Somehow this came up in another thread and got me thinking about it. I kept hoping it would come up for sale on steam but found it on Good old Games for five bucks. The game is a study in taking universe detail and storytelling to another level. It always saddens me that kids who think the FF series is the pinacle of cRPG's will never play Arcanum, Fallout, Planescape: Torment, or some of the other old time greats.

arcanum was something else indeed, especially in its treatment of magic and tech.

to bad its multiplayer mode never really got any traction (perhaps because they didnt allow gear to be stored on the character).

For all its warts I have fond, fond memories of Arcanum.

I really need to play Planescape... I have it kicking around my netbook somewhere..

FF is a completely different kind of game which is more suited to the taste of some public.

I have to admit I didn't enjoy Arcanum that much. The world was big, there was a lot of things to do, there were a lot of different paths to take, but it lacked something to make it a really great game. For example it mostly followed the "1 city - 1 dungeon" trope and the dungeons were not really interesting. Even with all the choices you could make for your character, he still lacked personality. The conversational freedom was actually the choice between good/neutral/evil answers. The story wasn't very engaging either: some people say I'm a god, other people want to kill me, so I'll go in dungeons and do whatever people ask me to do for money (and experience).
I had a lot more fun with Fallout or Planescape: Torment.

Every so often I'll run Planescape again, good stuff. Arcanum was pretty good too, though I never really found a good balance between its 'turn mode' and 'real time' mode. Turn mode seemed to slow, real time seemed too crazy fast especially with firearms.

Heh and Planescape, being so awesome that you can talk someone out of existence.

I really, really wanted to like Arcanum. It just didn't work out. I felt the mechanisms prevented me from really doing what I wanted to do.

Yeah, another game I wanted to enjoy but ultimately could bring myself to finish...heck..finish the first 10 percent or so, was Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader. I couldn't quite get a handle on what the game wanted to be, Fallout or Diablo.

Hm...I really should load up fallout 2 again.

Arcanum was a good game but it seemed like it was a little unpolished in some ways. Like it was a step between Baldur's Gate and the next generation of games. Doing things out of order unbalanced the game, like going to later locations first to get items and exp. Also the live combat was a little tricky. It was a monumental game with and interesting environment. It was a cool game. But not as good as Fallout or Planescape.

Well in fairness Fallout 1 and 2 also suffered from that problem. Look at fallout two, by starting with speech as a tagged skill and then sinking your first couple levels into it you could head straight out of the starting area to san fran (with a fair amount of running from fire geckos and saving and reload) then hook up to Navarro and talk your way in and a few minuetes later have the best armor in the game (with it's associated stat boosts!) and some of the best weaponry along with access to a lot of exp and further stat boosts.

But yes I agree Arcanum has a lot going for it storyline wise and they obviously put a lot of work into the world (even 1 town 1 dungeon is considerable, and there are more then a few "random dungeons"). On the whole it will always hold a special place in my heart as being one of the best steampunk style settings i've seen.

Is Girl Genius steampunk? I'd have to say that has my vote.

I played the demo for the game, and it seemed very newbie unfriendly. I had no real idea what I was doing, and gave up when some random priest or something killed me for walking somewhere or something... like I said, very confusing.

Wait... there's a girl genius GAME? Link link, my google-fu is weak.

No, no game

But you said setting, not game.

Mmmm, Girl Genius game.....

I can't say that I'm a huge Girl Genius fan (haven't really gotten into the comic) but I have a soft spot a mile wide for steampunk and I understand that GG is pretty popular so... yeah.

this version of Arcanum... is it essentially just what was on the disk all those years ago? or did they rewrite it to work on Vista/W7? I've had some trouble getting arcanum working on my machine (works now tho) so if they re-coded it a bit it might be better for some people...

I can confirm that this version works fine with W7. I can also confirm albeit second hand from a quick browse of the GoG forums that this version is the most update official version with some minor perfomance tweaks for new systems. It is also fully compatable with fan made patches for arcanum that turn on some of the unfinished content. Personally I havn't tried that but am looking forward to it as I heard a rumor that years ago someone was working ona more satisfactory end to that damn half ogre quest.

You means besides "The world is an awful places and you, an incredibly powerful super being of guns and magic, can't do shit about it?"

Yeah, that stuck in my craw too. I can save the world but I can't stop on a corrupt cartel?

I loved the world more than the game, but I'm sure thats a popular case...

at least weak characters could pick up dog and still overcome the combat encounters

Hell, if some of the disconnect plot-threads could be tied-off nicely, I'd be happy.

I'd also, with my spark-like intellect, be able to make something that could pull off more damage than that half-ogre fellow...or Zen Tristan.
Or at least make "improvements" on weapons. Like a gun made of guns...while riding on a gunhorse..

The tinctures and infusions could be WAAAY overpowered though. Steampunk Juicer, weyho!

PS: It was also the first time my then GF (now Lovely wife) fell over laughing at something in a game....with the sheep option at the bordello.
PPS: The "surprise me" option for Dragonage is also hilarious. "Husky dwarf" & "Nightmare Fuel". I had this mental image of Morgan looking...fascinated and Zeb nodding sagely as Alistair waked away, pale....

Tir:)

Ahhh Troika Games, you are missed.