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Arcanum: of Steamworks & Magick Obscura | 
| From: Vivendi Universal
Category: Video Games
List Price: $9.99
Buy Used: $6.42
You Save: $3.57 (36%)
New (5) Used (18) from $6.42
Rating:  140 reviews
Sales Rank: 4092
Format: Cd-rom
Platforms: Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows 95
Genre: role_playing_games
ESRB: Mature
Media: CD-ROM
Age: 17 - 20 years
Operating System: Windows 95
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 1.5
MPN: 71047
Model: 71047
UPC: 020626710473
EAN: 0020626710473
ASIN: B00004TTHT
Release Date: August 22, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: We ship daily! All orders ship out within 2 business days from OR. Your satisfaction is guaranteed!, visible damage on box cover
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| Features:
| • | Character Creation: No More Character Classes. Arcanum uses a classless, point-based system where players use points to "buy" attributes. You're only limited by your own creativity in guiding your character's development. | | • | Complex Stat-Driven System: Take charge or your own growth in the game environment. A deep and complex statistical system underlies every event that takes place within Arcanum. These include: | | • | 8 basic stats (including Strength and Charisma), and more than a dozen derived stat (such as Poison Resistance and Character Speed) | | • | 16 primary skills (such as Gambling, Healing, and Lock-Picking) | | • | 80 spells within 16 colleges |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
Most role-playing games are set in a fantasy world, and if they're not directly related to Dungeons & Dragons, they at least follow the blueprint of the D&D rules. Not so with Arcanum. Set in the world of steampunk--a genre of fiction that puts forth the idea that computers and other advanced technology existed back in the late 1800s--Arcanum's world is fantastic and instantly recognizable at the same time. The game begins with the crash of the L.F.S. Zephyr, which you were aboard. Things go from bad to worse as assassins try to kill you. Meanwhile, you struggle to understand why people think you are the reincarnation of "The Living One." Developed by Troika Games--which is staffed by many of the people who created the excellent Fallout games--Arcanum takes the conventions of the RPG genre and turns them on their head. Instead of binding players to a specific character class, such as Paladin or Barbarian, Arcanum lets you create a completely unique character. Experience points can be distributed in any area, so you can create a character that's a thief, magic user, and gunslinger all in one. In addition, you can specialize in either magic or technology, which will impact how the other characters in the game deal with you. The world of Arcanum is simply massive, and the story is extremely detailed. The main plot will provide you with 30 to 40 hours of gameplay, and the side quests will add another 10 to 20 hours to that figure. The quests run the gambit from fetching items to finding a cure for lycanthropy, and they're all well designed. Arcanum is viewed from a third-person isometric view--similar to Diablo II and Baldur's Gate II--and the graphics easily compare with any other RPG on the market. The characters are modeled nicely, and the backgrounds and structures are very detailed and really add substance to the game. Unfortunately, even on a high-end system such as an Athlon 1.33 GHz, the game suffers from long loading times, and will occasionally slow down during combat. Those minor problems aside, Arcanum is a sensational game. The open-ended nature of the character-creation system guarantees replayability, and the setting and story will offer relief for anyone tired of Diablo II's dungeon crawls. --Kilmic Robbins Pros: - Great story
- Numerous quests
- Ability to completely customize character
Cons: - Long loading times
- Interface can be overwhelming at times
Amazon.com Product Description
Imagine a place of wonder, where magic and technology hold equal sway, and an adventurer might just as easily wield a flintlock pistol as a flaming sword. A place where great industrial cities house castle keeps and factories, and home to dwarves, humans, orcs, and elves alike. A place of ancient ruins and steam works, of magic and machines, of sorcery and science. Welcome to the land of Arcanum.
Product Description
Imagine a place of wonder, where magic and technology hold equal sway, and an adventurer might just as easily wield a flintlock pistol as a flaming sword. A place where great industrial cities house castle keeps and factories, home to Dwarves, Humans, Orcs and Elves alike. A place of ancient runes and steamworks, of magic and machines, of sorcery and science. Welcome to the land of Arcanum.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 45 more reviews...
 One of my top 10 RPGs November 12, 2008
Voyager (State of Confusion)
Ok, pretty much everything I have to say about this game has been said numerous times already.
This is one of the finest RPGs ever made. It ranks up there with Fallout, Planescape, and the Ultima series.
If you love RPGs, you've probably already played this, but if you haven't you owe it to yourself to give it a try.
Yes it's old, yes the graphics are dated, but none of that seems to matter once you start playing. It does what any good RPG can do, let's you role play, and it does it magnificently well.
Arcanum but not with Vista!!! November 4, 2008
Stacy Michelle Jones (Sanger, CA United States)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I loved this game, and wanted to play it again, but I had gotten a new computer since I last played, and now that the new computer has Windows Vista, I can't play my game any longer. There is no fix for it that I can find. And I've looked everywhere!!! So make sure you have an older version of Windows, and not Vista if you want to buy this game!!! It's WAY worth it if you have the right computer!!!!
One of the Greatest RPGs of all time. October 15, 2008
Robert Sinton
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I played Fallout 1 and 2, Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 with all of the Expansions, Diablo 1 and 2 and Hellfire (for those that remember it) and many many more games.
This game is a perfect mix between Fallout 1 and Baldur's Gate 1. This classic steampunk game pits Machine vs. Magic in a tale that is epic and nothing short of genius. The game is balanced far more than either Fallout 1 or Baldur's Gate was. In Fallout there were a lot of things that were just useless as far as skills and money and items were concerned. If you weren't either a brawler or an energy weapons person by the end, your character just wasn't as powerful. Baldur's Gate on the other hand allowed EVERY class to become incredibly powerful by the end of the game after doing side quests. In Arcanum every class is balanced to the very end, and certain areas are simply inaccessible to certain player types. For instance, playing a thief will allow you to deftly maneuver into areas of the game that might otherwise be off limits. Of course, if you are a big ogre you can kill everyone and break doors down and just steal things like that. The catch is that, the more mechanical stuff you use, the less magic will work around you so you need to strike that balance. Also, NPCs are very sensitive to your alignment, you can't just go killing people expecting to keep your party members around. Both the mechanical player archetype and magic player archetype have variations (magic players have MANY different classes of magic to invest points into and you can choose more than one). Mechanical players can build robots to protect them use guns (which are NOT all powerful or even necessary to winning).
The game can be played live action like Baldur's Gate or like Fallout 1. There are uses for just about everything you pick up, you can make potions and salves and such using certain skills. I've played this game many times over and my favorite archetype is the thief for these reasons. You get the most freedom to explore the game, with a big guy on your team you can run behind opponents and backstab them for more damage and you can join the thieves guild! How cool is that? The Thieves guild in Fallout 1 really was pretty lame comparatively. Anyway, this game rocks, best game ever and the controls are much more intuitive.
 Since Fallout 3 will be in Elder Scrolls style, get THIS !!! September 11, 2008
M. Vasiljevic (Belgrade, Serbia)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a game done by original authors of Fallout one. It is put in 1800s but imagine you got dwarves, halflings and elves instead of humans only, and magic alongside with guns, electronic devices, traps, swords etc.
GOOD: Playing a magical character is great.
GOOD: Having expert and maxed out persuasion skill gives you opportunity to solve things with words.
GOOD: There is still enough points to become formidable melee fighter although strength is not your forte. SWORDS ARE GOOD.
GOOD: Magics are very well thought out, you can even charm enemy or revive and use him as your foot soldier to wipe out stronger monsters than yourself
BAD: There are some skills which prove to be useless, ask someone who played a game before which are they.
BAD: You never know what you will and will not need. And there is no place in inventory for all stuff, so you have to use your friends to carry.
BAD: BUGS! You tell someone to wait and can't pick him up after. You can pick him up and don't see pic of him on the left. SAVE OFTEN!!!
VERY BAD: to end game with major quest called altar quest, you need some items that seem useless and you can't find them easily later in game. READ ABOUT LAST QUEST ITEMS FROM FAQ I AM LEVEL 50 AND PLAYED 5 HOURS TO GET BONE DAGGER AND CAN'T FIND ONE!!! This quest is major but, thanks goodness, not mandatory.
VERY VERY BAD: You can't level up after level fifty. BAD IS, YOUR CHARACTERS DON'T GET XP FROM FIGHTS AND THEY WILL BE STUCK AT BASE LEVEL. So, get charisma and low level chars (NPC) early !!! PATCH IS SAID TO FIX THING ABOUT LEVELING UP NPC WHEN YOU ARE AT LEVEL 50.
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IMPRESSIONS AFTER BEATING THE GAME:
Great story, better than Fallout 2!!! I hope they make movie one day.
I also liked the thing that dialogue can solve a lot if you have persuasion and charisma!
My mage was great and I beat main boss (OK, I knew strategy) without much trouble.
ADVICES:
Can't beat Cursed Paladins? Run, get cursed sword, run to furnace, throw, use exit scroll
BEFORE GOING TO VOID: get high level people, like Francis Payne , Gilbert's security Ogre and summon Familiar if you can.
Can't beat 6 giant knights near teleport in void? Open door, run down-left to get to teleport and teleport yourself to main boss. He is not so difficult if you know how, read FAQ if you are stuck.
STATISTICS OF MY CHARACTER (yeah, people will hate me but...):
Elf, male, 200 years, level 50
Molotov knowledge, usable to kill thieves at bridge.
Mellee and Persuasion expert, progress bar one step from full
Knowledge of Black Necromantic magic ('Harm' spell is important), Summoning, Conveyance(Unlock is good) and White Necro magic (important at the end to heal and revive)
ST 8 CN 8 DX 15 BE 9 IN 10 WP 18 PE 7 CH 18
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IMPRESSIONS AFTER PLAYING HALF OF THE GAME *AGAIN* BUT THIS TIME AS HALF-OGRE MUSCLE MAN
This is definitely less humorous way to play game, dialogues have not so many options and I would recommend that, whatever you decide at beginning, make intelligent character with persuasion and charisma high enough, just to get max fun and laughs out of game.
Still great after all these years! August 30, 2008
the old warhorse (Boise, Idaho)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'm hooked. patches are available and the game keeps me entertained. This one still has one of the greatest character builds around.
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