Info about Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura:

Official game description:
An Industrial Revolution in a World of Magick
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Imagine a place of wonder, where magick and technology coexist in an uneasy balance, 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 magick and machines, of sorcery and science. Welcome to the land of Arcanum.
Character Design allows you to customize your character any way you choose
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*   Whether you choose magick or technology, the Arcanum world adapts and responds to your character's development  
*   Classless, point-based attribute system allows for limitless creativity in guiding your character's development  
*   8 basic stats, such as Strength and Charisma  
*   More than a dozen derived stats, from Poison Resistance to Character Speed  
*   16 Primary skills, including Gambling and Healing  
*   80 Spells with 16 Colleges of Magick  
*   56 technological degrees within 8 disciplines
Extraordinary Adventure Features
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*   Explore a world as vast as it is mysterious-it would take over 30 real-time hours to traverse the land of Arcanum  
*   Meet more than 300 unique characters and monster types across this huge land  
*   Many means exist to solve the myriad quests, from dueling to discourse to thievery  
*   Take on a band of ogres in real-time, or plan your strategy through turn-based combat - you decide  
*   Accurate day and night cycles affect the gameplay, from combat to thieving skills  
*   Automatic character management lets action-oriented players delve into the quest at hand  
*   Create your own worlds or play the included multiplayer scenario online cooperatively or competively

Release date: Aug 29, 2016

Categories: Action RPG, Classless Character Progression, Open-World Exploration, Turn-based Combat, Real-time Combat, Character Customization, Magic System, Crafting, Steampunk


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Rich worldbuilding and lore (weight 0.99): The game is praised for its immersive world, deep lore, and organic storytelling, blending fantasy and industrial revolution elements. Players highlight the intricate details, diverse NPCs, and expansive quest variety as standout features.
- High replayability and freedom (weight 0.96): The game offers near-limitless character builds, non-linear progression, and multiple quest solutions, ensuring high replay value. Players can experiment with races, skills, alignments, and playstyles without rigid class restrictions.
- Ambitious CRPG mechanics (weight 0.2): The game is celebrated for pushing the boundaries of CRPGs with its experimental mechanics, deep role-playing systems, and open-ended design. It is often compared to classics like Fallout 1 and Planescape: Torment.
- Realistic mechanics and role-play (weight 0.16): The game’s mechanics are designed to react realistically to player choices, enabling deep role-play. Stats, morality, and actions all influence gameplay outcomes and NPC interactions.
- Crafting and schematics system (weight 0.14): The game features a robust crafting system with steampunk-inspired mechanics, including firearms, mechanized constructs, and specialized schematics. This supports varied playstyles and adds tactical depth.
- Memorable soundtrack (weight 0.12): The game’s soundtrack is frequently praised for its atmospheric quality, nostalgia, and ability to stand alone. It enhances immersion and is considered one of the best in gaming.
- Dynamic companion system (weight 0.09): Companions are well-written and react dynamically to player actions, morality, and character stats. Their interactions and survival add layers of immersion and replayability.

Common complaints:
- Unbalanced and clunky combat (weight 0.64): Combat is widely criticized as unbalanced, chaotic, and poorly executed, with real-time and turn-based modes feeling unfinished. Players often resort to exploits or brute-force methods due to inconsistent difficulty and AI.
- Severe bugs and instability (weight 0.53): The game suffers from frequent bugs, crashes, and quest-breaking issues, often requiring unofficial patches to be playable. Many players report game-breaking bugs even at release, with performance issues persisting post-patch.
- Dated graphics and animations (weight 0.5): Visuals are outdated even by early-2000s standards, with unappealing animations and graphics that deter modern players. The game’s aesthetic feels rough and unpolished.
- Frustrating UI and controls (weight 0.46): The user interface is unintuitive and unwieldy, with poor controls that hinder gameplay. Players find the UI unpleasant and difficult to navigate, exacerbating the game’s steep learning curve.
- Disjointed story and pacing (weight 0.44): The main story lacks urgency and feels disjointed, with a rushed or unsatisfying ending. Pacing stumbles near the finale, leaving emotional threads unresolved and dungeons feeling tedious.
- Poor save system (weight 0.4): The absence of auto-saves and a flawed quicksave system forces players to manually save frequently, risking progress loss. Save scumming is often necessary to mitigate frustration.
- Poor modern compatibility (weight 0.28): The game is poorly optimized for modern systems, requiring manual fixes, unofficial patches, or mods to run smoothly. Players report lag, crashes, and installation difficulties on newer Windows versions.
- Steep learning curve (weight 0.17): The game requires external resources (e.g., wikis, guides) to play effectively, with unclear mechanics and a lack of in-game explanations. Players must invest significant effort to enjoy the game without nostalgia.
- Technical performance issues (weight 0.11): The game suffers from lag spikes, memory leaks, and slowdowns after extended play sessions, often requiring restarts to maintain performance. These issues are exacerbated on modern systems.
- Weak AI and pathfinding (weight 0.05): Companions and enemies exhibit poor AI, often getting stuck or acting stupidly. Pathfinding issues further disrupt gameplay, making encounters frustrating.

Gameplay feedback:
- Magic and technology fusion (weight 0.34): The game blends steampunk and fantasy elements, allowing players to explore magic, technology, or hybrid paths. Conflicts between these systems (e.g., tech disruptions near mages) add thematic depth.
- Player-driven choices (weight 0.28): Gameplay emphasizes branching storylines, dynamic alignment shifts, and world reactivity to player decisions (e.g., race, gender, or moral choices). No two playthroughs are identical.
- Multiple quest solutions (weight 0.26): Quests offer diverse completion paths (e.g., persuasion, stealth, combat, or magic/technology-based solutions), rewarding creativity and role-playing.
- Flexible combat systems (weight 0.19): Players can choose between turn-based or real-time combat, with some reviews suggesting the ability to switch modes dynamically. This caters to different playstyle preferences.
- Stat-based dialogue and NPCs (weight 0.14): Character stats (e.g., charisma, intelligence) influence dialogue options, NPC reactions, and companion recruitment, adding depth to role-playing mechanics.
- Open-world exploration (weight 0.13): The game features a large, open world with hidden locations, random encounters, and treasures, encouraging free-roaming and discovery.
- Classless progression (weight 0.11): The game uses a skill-based system without rigid classes, allowing players to develop characters via attributes, magic/technology degrees, and proficiency-based skills.
- Companion diversity (weight 0.1): Companions have unique personalities, backgrounds, and potential conflicts, with recruitment often tied to player choices or stats. Their interactions enrich storytelling.
- Old-school CRPG mechanics (weight 0.08): The game embraces classic CRPG elements like deep mechanics, grindy progression, and non-linear storytelling, appealing to fans of traditional role-playing games.
- Extensive magic and tech trees (weight 0.08): Players can specialize in 16+ magic schools or 8 technological trees, with customizable combinations (e.g., 80+ spells) enabling diverse character builds.

Performance notes:
- Unofficial patches required for stability (weight 0.28): The game heavily relies on unofficial patches (e.g., UAP) to run properly on modern operating systems like Windows 10/11. Without these patches, players report crashes, bugs, and compatibility issues that make the game nearly unplayable.
- Game-breaking bugs at release (weight 0.24): At launch, the game was plagued by critical bugs that disrupted quest progression, caused crashes, and introduced technical issues like slowdowns. While some were later fixed, the initial experience was widely criticized as heavily buggy.
- Poor optimization for modern systems (weight 0.2): The game suffers from significant compatibility and performance issues on modern PCs, including Windows 10/11. Players must manually apply fixes or tweaks to achieve stable performance, often requiring adjustments like disabling G-Sync or antivirus software.
- Alt-tabbing causes crashes/glitches (weight 0.11): A common issue where alt-tabbing out of the game leads to crashes, freezes, or graphical glitches, sometimes even corrupting save files. This problem is particularly frustrating for players who multitask.
- Steam version instability (weight 0.11): The Steam version of the game is prone to frequent crashes, launch failures, and graphical bugs. Some players report needing to disable the Steam Overlay or use compatibility layers (e.g., Proton) to mitigate these issues.
- Resolution and display limitations (weight 0.1): The game lacks built-in resolution settings and requires manual adjustments (e.g., 1920x1080, 60Hz) to function properly. Community tools or patches are often needed to enable HD resolution support or fix display-related issues.
- Complex setup process (weight 0.06): Getting the game to run smoothly involves a tedious process of applying patches, tweaking settings, or running installation scripts (e.g., renaming files, using launch options). This creates a high barrier to entry for new players.
- Save file corruption risks (weight 0.04): Save files may become corrupted or unrecognized, particularly after reinstalling the game or encountering crashes. This issue can lead to lost progress and frustration for players.
- Pathfinding and UI issues (weight 0.04): The game suffers from unwieldy user interface design and pathfinding problems, which can disrupt gameplay and immersion. These issues are often cited as minor but persistent annoyances.
- Steam Deck compatibility with effort (weight 0.03): While the game can run on Steam Deck using Proton or unofficial patches, it requires significant tinkering and is not natively optimized for the platform. Some players dispute its playability on the device.
- Stable on legacy systems (weight 0.02): The game runs smoothly on older operating systems like Windows XP, where it does not encounter the same compatibility issues seen on modern platforms. This highlights its age and lack of official updates.

Recommendations:
- Recommended for classic RPG fans (weight 0.3): The game is highly recommended for fans of narrative-driven, old-school CRPGs like Fallout 1/2, Baldur's Gate, and Vampire: The Masquerade, despite its gameplay flaws and outdated mechanics. Its immersive experience and depth appeal to enthusiasts of the genre.
- Mods critical for modern play (weight 0.14): Mods are widely recommended to address bugs, improve resolution settings, and enhance gameplay. Popular mods include the Multiverse Edition, Sir Expectations Mod Pack, and widescreen/HD patches, which rebalance and modernize the game.
- GOG version preferred over Steam (weight 0.07): Players advise purchasing the game through GOG instead of Steam due to better compatibility and fewer technical issues. The GOG version is often cited as the more stable option for modern systems.
- Technical workarounds for compatibility (weight 0.06): Players provide various technical fixes, such as the ddraw.dll fix for color issues, launch options for performance, and patches for Windows 10 compatibility. These workarounds are essential for running the game smoothly on modern systems.
- Easy mode recommended for combat (weight 0.04): Due to the game's challenging combat mechanics, players suggest using easy difficulty to reduce frustration, especially for those more interested in the narrative or roleplaying aspects. Easy mode also increases experience gain.
- Long playtime with high replay value (weight 0.04): The game offers 50-100+ hours of content and high replay value, making it a worthwhile investment for fans of deep RPGs. Its freedom and immersive world encourage multiple playthroughs.
- Frequent saving advised to avoid glitches (weight 0.02): Players recommend saving often and creating hard save points to mitigate the impact of bugs and glitches. This practice helps avoid losing progress due to technical issues.
- Magic-based first character recommended (weight 0.02): Players suggest starting with a magic-based character due to follower mechanics, which can make early gameplay smoother and more enjoyable. This build is often recommended for new players.
- Avoid HD maps for performance (weight 0.02): Players recommend avoiding HD maps due to performance issues like lag. Lower-resolution assets or mods are suggested for a smoother experience.
- Great value at low price (weight 0.02): The game is praised for its value, especially at its base price of $6. Players feel it offers a deep and immersive experience that justifies the cost, even with its flaws.
- Underrated immersive experience (weight 0.02): Despite being underrated, the game is celebrated for its immersive world, steampunk atmosphere, and freedom. Players highlight its unique charm and depth as reasons to try it.

Other player notes:
- UAP patch improves gameplay (weight 0.04): Players frequently mention the UAP (Unofficial Adventure Patch) as a key update for fixing bugs and balancing mechanics. This suggests the patch significantly enhanced the game's stability and playability.
- Compared to D&D classics (weight 0.02): Players often draw parallels to *Baldur's Gate* and *Dungeons & Dragons*, suggesting the game shares mechanics or themes with these beloved RPGs. This positions it within a well-regarded genre tradition.
- Game appeals to niche audience (weight 0.02): Feedback highlights the game's niche appeal, indicating it may not have mass-market appeal but resonates strongly with a specific subset of players. This limits its broader accessibility.
- Legacy of Troika influence (weight 0.02): Players acknowledge the game's connection to Troika Games, a studio known for cult-classic RPGs. This legacy may attract fans of older, deep RPG experiences.
- GOG Galaxy recommended (weight 0.02): The GOG Galaxy platform is frequently recommended for playing the game, likely due to its compatibility, DRM-free nature, or integration features. This reflects platform preference among players.
- Anticipation for spiritual successor (weight 0.02): Mentions of *Clockwork Revolution* as a spiritual successor indicate excitement for future titles in the same vein. This reflects player investment in the game's universe or design philosophy.
- Cultural dynamics in gameplay (weight 0.02): Feedback notes the inclusion of cultural and racial dynamics (e.g., gnomes, elves), suggesting these elements add depth to world-building or storytelling. This may appeal to players seeking rich lore.
- Extensive manual included (weight 0.02): The inclusion of a 190-page manual is highlighted as a standout feature, likely appreciated by players who value thorough documentation or immersive world details.

Emotions:
- Frustration (weight 0.21): Players report widespread frustration due to technical issues like frequent crashes, lag, and poor optimization on modern hardware, often requiring external patches or manual fixes. The game's dated mechanics—such as clunky combat, confusing quest progression, and unbalanced difficulty—along with bugs like softlocks and corrupted saves, exacerbate the experience, making it feel unfinished or inaccessible during blind playthroughs.
- Nostalgia (weight 0.17): Nostalgia stems from the game's rich worldbuilding, soundtrack, and personal memories tied to its legacy as a classic RPG. Many players reflect on childhood experiences, extensive replayability, and comparisons to other iconic titles like *Fallout*, highlighting its enduring cultural impact and unique charm despite its age.
- Admiration (weight 0.16): Admiration is directed at the game's ambitious design, deep lore, and immersive world, often praised for its creativity and attention to detail. Players celebrate its unique setting, character customization, and the legacy of its developers, particularly Timothy Cain and Troika Games, for crafting a standout RPG experience.
- Excitement (weight 0.08): Excitement arises from the game's depth, including its flexible gameplay mechanics, rich roleplaying opportunities, and the thrill of discovering multiple quest solutions. Players also express enthusiasm for its Steam release, potential remakes, and the sheer replayability offered by its unique systems and world secrets.
- Appreciation (weight 0.04): Players appreciate the game's immersive steampunk atmosphere, intricate story, and innovative mechanics for its era. The depth of its worldbuilding, character development, and educational value—such as its levelling system and lore—are frequently highlighted as standout features that define its legacy.
- Disappointment (weight 0.04): Disappointment stems from the game's unfulfilled potential, including its weak ending, flawed combat mechanics, and technical issues that detract from its strengths. Players also lament the lack of sequels and Troika's closure, feeling the game's legacy was cut short despite its ambitious design.
- Enthusiasm (weight 0.03): Enthusiasm is driven by the game's deep CRPG mechanics, engaging quests, and the improvements brought by mods like the UAP patch. Players strongly recommend it for its unique storytelling, customization options, and the sheer joy of exploring its immersive world.
- Hope (weight 0.02): Hope centers on the desire for a sequel, reboot, or official fixes to preserve the game's legacy. Players express optimism about its potential if modernized or properly maintained, wishing for the IP to be revitalized while retaining its original charm.
- Amusement (weight 0.02): Amusement comes from the game's absurd freedom, such as outsmarting villains with low intelligence or enjoying humorous quest interactions. Players also find joy in its quirky mechanics, like companion dynamics or exaggerated critiques of its dated graphics.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.02): Enjoyment is derived from the game's exploration, collection, and overall immersive experience despite its flaws. Players highlight its high replayability, unique style, and the satisfaction of engaging with its rich world and gameplay systems.
- Satisfaction (weight 0.02): Satisfaction arises after overcoming the game's steep learning curve, with players eventually appreciating its depth, combat, and replayability. The nostalgia and quality of the gameplay experience—once adapted to—often lead to a fulfilling sense of accomplishment.
- Recommendation (weight 0.02): Recommendations are strong for fans of classic or retro RPGs, emphasizing the game's unique qualities, depth, and the value of mods. Players endorse it as a must-play for those seeking a rich, immersive roleplaying experience.
- Relief (weight 0.02): Relief is felt when players find workarounds for technical issues, such as using unofficial patches, debug tools, or hardware fixes (e.g., Steam Deck compatibility). Successfully running the game consistently or resolving performance problems brings significant satisfaction.
- Sadness (weight 0.02): Sadness stems from the loss of Troika Games and the unrealized potential of the game, which could have been exceptional with modern refinements. Players mourn the developer's closure and the absence of sequels or continued support for its unique vision.
- Love (weight 0.02): Love is expressed for the game's replayability, depth, and the unique experiences it offers, such as character customization and immersive storytelling. Players deeply appreciate its universe, music, and the lasting impact it has had on their gaming journey.
- Gratitude (weight 0.01): Gratitude is directed toward the developers for creating such a niche and impactful game, as well as the community for preserving it through mods and fixes. Players are thankful for its enduring legacy and the memories it has provided over the years.
- Immersion (weight 0.01): Immersion is achieved through the game's steampunk setting, realistic dialogue, and atmospheric soundtrack, which enhance the feeling of being part of its world. Players praise how the game's design and mechanics draw them into its unique universe.
- Affection (weight 0.01): Affection is tied to personal attachment to the game's depth, NPC interactions, and intellectual challenges. Players describe it as one of their favorite games, often citing its replayability and the emotional connections formed with its world and characters.
- Joy (weight 0.01): Joy comes from revisiting the game and reliving fond memories, such as specific gameplay moments or the pure pleasure of replaying it. Personal anecdotes and the game's ability to evoke happiness through nostalgia are common themes.
- Anger (weight 0.01): Anger is triggered by frustrating mechanics like companion conflicts forcing betrayals or the publisher's poor handling of the game. These issues disrupt immersion and leave players feeling cheated or resentful toward avoidable design flaws.}