Arcanum - worth a punt?

[Mangoose]

I'm really bloody liking this, lot of Fallout like choice and consequence, how an open world should be.

It's not really open world. Most areas are gated off and you unlock them in pretty much linear fashion. Only the Falloutesque world map gives it the appearance of an open world game.

A funny part (the funnest to me after i played it to death) is that the Arcanum map is ACTUALLY open world if you go about it ass-backwards and exploit the map system. It doesn't even change anything.
But yeah, first playthough you'll not do that.

I play ass-backwards and exploit things on my first playthrough of any game.

Which is why I always get outleveled for a mandatory boss fight. Since exploiting for me means avoiding tedious areas and trash encounters.

So then I exploit the boss fight heh

 

[deuxhero]

Arcanum had a demo?

 

[ColCol]

It's worth it enough to buy it, but it will break your heart in the end.

 

[upwardlymobile]

I'm not a big fan but no game where you can murder hookers is all bad.

 

[Forest Dweller]

Arcanum - worth a punt?

Yeah, across the room.

 

[Bigg Boss]

So is the combat worse in Planescape: Torment or Arcanum?

 

[upwardlymobile]

I'd say if you're using tech in Arcanum then Arcanum is worse, but if you're using magic in Arcanum then PS:T is worse.

 

[Excidium II]

So is the combat worse in Planescape: Torment or Arcanum?

Arcanum

 

[Bigg Boss]

Damn. Worse than Planescape? Why couldn't they make the combat good so I could at least enjoy it more?

I guess I'll make my way all the way through Planescape before diving into Arcanum. They are both on my list. One of my regrets is never playing some of these games when they came out. I knew I should have sold myself on the street to afford the gaming life I deserved.

 

[Florian Gheorghe]

I just finished PS:T and I still find Arcanum better. Even in terms of combat. I think I like the Fallout engine more then infinity. PS:T has better story though.

 

[Excidium II]

The only good thing about Arcanum combat is that it ends

 

[Morality Games]

Damn. Worse than Planescape? Why couldn't they make the combat good so I could at least enjoy it more?

I guess I'll make my way all the way through Planescape before diving into Arcanum. They are both on my list. One of my regrets is never playing some of these games when they came out. I knew I should have sold myself on the street to afford the gaming life I deserved.

True.

 

[Animal]

Arcanum's combat is better than PST's, for me at least. Arcanum combat is like Fallout's, only with a real-time with pause option.

 

[oscar]

Arcanum's combat was mechanically okay but horribly balanced.

 

[Animal]

I always went the gun/sword path (magic is for pussies ). I remember it being tough and progressively difficult that way.

 

[Tigranes]

Damn. Worse than Planescape? Why couldn't they make the combat good so I could at least enjoy it more?

I guess I'll make my way all the way through Planescape before diving into Arcanum. They are both on my list. One of my regrets is never playing some of these games when they came out. I knew I should have sold myself on the street to afford the gaming life I deserved.

Don't listen to the shitty bird.

Arcanum combat is generally experienced as a wacky unique fun romp or a colossally broken unbalanced mess - probably because both sides arise from the same materials.
PST combat is almost uniformly experienced as a dull wave after wave of filler diluted IE combat, interspersed with some outrageous JRPG spell animations.

 

[Neanderthal]

Stuck at P. Schuyler and Sons, I got to the end of their lair after kicking arse all over and Magnus went fucking psycho, it's me or them and all this shit, sounded like ex wife. Well i'm a fucking necromancer who's raised dead so what's his fucking beef? It's clear these Dwarfs aren't his lot being where they are, and Schuyler's seem like they might be useful. Anyway reloaded to before I picked him up and left him behind, now he won't talk to me when i've finished that quest. Is the little beggar worth it, should I slaughter Schuylers on his say so, which seems a bit off, or tell him to sling his hook?

Also can I persuade him to join later after i've got master level persuasion, the description seems to suggest anyone'll join you at that level of persuasion. I'm loving these choices game gives you.

I also have a talking Orc who is a right dude, can't find armour to fit him though.

 

[Florian Gheorghe]

I am playing Arcanum again until PoE is patched and Wasteland2. Hope I won't puke my intestines once I play them again )

 

[upwardlymobile]

Don't listen to the shitty bird.

ill fight u racis bitch

 

[Florian Gheorghe]

Stuck at P. Schuyler and Sons, I got to the end of their lair after kicking arse all over and Magnus went fucking psycho, it's me or them and all this shit, sounded like ex wife. Well i'm a fucking necromancer who's raised dead so what's his fucking beef? It's clear these Dwarfs aren't his lot being where they are, and Schuyler's seem like they might be useful. Anyway reloaded to before I picked him up and left him behind, now he won't talk to me when i've finished that quest. Is the little beggar worth it, should I slaughter Schuylers on his say so, which seems a bit off, or tell him to sling his hook?

Also can I persuade him to join later after i've got master level persuasion, the description seems to suggest anyone'll join you at that level of persuasion. I'm loving these choices game gives you.

I also have a talking Orc who is a right dude, can't find armour to fit him though.

I killed the wizards and kept Magnus. I am loving every inch of this game, even the combat.

 

[Tigranes]

Stuck at P. Schuyler and Sons, I got to the end of their lair after kicking arse all over and Magnus went fucking psycho, it's me or them and all this shit, sounded like ex wife. Well i'm a fucking necromancer who's raised dead so what's his fucking beef? It's clear these Dwarfs aren't his lot being where they are, and Schuyler's seem like they might be useful. Anyway reloaded to before I picked him up and left him behind, now he won't talk to me when i've finished that quest. Is the little beggar worth it, should I slaughter Schuylers on his say so, which seems a bit off, or tell him to sling his hook?

Also can I persuade him to join later after i've got master level persuasion, the description seems to suggest anyone'll join you at that level of persuasion. I'm loving these choices game gives you.

I also have a talking Orc who is a right dude, can't find armour to fit him though.

Magnus is utterly convinced that those dwarves are his lost clan, and he gives you his reasons. If you press Schulyer's Sons, they give you their reasons as to why those dwarves are surely not Magnus' clan, and why they feel they're justified. Make your choices, and stick with them. Don't be a pussy and do that reload shit. (By the way, if you told Magnus to 'Wait' outside the room while you cut a deal, you can go back and he will call you a right fucking arsehole.)

Just roleplay - losing either side isn't the end of the world and the game will be more rewarding if you roleplay, and leave the abandoned options for a future playthrough. But if you must know whether Magnus is 'worth it',

Spoiler

Yes, he does have a pretty cool quest, and he and Virgil are really the only ones to have quests out of the joinables. I'm not 100% sure on Master of Persuasion thing, as I never tried that particular thing. But you should know that the quest to become a Master only becomes available when you've done quite a lot of the game.

 

[SCO]

That's one good thing about arcanum. It's not afraid to let abilities gained be used long after (for a typical playthough) a quest be taken into account into its scripting, which makes things interesting.

They probably planned ahead what the mastery quests / tech-magic gradient would allow you to do and told the designers to stick with it from the or near the start.
Still, some are exceptionally poorly handled, like the raise ghost one - needed some more imagination.

 

[Neanderthal]

Cheers for advice, i'm going to leave Magnus for now and snub him like the arrogant Elf bastard that I am. Think i'll replay as a miracle cure Human gunslinger (thinking Doc Holiday-ish) in my next playthrough and take the Dwarf then. Got to say that I think that investigating the ring is a good method of involving the player in the quest, no real urgency but a clear way to go when chosen to.

 

[Sranchammer]

You're not a real codexer if you hate this game

 

[Florian Gheorghe]

I had scarred myself and -1 to beauty. Everyone was talking about how ugly I was. Got to a medic and healed. Where are these choices in modern games?