Duck and Cover

Recently, I finished Arcanum for the first time. I rather enjoyed it, but there were a few things I noted throughout the game that bugged me. I am hereby going to vent my grievances.

First, the dialog. I was kind of annoyed by the style of dialog in the game. Everyone was too damn polite and wordy. I don't have anything against developed vocabularies, but it got a little annoying eventually.

Next, the interaction with the game world. The whole thing seemed a bit clunky and inelegant to me. The reaction system especially seemed artificial.

Combat is another problem. It moves too fast. The combat animations could stand to take a few extra frames, I think. Same thing for magic. Would it kill them to make mages wave their arms and mutter magic words?

And one thing that repeatedly annoyed me while playing Arcanum was how when inside a location, there was a maximum number of waypoints. I don't see why there was. This sometimes made it a hassle getting across the bigger areas, especially when doing the Black Mountain Clan mines and having to repair your stuff.

Aside from these gripes, I did enjoy Arcanum. But it could have been better.

Anybody else have any gripes with Arcanum?

Next, the interaction with the game world. The whole thing seemed a bit clunky and inelegant to me. The reaction system especially seemed artificial.

I like the idea of character's reaction to you - but yeah, it didn't have too much of an effect really. I could walk up to a guy with my beautiful face and elegant dress, and I'd get a reaction of +70 or so... but then as soon as I'd talk to him, the reaction would drop to 30 simply because the conversation was scripted that way.

The difference between 0 and 100 needs to be a bit clearer too... if a character has a 300+ reaction to me, I think they might do something a little more than wander about aimlessly and then say "Nice to see you again!" when I greet them.

Definitely a step in the right direction though... I hope there are more games which use beauty, fancy clothes and whatnot get reactions from characters. Just needed a wee bit more work.

Yeah combat was a bugger, it would have been nice if the guns had been implemented a bit better.

I didn't like the character point system It would have been nice if you were able to split the character points i.e 1 whole point could be used to boost say strength or split by I don't know say 10 to be distributed between your skills. If that makes sense? Also if you spent points in one skill you should get bonuses to related skills.... : Ignore me I'm not explaining myself properly. :roll:

The schematics were a nice idea, except some of the things required to make new items didn't make sense ie turning a rifle into a pistol that was more powerful and accurate than the rifle.

But overall any game that lets you climb in and out of windows is alright by me.

Spazmo wrote:Anybody else have any gripes with Arcanum?

That lvl cap.....

I agree about the whole point system. It would have been nice to split up the points. I'm pretty sure they had a system similar to that in design but then changed to the single point system for ease of use...
I guess it did make it simpler with the whole spells/tech purchase system.

Spazmo wrote:First, the dialog. I was kind of annoyed by the style of dialog in the game. Everyone was too damn polite and wordy. I don't have anything against developed vocabularies, but it got a little annoying eventually.

I think it fits the setting of the game. It's pretty logical when you consider the atmosphere.

Next, the interaction with the game world. The whole thing seemed a bit clunky and inelegant to me. The reaction system especially seemed artificial.

The reaction system did have a few problems, but nothing too dramatic.
There were a few loops giving you the possiblity to increase the reaction to any number you choose.

Combat is another problem. It moves too fast. The combat animations could stand to take a few extra frames, I think. Same thing for magic. Would it kill them to make mages wave their arms and mutter magic words?

The combat was indeed flawed, as I see it.

And one thing that repeatedly annoyed me while playing Arcanum was how when inside a location, there was a maximum number of waypoints. I don't see why there was. This sometimes made it a hassle getting across the bigger areas, especially when doing the Black Mountain Clan mines and having to repair your stuff.

I liked the waypoint system. I think a few more way points would be a nice feature.

Spazmo wrote:First, the dialog. I was kind of annoyed by the style of dialog in the game. Everyone was too damn polite and wordy. I don't have anything against developed vocabularies, but it got a little annoying eventually.

Well, you obviously didn't start out the game with a half-ogre of 3 intelligence =]

Combat is another problem. It moves too fast. The combat animations could stand to take a few extra frames, I think. Same thing for magic. Would it kill them to make mages wave their arms and mutter magic words?

I dunno, I was glad it was over quickly. That made wading through the various sewers in the game a lot more tolereable.

Anybody else have any gripes with Arcanum?

Yeah, the bug in the BMC mines with the little dwarf going to sleep and not giving you the quest to rescue his brother was pretty annoying for me, since the side quests were so much fun.

Another big annoyance was your dumb-as-a-log NPCs. You can never trust them to carry unidentified or identified "evil" items - the little dumbasses always end up putting them on and poisoning themselves or something.

The whole weight/volume inventory management was also pretty annoying, since it was difficult to fit bigger, square stuff in your inventory. The fact that merchants in different cities gave varying prices was another "realistic but tedious" aspect, since it led me to what I like to call the "garbage-can dwarf" syndrome - I'd always sell shoes and homemade pipe guns to particular merchants to get moolah to buy better stuff.

Aside from that, it was a pretty excellent game.

Spazmo wrote:And one thing that repeatedly annoyed me while playing Arcanum was how when inside a location, there was a maximum number of waypoints. I don't see why there was. This sometimes made it a hassle getting across the bigger areas, especially when doing the Black Mountain Clan mines and having to repair your stuff.

Heh, I just whored the fast turn-based mode: pressed R(un) , and clicked around, making the character "teleport" to the location. I found the combat pretty boring anyway, so fast tb was a nice feature, even though turn-based combat was very simple.

The only gripe I have is that the combat is waay to fast. At later points of the game its so fast you just cant control it. Of course im talking real time only.

Forty-six & Two wrote:The only gripe I have is that the combat is waay to fast. At later points of the game its so fast you just cant control it. Of course im talking real time only.

Yeah. But realtime, uhhh, sucks.

In my opinion Arcanum had a lot to begin with, but it didn't manage to get a grip on all of it's various abilities. So it sucked big time. I got bored to it, only played it through once with a char who was *supposed* to be a techie (and the tech-magick meter stated, that he was) but couldn't use firearms properly and teleported himself between locations (go figure :-P ). Most of the dialogue seemed worthless, the only good bits were to drive on the storyline and those parts were in fact quite linear.

General rating: 3/5.

Oh, I must correct that one: 3+/5, because you have those pretty ending pictures like in Fallout ;-)

NOT ENOUGH SKILL POINTS TO START OFF WITH A SOLID CHARACTER OR BUILD SKILLS.

That is my pet peeve with Arcanum.

Other than that, I would LOVE to have a sequel - I haven't finished the game yet, so maybe a prequel would be nice too.

*shrug*

(ps - i loved the theme. it was fallout meets tolkien! :D)

I mostly loved arcanum...

As for flaws, the tons of experience gained at the ashburry graveyard made the game a bit too easy, and I would've loved the option to continue playing after I've past the game (since theres so much of the I haven't explored)

I disliked how being a mage was so easy, yet being a techie was hard as hell. It flatly contradicts the story backdrop.