My first playthrough of Arcanum(!). Started off as a mage/warrior, but found it became too fantasy-esque. Playing as a Technologist now (currently lvl 30), more interesting, though it is a bit tougher.
Great game. However, I cannot help thinking how much better it could have been had it used a modified version of SPECIAL, especially with skills. The combat is abhorent: sometimes you need turn-based tactics to defeat a stronger foe (a good thing), whilst at others times its best to run berserk in circles, chased by critters, whilst your companions, unaffected, finish them off (decidedly a bad thing).
It is, according to me and my current progress, not a better game than Fallout (either one). I can overlook the hectic combat, and the "awkward" character system (though that's admitedly a personal thing, and the more I play the more I like- or rather don't mind it), but the biggest thorn in my foot is the basic game structure, how its propelled by the main quest. The side quests have the feeling of being very minor and relatviely inconsequential, just a means of gaining exp. Go fetch/find/steal/deliver/defeat etc. that thing. In Fallout it was all better distributed (I think), the water chip or the GECK were just one of the many things to do, of course the most imporatant, but something to keep in the back of your mind. The world was far more complex and in that way more realisitic, less like a game-game, it was more believable. A very "immersive experience".
One last gripe with Arcanum are the horrible(!) character models (mainly the clothed ones). They look as if they were made of plastic or rubber, slowly melting under the sun (The Half-Ogres?! They look like cross eyed retard aliens!). A real step down from the older Fallout, not to mention their animations. Other than that most of the graphics are okay, but are more bland and unispired than Fallout, though that might have to do with the, arguably, less interesting setting (but, hey, its hard to beat a post nuclear 50's retro-futurisic world).
Arcanum its a good game nontheless, even great, but not nearly as phenomenal as Fallouts 1 and 2.
Great game. However, I cannot help thinking how much better it could have been had it used a modified version of SPECIAL, especially with skills. The combat is abhorent: sometimes you need turn-based tactics to defeat a stronger foe (a good thing), whilst at others times its best to run berserk in circles, chased by critters, whilst your companions, unaffected, finish them off (decidedly a bad thing).
It is, according to me and my current progress, not a better game than Fallout (either one). I can overlook the hectic combat, and the "awkward" character system (though that's admitedly a personal thing, and the more I play the more I like- or rather don't mind it), but the biggest thorn in my foot is the basic game structure, how its propelled by the main quest. The side quests have the feeling of being very minor and relatviely inconsequential, just a means of gaining exp. Go fetch/find/steal/deliver/defeat etc. that thing. In Fallout it was all better distributed (I think), the water chip or the GECK were just one of the many things to do, of course the most imporatant, but something to keep in the back of your mind. The world was far more complex and in that way more realisitic, less like a game-game, it was more believable. A very "immersive experience".
One last gripe with Arcanum are the horrible(!) character models (mainly the clothed ones). They look as if they were made of plastic or rubber, slowly melting under the sun (The Half-Ogres?! They look like cross eyed retard aliens!). A real step down from the older Fallout, not to mention their animations. Other than that most of the graphics are okay, but are more bland and unispired than Fallout, though that might have to do with the, arguably, less interesting setting (but, hey, its hard to beat a post nuclear 50's retro-futurisic world).
Arcanum its a good game nontheless, even great, but not nearly as phenomenal as Fallouts 1 and 2.
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