctrine, depends on THE PLAYER's journey.
I didn't know about that dirty little trick you did with the automatons (you dirty fekker) but during one of my playthroughs I went full gun slinging and grenade tossing and aced the whole thing almost as easily as I did in the previous run with the cheap summon ogre champion and eat popcorn tactic.
And I NEVER play an evil character, I have no interest in it, but this game gives you a run for your money if you play evil just as much as it does if you play the goodie two shoes! Becoming allies with Kan Hua and the dark elves translates into a completely different gaming experience.
Yes this game ruined every RPG that came after it for me, because I always measure them to the standards set by Arcanum, and of course, they all fail.
I swear, I'm the only person on earth that actually enjoyed combat. Then again, I'm a psyco and really really loved tech and getting hopped up on **all** the drugs and shooting some fool in the face is fun to me....
this is my fav channel
Thanks man. Feel's good to me someone's favorite!
I Loved this game back in the day!
I have recently finished it for a second time with a Gunslinger/Gunsmith-dwarf with high Intelligence. Unfortunately that wasn't a particularly enjoyable playthrough. Guns eventually became good enough, but for a while when I was using the Repeater Rifle I had to constantly use most of my money to buy more ammo. Even so I probably couldn't have done it without the dps of Worthless Mutt.
Intelligence seemed to occasionally open up additional dialogue options, but it was kind of hard to tell since my first playthrough was some years ago and my Half-Elf back then had average Intelligence, so I don't know how much of a difference there really was.
By the way, I have been thinking about trying a female character with high Beauty next time, but from what I hear it doesn't seem to do too much outside of the initial reactions. I guess I need to add in some interesting magic or so, to get a character that is both interesting and viable. It's just so easy to gimp your character in Arcanum.
Guns take their sweet little time before they start wrecking everything. I had that exact same experience: Smart Dwarf that's all about guns. It was very different from my previous experience but also significantly harder.
I think I installed a mod that made guns more viable. They really can't hold a candle to swords or magic otherwise. Especially since the latter two don't require resources.
I want to love this game but I’m having a really difficult time with it because of the awful combat. Literally anytime I have to fight I’m terrified that I’m gonna lose progress from an untimely death. I have the same problem to a much lesser extent with Bloodlines, but that wasn’t so bad so I was able to push through it.
I feel like if any game needed a full remake with combat overall it’s this game. What it goes well it does very well but most people will not be able to fully enjoy that bc of the awful combat and performance issues
Have u played Deadfire? It's my favorite thing Obsidian has ever done after KOTOR 2. Also have u thought about reviewing Legend of Grimrock (1 and/or2)?
Yes, I've mentioned it a couple of times here in the channel. And though I think it is pretty good... I think I was less impressed with it than most of you guys (POE Deadfire, that is). I played the first Legend of Grimrock, and I think it's good but I have a hard time getting into that first person perspective. Is the second one significantly better? if it is I might revisit the first and then jump to the second.
@@YeOldEntertainment The second is a bit better I guess, but its mostly more of the same on a grander scale. I actually missed how comfy the lesser maps of the first games could be as they were much easier to get a grip off. It was a narrow and focused game and it benefited from that.
If you are taking suggestions I would like to see what you would make of the Might and Magic games from the nineties. 6+ preferably. But I liked 3 to 5 too. But the early ones are very different games. I think they are known as RPG blobbers. Great combat in first person, but not so much story (outside of MM7).
@@chuckwood3426 Was one of those called The restoration of Erathia for PC? I think that's the only one I played. For some reason that and Ultima IV Quest for the Avatar (I think IV is Quest for the Avatar) are games of which I remember little more than the fact that I had a good time with them. Any other Ultima or Heroes or Might and Magic I would have to go back to and play for the first time. I think some other people have asked for it.
@@YeOldEntertainment Ah! No! That was another game from the same developer. They made two series with similar names. One an RPG and the other a turn based strategy game. The strategy games were called Heroes and the RPG games were called Heroes of Might and Magic. They take place in the same world however and the plots intertwine. I was talking about the RPG's because this is an RPG channel, but the strategy games are more popular and well known.
Fun fact Heroes 3: The Restoration of Erathia is currently the best selling retro game on Good old Games of all time. A lot of people must be nostalgic about it.
If you want to know more about both series there is a youtuber called ssethtzeentach who have done short reviews of the important games in both series. Highly recommended.
This is the only game that you have reviewed I have a completely different experience of than you. I did not think Arcanum to be all that great. I loved the idea of it and there were sparks of greatness littered around. But I could never actually forced myself to finish this game. I have tried twice and I gave up on the other side of the mountains both times. It just feel stretched out and the interesting content becomes sparser and sparser.
It did not help that I both times managed to break the combat system early so that I was max lvl before having seen even half the game. Seriously the way the game handles XP is stupid. You only get XP if you deal damage in combat. If your companions deal damage then neither them nor you get anything. But they lvl up at the same time as you do to any optimal build would have you do all the damage while your companions tank the damage and heal. You also got XP from quests I guess.
Easiest way to break the combat system and which could be done by lvl 6 was to go for the elemental stat buffs. They allowed you to take your int stat and distribute it to your physical stats in increments of 4. If you started with 12 int and 12 strength then you could take 8 int and increase it to 20 strength. The stats was balanced so that you got exponentially more effect from them the higher they went. So strength 20 gives you +20 damage to all melee attacks. There is a dagger that you start with that only cost 3 AP to swing and if you also put the last 4 int into dex you should be able to swing 5-6 times a turn. This is doable in the first town you'll get to and will kill most things in one turn for the first half of the game. If you switch weapons to the balanced sword that your dwarf companion can forge then your attack only cost 2 AP. And you'll get full XP from every encounter as it is you doing the damage!
You will have to download a mod that removes the sound effects from the buff spells though. Those are awful! I cant believe that a game would balance a spell around awful sound effects that makes you not want to use it but here we go! Arcanum did things in its own way!
Yes. Your second paragraph is a spot-on description of what's wrong with the combat in Arcanum. So yes... you have to do the "wait here guys" while you beat the crap out of everything. But if that gets sorted out and if you take the time to look around and talk to NPCs and go off the beaten trail (this is important in arcanum) then it truly is a unique experience.
I think part of the problem with Arcanum is also that it hides its reactivity. A lot of it is obvious enough, but it would have been nice to be able to see what is being checked in dialogue. The way it is now, you almost have to play through the game a few times in quick succession to really notice some of the differences.
To be fair, you do get xp for kills made by your companions. You level a lot slower as a non combat character, but for easy times, you don't need ogre champions. Just get Sogg and Chukka, give both of them a bunch of balanced swords and look at everything getting chunkified. And Sogg you can get in the first village.
It seems like no RPG gets everything right. Maybe they try to do too many different things. A typical RPG is a blend of narrative, exploration, and combat. (Puzzles sometimes play a role too, but that role is usually minor.) These aspects can be in conflict with each other. Combat is the most problematic of these, as it can easily get in the way and break the narrative flow or turn exploration into a painfully slow grind. In some games, I get the feeling that combat is there merely because it is supposed to be there, as it is an RPG genre convention, but it does little to advance the story or make exploration more interesting. Arcanum is this sort of game. It tries to expand RPG mechanics to areas other than combat and generally does a good job of it, but at the same time, it can't get away from combat. Most of the fights in the game feel like they are needless and superfluous - only there to take up time and increase the grind. This is a significant flaw in an otherwise masterful game. For a game like this where narrative and exploration are clearly in the driver's seat, I might argue that combat isn't even necessary, but if it is present, it should go for quality over quantity, and combat encounters should be designed specifically to serve the narrative.
In RPGs, I'm drawn almost exclusively to narrative and exploration, but on the rare occasions that combat is so well designed that it presents an interesting tactical puzzle and serves the narrative, I don't mind its presence. (This goes only for turn based or real time with pause combat. I hate all action combat and can only tolerate it if it is really easy.) Naturally, combat-heavy RPGs that have bare bones stories don't interest me so much. In the early years, I was an Ultima fan and not a Wizardry fan, as Ultima put more of a focus on exploration (and later on story), even though the combat in the earlier games was a tedious grind, while Wizardry was all about combat. Arcanum is one of the all time best from a story and exploration standpoint. I find that I can sort-of tolerate the clunky combat if I play at the easy difficulty level, keep it in real time with pause, and use all available cheese tactics and exploits just to get it over with as quickly as possible so that I can spend more time on the parts of the game that are actually fun. This at least keeps the combat from grinding the experience to a halt, but still, the game would be better off if most of the fights were eliminated.
The romance may be cringy though to be fair tell me a romance that isn't cringy. At least a little.
I'm going out on a limb here but... Siora and your main character in Greedfall? That one's not too bad is it?
By “Infinity Engine-based game” do you mean games that use the IE or games that are similar? If you didn’t know, Arcanum actually uses its own engine. I’ve always found it similar to the first two Fallouts more than anything (which makes sense as Tim Cain worked on both).
Anyways, great video. Arcanum is a game I love more for its ideas more than its execution. Classic flawed gem.
Thanks for pointing that out. I read somewhere that it was made with the infinity engine. But yes, that was a shady source. I particularly don't get Fallout vibes from Arcanum, but that's maybe because for me the post-apocalyptic theme is almost a subgenre on its own. And Arcanum feels vibrant, like a world pushing towards progress rather than a let's-do-the-best-with-what-little-we-got in the wake of a disaster kinda deal. But yes, I can see how these games might be thrown into the same sack.
@@YeOldEntertainment It’s not the aesthetic; it’s the game engine and the way it handles its systems. Even character movement in Arcanum reminds me of Fallout.
@@matternicuss fine
Is this game still the only game with a industrial revolution x magical fantasy setting?
There is a niche rts called raise of legends that features davinci-inspired human faction with steam robots, tanks and airships. But also arabic sorcerers using crystals for magic and alien aztecs.
There is a niche rts called raise of legends that features davinci-inspired human faction with steam robots, tanks and airships. But also arabic sorcerers using crystals for magic and alien aztecs.
I am shocked, downright appalled that music did not get a 10/10
Its very little music in it though. Like 4-5 tracks only. You'll get sick of it eventually.
@@chuckwood3426 Nah, there are more, but a good few of them sound somewhat similar and others you will hear a lot, while some of them play almost never. And all of them are fairly short, so the ones that you will hear a lot will get repetitive quickly.
gambling for instance let's navigate in circles always quetioning yourself why you waste points on that!
Couldnt you get a boat with gambling?
@@Jrdotan yes the only! Instance in which gambling is used
First
Yes?
@@YeOldEntertainment no
!!! This sentence is a premature punctuater
@@michaellittlefield6906 I weep but I understand 👍