A masterpiece, but bugged like other Troika games
It must be played with the unofficial patch. Even with this, at least one side quest cannot be completed when using the widescreen patch. Apart from this the bugs aren't that bad with the unofficial patch.
Arcanum is a unique steampunk + fantasy RPG. There is no world like it in video gaming, with its inclusion of electric lights, steam engines, trains, even airplanes, and guns (flintlocks, revolvers, lever action rifles and shotguns, and much more). It also has bows, various armors like those worn by traditional medieval knights and barbarians, swords, axes, maces, hammers, and far more. Then there are the 16 spell colleges for mages. So much gameplay content, and the strongest contrast in possible character builds.
You can play as a human, dwarf, gnome, halfling, elf, half-elf, half-orc, or half-ogre. The game is very responsive to race, and most of all reputation, attributes, whether you are technologically adept or a powerful mage, and of course your choices and actions. It is far more responsive to these things than any modern RPG; in other words it has more role-playing than you can find in video games today. Much more, only Planescape: Torment, Fallout 2, Fallout: New Vegas, Neverwinter Nights 2: Complete, and Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines offer a similar amount. This entire game is rewritten for you if your intelligence score is very low (even the journal is rewritten), much like Fallout 2.
The plot does seemingly revolve around stopping an ultimate evil, like a BioWare game, but there is much more to it than that. Taking advantage of its setting, Arcanum tells a story about industrial revolution and the positives and dangers that come with it. It shows and tells it very well. The dialogue quality is outstanding by video game standards, surpassing almost all. It is a deeper, more thematically rich RPG than any you will find today, and has far superior world building. The massive open world doesn't just look unique in its different regions, every culture and settlement and group/organization is professionally written, making for a complete and believable world. Nothing is filler content or just a silly plot device, the writing foundation of this game far surpasses most others.
The open world design is mostly unrestricted. Very few places have quest restrictions (as in, you can't enter them without completing a certain quest). I would've given this game 5 stars if it didn't require extensive patching (using an unofficial patch and a widescreen patch) and still be buggy afterwards. This is one classic that lives up to the hype, being better than its modern counterparts in every way (writing, gameplay, world design), but it needs a remake.
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