My favourite thing about this game is the dedication to *worldbuilding*. You can tell the dev team really took the time to think through logical consequences for the setting. For example, workers campaigning for the right to form labour unions. This is tabletop-RPG sourcebook levels of worldbuilding detail.
The fact that it came with a 100 page manual written entirely as an in-world textbook definitely didn't hurt either! Makes me sad that there's no Arcanum 2!
I bought this game around the time of its release, and while it took me time to finally play it, when I did, I dove into that manual with relish. I loved the concept of the world and became an archmage who was hated by all forms of science. Sadly, I never beat it, and I got FAR. On the plus side, I plan to play it again someday soon and look forward to re-exploring the world of Arcanum!
Definitely feel like people are still doing really interesting things in the indie space! But yeah, the AAA space has gotten extremely risk averse and greedy
@@Christian-wr4gebg3 is overrated AF and not that great. People only like it because of the horny r34 bait in it. If that stuff was removed i guarantee people would just see it as an average rpg cause the story is mid. No one ever talks about the story 😂 plus the combat is slow, boring and tedious
I'll be honest, the aspect of the game that still has kept its grip on my memory to this day whenever I see people talk about how interactive, or immersive, or - gods help them - *reactive* a game world is, all I can think back to is the fact that characters in Arcanum would react to your race, gender, reputation, intellect, beauty.... and clothing. To the point of being able to only pick certain dialogue choices in quests if you were the right combination of all of these elements. Somehow the one that stayed with me the most was when I have stumbled upon the questline where you could basically skip a chunk of it by being dressed in a barbarian armour as a female by having a sleazy business owner of some sort proposition you, because he's "always wanted to try being with a wild woman". I uh. May or may not have killed him later on. But the fact that a game this old had this sort of attention to detail was, and still remains, mind-boggling to me.
I found you guys via the last Starfield vid (YT alogorithm helping here at once, solid work btw), now I need to play this game, thanks for the work put in and the recommendation.
Help our channel by buying the game through our GOG Affiliate link: adtr.co/YS6X6K If you wanna get Arcanum up and running we also created a guide to installing Drog Blacktooth's Unofficial Arcanum Patch. Better Windows 10 support, Widescreen support, modern resolution fixes, bug fixes, and mods can all be easily added to the game by following the instructions right here: ua-cam.com/video/pKgvwCiAmac/v-deo.html Drog Blacktooth's Unofficial Arcanum Patch: terra-arcanum.com/drog/uap.html#download
Thanks for the kind words and welcome to the channel ablued duck! RE: portraits, you can see the whole page here: terra-arcanum.com/drog/eastereggs.html enjoy!
Beamdog wanted to do exactly that but the game is half-owned by Vivendi (who bought out Sierra) and half-owned by Activision and Activision wouldn't allow it. If you ever find yourself needing yet another reason to despise Activision there you go.
I'm glad you gave a nod to the dumpster diving aspect, it's such a tiny easily overlooked detail about the game but I've spent ingame days raking through the various bins in Tarant looking for scrap to make traps and gadgets with.
@@2HeadedHero I write a question about a remake or sequel in every video of Tim on his channel. Maybe we can create some kind of petition to microsoft to make it clear that there are still fans and they are really waiting for a remake or sequel?
@@GMOTP5738 What does closing studios have to do with anything? We just want Microsoft to poke Activision into letting someone like Beamdog remaster Arcanum, they've been trying to for some time but Activision won't let them.
Hi, I wanted to ask about Arcanum, could you please ask Drog Black Tooth to also add a Godmode for the party in the Virgil's Debug Menu of the Misc Mods section of the Unofficial Arcanum Patch? and where can I contact Drog? an answer and thank you!🙂
Skillbuff medicines and herbalism and create a team of drug-fueled maniacs or even better, buff up white necromancy so you can repeatedly resurrect them.
I love Larian for their first two divinity games but I would probably opt for Obsidian, InXile or Arkane. Those studios are filled with former Black Isle and Troika legends.
We all do, the oldest part of our nervous system is the part that hasn't really changed in millions of years of evolution and so gets referred to as the reptilian part of our mammallian brain, it's stuff like the pineal gland, amygdala, medula, etc, the bits that are pretty much interchangeable with most other species and where we get our primal instincts from, when you get horny, angry, happy or sad, that's your lizard brain flipping levers.
@@willnothateu I'd say they're not overrated on the technical aspects of their games, because these are usually stellar by today's standards, but I do have to agree that their writing gets way more praise than it deserves, I feel. And if just for that, and for them being notoriously bad with paying any actual respect to established elements of story and lore, I'd personally rather have them work within their own IPs instead. Owlcat, though.... if fthey manage to avoid a fiasco as bad as the release of Rogue Trader and curb just a tiny bit some of their bullshit tendencies when it comes to difficulty and encounter designs, I feel would be great for taking over this IP. Not like it's ever likely to happen, but... one can always dream.
@@2HeadedHero Never noticed any game breaking bugs . Sadly we never got Arcanum 2 as Tim Cain mentioned was in development . Nice touch on the fast forward to GB ! 👌
My favourite thing about this game is the dedication to *worldbuilding*. You can tell the dev team really took the time to think through logical consequences for the setting. For example, workers campaigning for the right to form labour unions. This is tabletop-RPG sourcebook levels of worldbuilding detail.
The fact that it came with a 100 page manual written entirely as an in-world textbook definitely didn't hurt either! Makes me sad that there's no Arcanum 2!
You bros definitely deserve more subs. Keep up the quality.
Thanks for the kind words! Welcome to the channel.
Underrated game and underrated review. Thank you for your work!
Hey thanks for watching! Cheers and welcome to 2HH
I bought this game around the time of its release, and while it took me time to finally play it, when I did, I dove into that manual with relish. I loved the concept of the world and became an archmage who was hated by all forms of science. Sadly, I never beat it, and I got FAR. On the plus side, I plan to play it again someday soon and look forward to re-exploring the world of Arcanum!
Play it again but USE THE PATCH! 🤣
Much better experience after mods than the first time around for sure!
Crazy how far gaming has fallen in terms of ambition. Back then it felt like anything will be possible.
Definitely feel like people are still doing really interesting things in the indie space! But yeah, the AAA space has gotten extremely risk averse and greedy
Can I present to you Baldur's Gate 3
@@Christian-wr4gebg3 is overrated AF and not that great. People only like it because of the horny r34 bait in it. If that stuff was removed i guarantee people would just see it as an average rpg cause the story is mid. No one ever talks about the story 😂 plus the combat is slow, boring and tedious
@@GMOTP5738 anyone who uses "😂" unironically, are often seething.
14:26 that makes so much sense actually.
hehehe, good one
I'll be honest, the aspect of the game that still has kept its grip on my memory to this day whenever I see people talk about how interactive, or immersive, or - gods help them - *reactive* a game world is, all I can think back to is the fact that characters in Arcanum would react to your race, gender, reputation, intellect, beauty.... and clothing. To the point of being able to only pick certain dialogue choices in quests if you were the right combination of all of these elements. Somehow the one that stayed with me the most was when I have stumbled upon the questline where you could basically skip a chunk of it by being dressed in a barbarian armour as a female by having a sleazy business owner of some sort proposition you, because he's "always wanted to try being with a wild woman". I uh. May or may not have killed him later on. But the fact that a game this old had this sort of attention to detail was, and still remains, mind-boggling to me.
Yes- A true classic for sure 😃😃
I found you guys via the last Starfield vid (YT alogorithm helping here at once, solid work btw), now I need to play this game, thanks for the work put in and the recommendation.
Tim Cain mentioned a lot of his titles including Arcanum came about from a "what if" mentality. Now we have a "what works" mentality.
Cain's channel is very good 😊😊
I always use Liam's workshop as homebase/storage.
@@celestebucknell7845 it's so helpful 😂😁
Help our channel by buying the game through our GOG Affiliate link: adtr.co/YS6X6K
If you wanna get Arcanum up and running we also created a guide to installing Drog Blacktooth's Unofficial Arcanum Patch. Better Windows 10 support, Widescreen support, modern resolution fixes, bug fixes, and mods can all be easily added to the game by following the instructions right here: ua-cam.com/video/pKgvwCiAmac/v-deo.html
Drog Blacktooth's Unofficial Arcanum Patch: terra-arcanum.com/drog/uap.html#download
Great video! Where did you guys find that web page with the portrait comparisons? I'd love to take a look at it!
Thanks for the kind words and welcome to the channel ablued duck!
RE: portraits, you can see the whole page here:
terra-arcanum.com/drog/eastereggs.html
enjoy!
This game deserves an HD remaster or a remake!!
Definitely. There's some spiritual successors on the horizon like New Arc Line but nothing has ever come close
Beamdog wanted to do exactly that but the game is half-owned by Vivendi (who bought out Sierra) and half-owned by Activision and Activision wouldn't allow it. If you ever find yourself needing yet another reason to despise Activision there you go.
I'm glad you gave a nod to the dumpster diving aspect, it's such a tiny easily overlooked detail about the game but I've spent ingame days raking through the various bins in Tarant looking for scrap to make traps and gadgets with.
It's amazing how many people just throw away perfectly good hand grenade parts 😆😆
Dwarf - Miracle Operation - Guns & Technology makes for a great run.
They didn't know about the half ogre island
Dream about remake and arcanum 2 every day. All 3 developers now work on microsoft, and microsoft buy activision. thats give me hope
Hope so but doesn't seem real likely. I'd buy it!
@@2HeadedHero I write a question about a remake or sequel in every video of Tim on his channel. Maybe we can create some kind of petition to microsoft to make it clear that there are still fans and they are really waiting for a remake or sequel?
Lol that'll never happen after microsoft closing a bunch of studios recently 😂
@@GMOTP5738 eh maybe a smaller studio like inxile or something will get the rights. Probably won't see it though 😥😥
@@GMOTP5738 What does closing studios have to do with anything? We just want Microsoft to poke Activision into letting someone like Beamdog remaster Arcanum, they've been trying to for some time but Activision won't let them.
Hi, I wanted to ask about Arcanum, could you please ask Drog Black Tooth to also add a Godmode for the party in the Virgil's Debug Menu of the Misc Mods section of the Unofficial Arcanum Patch? and where can I contact Drog? an answer and thank you!🙂
No one really has direct contact info for Drog Blacktooth unfortunately, you could try asking on the forums here terra-arcanum.com/
Skillbuff medicines and herbalism and create a team of drug-fueled maniacs or even better, buff up white necromancy so you can repeatedly resurrect them.
Very nice. Totally needs remake or second part, produced by Larian
@@tyalikanky 100% agree, Larian would be my first choice
I love Larian for their first two divinity games but I would probably opt for Obsidian, InXile or Arkane. Those studios are filled with former Black Isle and Troika legends.
Great Video :)
Thanks! Welcome to the channel!
20:25 An item that raises followers to your level? What is this called and where can I find it?
It's a book that can be found for purchase in Tarant!
@@2HeadedHero Can you be more specific, please? What is the name of this item and where in Tarant can I buy it?
@@janmayenese don't recall the exact name right now, but check the offerings in the university library 😊
@@2HeadedHero Is it the "Educator's Guide" from the general stores? Looks like it's a feature from the unofficial patch.
Yup, definitely
Dog is the best follower, a very good boi. Virgil is a good second, good ol' reliable Virgil.
The Virgil side quest is also amazing
Wow thanks for the video. This game has been on my Steam wishlist for ages. Sounds a bit intimidating to be honest.
It can be intimidating for sure, but once it clicks it's an awesome experience! Thanks for watching!
0:12 I have a lizard brain?!?!?!?! WHY WASN'T I TOLD?! OMFGOSH
We all do, the oldest part of our nervous system is the part that hasn't really changed in millions of years of evolution and so gets referred to as the reptilian part of our mammallian brain, it's stuff like the pineal gland, amygdala, medula, etc, the bits that are pretty much interchangeable with most other species and where we get our primal instincts from, when you get horny, angry, happy or sad, that's your lizard brain flipping levers.
Who drew the Virgil fan art?
Whistly on Deviantart
Credits are in the description ☝
If there are two developers who could mantle a sequel it would be either Owlcat Studios or Larian. Man it would be sweet😊
Completely agree, it'd be even better if Tim Cain was somehow involved!
Larian are overrated AF, better devs would be inExile or the people who made the wasteland games
@@GMOTP5738 yeah! They would be a great candidate as well. Dont agree a humble passionate Studio like Larian is over rated though.
@@willnothateu I'd say they're not overrated on the technical aspects of their games, because these are usually stellar by today's standards, but I do have to agree that their writing gets way more praise than it deserves, I feel. And if just for that, and for them being notoriously bad with paying any actual respect to established elements of story and lore, I'd personally rather have them work within their own IPs instead. Owlcat, though.... if fthey manage to avoid a fiasco as bad as the release of Rogue Trader and curb just a tiny bit some of their bullshit tendencies when it comes to difficulty and encounter designs, I feel would be great for taking over this IP. Not like it's ever likely to happen, but... one can always dream.
Am I the only one who plays this yearly since release without any patches ? Never found it too broken 🤷♂
Widescreen and bug fixes are nice though 😁😁
@@2HeadedHero Never noticed any game breaking bugs . Sadly we never got Arcanum 2 as Tim Cain mentioned was in development .
Nice touch on the fast forward to GB ! 👌
Great job
Thanks rabbit! Welcome to the channel! 🐇
The real time fight mode is broken. But the turn based mode is better than Fallout 1 and 2
I'll agree on that in everything but the called shot system! No groin targeting 🤣
Why would you think so?
Sending up a smoke signal! Puff puff post