Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura - Retrospective Review

Reviewing the much loved classic from the defunct Troika Games!

Thank You Members!
easyE91 Ted Russell
Anastasia Sarycheva Bryan. C
tim spijkerbosch Joshua Sankman
arun nair GW
Matthew Laine semi gergüş
tslm Vincent Sellno
Karl Winterling Christopher Lancaster
Marcin Salamon Brandon
Vivvin April Pike
Vitruvius Richard
Rom RPG Czubi
Elgar T.W. Draazi Plays
Mr. Sarcasm Redfren
Paul Larman PlanetGames
Roguenbauld Jakub Kowalczyk
Sam Brockmann EerieV23
Dan Shawn Watson
Singha Black Phantom
Shikao87 DuncMac90
Stephen Reader Phantasmal Killer
Bob Greiner Slawek Fedorczuk
Neil BFC Mr. Chuggles
Koluna actorman5000
Yvette Sitlington Leech
Serge Shugaeff Skjefull
jjjjason79 Mind Your Language
Ryan Glacier boltyhead
Pamela Greening Justin Sivret
Slice99 Ol Scoots
Thomas Hanauer SCN-Scary Cryptic Name
Mateus Salvador Bobby Bee
michimchmich Thomas Hecht

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Support The Channel By Becoming A Member!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------
Follow Me On Various Social Media
------------------------------------------------------------------

#Arcanum #Review

[MortismalGaming]

Arcanum released in 2001* mixed up the years with Troika's second game which released in 2003. Apologies!

[JavisoGaming]

I’m 56 years old and played this upon release. Loved it then and still today! Thanks for covering it!

[Guinea]

Words can’t even begin to describe how much I love this game. I was 13 when the game came out and played it to death. It helped me get through some tough times in my younger years. I kept playing it through my 20’s and I played this on both my tours to Iraq when I was in the military. I actually still play it to this day. I’ve got a factory sealed physical copy of it along with a bunch of posters and swag they had for advertising. It may not be a perfect game and it definitely has its flaws. But damn this game would have been an instant classic if they were allowed to finish it and give it the final polish it deserved. That sound track is amazing, the world feels alive, the story although slow is brilliant. The big twist near the end was excellent and caught me off guard. The history and lore that is just briefly touched upon makes you want to know more. The elder scrolls has deep and interesting lore but I think Arcanum in my opinion is way more interesting. It’s like trying to figure out what happened to the lost city of Atlantis.

My advice to the newbies is, just try and keep an open mind remember this game is almost 20 years old. If you power through the janky combat and UI you will be well rewarded with story. It gets playable once you know what you’re doing. I promise.

[yasuke]

I will NEVER NOT click on videos talking about Arcanum. What an absolute gem.

[Killy]

This 38 years old is now 15 again and playing this unbelievably awesome game. Even till this day with all its many flaws it still ranks among my top ten of all time. Goddamn nostalgia is a powerful thing. Ty for the trip down memory lane.

[colonelbbq]

getting to the final boss and passing a charisma check to convince him that he is wrong and he responds by agreeing and killing himself is the most memorable boss fight I've done in all these years

[grey_wulf]

This is a FANTASTIC game! A remake could be so cool.

[skaruts]

What I find quite astonishing is the amount of work they put in the dialogues. The game is not only rich with dialogues, but there's also a bunch of variations of those dialogues, to reflect your character's intelligence (and charisma, iirc), as well as the NPC reactions to that, and also to the way your character is dressed, among other things. I can't imagine the total amount of text they had to write.

[FedulAis]

16:55 well hasn't that aged well! Good news, Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard and so have a right on Arcanum, moreover Jason Anderson, Leonard Boyarsky and Timothy Cain are working for Microsoft, not to mention other people on Obsidian. While chances aren't that high, but in my opinion they rised up a ten fold!
Ironic, Gilbert Bates was one of a key figure in Arcanum plot line and irl Gate's company could become one to save Arcanum once again.

[XYZ-emvu]

Now what is really important to know is that you can brake most things by attacking them - including chests and doors - which supplements lockpicking. Would've appreciated that hint some 14 years ago))

[geofmout]

One of the games I played the most in my teenage years with Morowind. Hours and hours spent trying to find the engine to build the spider mech.

[Overvaag]

I was 13 years old when I first got to know this game. A friend recommended it during a LAN party and I fell immediately in love with it, even more so than I did with Diablo. One day I hope we'll see a remake of this lovely game ❤

[Dookiefists]

We are now in a year where Microsoft has bought Activision so much like you had hoped this IP now does belong to a company featuring 3 of it's original developers :D Let's hope they make something of it! Especially off the backend of Baldur's Gate 3's success, it would be amazing to see a sequel or remake in a full 3D CRPG setting with significantly better combat cause the world of Arcanum would be totally worth fleshing out and exploring more.

[YouTubdotCub]

Would LOVE to see you do a story series on this game, the ending is PHENOMENAL and would really love to hear your take on it.

[binkyboy]

"There's turn-based and real time with pause, and the game does both of them terribly" 🤣

[FPChris]

I remember playing this game back when it came out. I found the box in my attic and had totally forgotten the name of it. Great video.

[gruszk]

It's insane how huge this game was for me. I've replayed it in every possible way I could find. How excited was I when I've found yet another new quest or follower after many replays! To this day I feel the pride from back when I solved the gods quest based on the info in the books!

[andrewelder]

Arcanum has always been in my Top 5 games of all time, and it's great to see someone really "get" what makes it so special. The depth of character creation and progression is probably my favorite of any game. Compared to so many "RPG"s today where you get a few skill trees, no stats, barely a nod to skills, but THOUSANDS of surface-only visual customization options, it's a model more developers need to go back to, just to see what REAL role-playing used to mean. Thanks for covering this, and for bringing it up on your other videos about the CRPG genre!

[ns]

I'm so glad you reviewed this. This is one of my favorite fantasy games and it's always nice to see reviews of it pop up.

[TheRealClaylex]

Such a cool asf concept via the steampunk-fantasy hybrid mesh and yet I haven't seen ANYONE use this for another game.