This is an extremely ambitious game with a lot of replay value thanks to the early level capping.

Its originality comes from the setup. Early 19th Century steampunk meets D&D. Troika knew how to be inspiring.

It's just a shame the main story focuses more on the fantasy side, while the technological one is relegated to side quests.

It doesn't necessarily need a remake but it would be nice if some expert modders could delve into giving it more tweaks the same way they did with Vampires The Masquerade.

For the French - https://lacritiquedumoment.wordpress.com/2023/09/07/arcanum-of-steamworks-and-magick-obscura/

Arcanum is interesting, both in its thematic content and its place in its father genre. It’s the first game by Troika games, which was started by the creative team of Fallout 1 after they left Interplay and before they did much work on Fallout 2. Now, the team that ended up leading Fallout 2 became Black Isle, who became Obsidian, and the games released under those banners are typically considered masterpieces, and for me they’ve released at least 4 of my favorite games ever made, some of the most meaningful art in the genre that often got there by burning expectations to the ground and just doing whatever they want. Planescape, KOTOR 2, Fallout New Vegas, even (to a lesser extent) Fallout 2 and Icewind Dale all run by this design philosophy. Even the recently released Pentiment has a bit of this fire in its eyes, taking obsessive medieval history recounting and turning it into just an outrageously affecting game. That’s the other thing that so many of the Black Isle team’s games have in common: A dedication to hitting you at the core of your being, tearing you apart with nothing but smart writing and scene setting.

The Troika team’s games (at least the ones I’ve played, Fallout 1, now Arcanum, and maybe The Outer Worlds if you count that) provoke the same broad feelings in me, but their games are less about razing the ground that came before. They wouldn’t make a game like Planescape, which almost completely dumps the RPG side of its design by the wayside, and they wouldn’t make Icewind Dale, a linear set of dungeons with a cool setting and not much exploration. Instead, their games will have dungeons, and thought provoking story, and mechanics that draw lines to what came before but mix them up into something that feels much different. Fallout was an iteration on Wasteland, but is also an incredibly evenly spread game between each element, and Arcanum really feels like another run at that style of design, but in a new setting that gives and even more broad selection of things to do.

Arcanum (the setting) is… well people say steampunk, but I don’t think all that that implies is quite right. It’s more like high fantasy with steam engines and victorian culture, and it really leans more on the high fantasy in practice. Sure the scene setting and overall aesthetics are very victorian, but the things you do, the texture of the world, feel right out of Baldur’s Gate. What’s added is a Fallout-style sense of waste and pollution and mechanical scrappiness, not all over, but just in the right places.

I’m finding it hard to talk about what’s special about this game without getting into telling you too much, so I think I’m gonna stop this here. It plays like a much smoother classic Fallout, and if you find the themes of Fallout compelling, particularly the snarkier way of delivering those themes from the first two games, I think you’ll get a lot out of this. It’s not particularly tough, so you can experiment, it’s not overly guided (could maybe stand to have a little more guidance tbh), so chill out and do what you want, and it’s just outrageously grounded and believable as a world, and the further you let yourself get into that feeling, the more affected you’ll be at the end. It’s absolutely worth playing, and might be my favorite from this particular creative team.

Mixes fantasy and steampunk in a unique, interesting, and heavily political setting often focused on the history and beliefs of the different cultures, racism, and the effects of the world's version of the industrial revolution leading to less of a focus around magic and more on worker exploitation. Different dialogue choices and responses based on intelligence/race. A lot of endings for cities/nations/groups. Can craft useful items, the useful part being rare even in modern games.

Your first follower is entertaining but the rest of the followers say little. Mediocre UI, map, combat, and AI but isn't overly difficult to get over most of the flaws in those elements. Followers drop equipment in battle and pick up random stuff on the ground (including cursed items).

Even had my best death in a game
https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/569573661151088640
https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/569573856358170624

This here would be most CRPG game to ever exist.
the combat barely functions and the random encounters you get are the pretty much the same low level hordes you get up until the very end. technical issues left and right and nearly unplayable without a fan patch nowadays.
it also has the most Immersive world I've ever experienced even the most random fetch quests turn out to be way more than what you were expecting in the first place, and every single one of the quests are designed to be handled in a multitude of ways, each with their own outcomes. and all of it feels natural because you're using the core mechanics of the game to come up with solutions. this had me intentionally looking quests and talking to every single NPC. and there is so much Quests, secrets and conspiracies lurking around it's actually unbelievable. some book in a museum may take you through a journey around the world to meet god itself or uncovering the truth about a religion from bloodstain. the game never holds your hand or any of it so figuring them out is genuinely satisfying.
While the combat may not be even functional it makes up for it with the RPG mechanics and the overall gameplay is fantastic. no matter which side you pick up and focus on. you're building your character for the coolest shit. just a matter whether you prefer to revive people with magic and summon phantoms and golems to fight by your side and identify magical artifacts diablo style, or craft and drink stat increasing medicine and have an army of spider robots follow you while you wear the steampunk equivalent of a power armor. and crafting is actually fun in this game. or go for a broken but difficult hybrid alternative.
the writing is clean and concise. talking to a random historian about some old religion for 20 minutes was enjoyable. it may not seem like it but this game is also one of the most consistently funny games out there. I've yet to see an rpg convey its plot and world so well through side quests and gameplay.
absolutely trumped over Fallout 1 and 2 in every way for me, wish it had a stronger ending but that still doesn't take away for everything that it does so well.
Did i mention that at least 4 of the game's cities can be completely killed through quests (one you even get awarded for lol) and how people of the other sex offer to have sex with you if your beauty is high enough? HELL there even is a huge org-

As with a lot of Crpgs of its era, the combat is either broken due to an overpowered mechanic or full of holes based on the ADnD system it apes.

However, in Arcanum, I found that it is at least serviceable and in general carried by the great setting of the game, dialogue, (some)characters and most importantly, how customizable your character ends up being from the character select to the way NPCs react to your character.
You can really talk your way through a lot of encounters or find alternate solutions to them as opposed to just all of them devolving to one combat encounter in some form.

But I also must mention that this a troika game lmao, its going to buggy unless you primitively install a good amount of mods, even to the gog version.

When I think of video game soundtracks that perfectly exemplify a games' atmosphere and resonance, Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magick Obscura is the first one that comes to mind. This is such a special piece of art that has had a bit of a resurgence in recent years due to it's rich worldbuilding and genuinely fantastic writing (despite the horrifically janky combat and bugs). While all the praise for Arcanum is well deserved and known, I feel as the soundtrack gets overlooked and mentioned mostly as unique but repetitive. However, I feel Ben Houge has composed one of the best pieces of VGM that has perfectly capture the essence of Arcanum

the world

the world if we got an enhanced edition or a sequel

this setting is just too cool to let it go to waste

A CRPG with a unique and very well-crafted story and setting and truly truly awful gameplay.

I’m of very mixed feelings about Arcanum. My playthrough ranged from having a great time with many of the quests and getting blind-sided in the most pleasant way by some of the twists and surprisingly insightful/realistic writing to truly hating myself in dungeons and being genuinely angry at many of the mechanics, and neither side triumphed over the other in my memories months later when writing this. I appreciate a lot some of what it does and I’m glad I played it, but despite the potential for replay value, I doubt I’ll ever touch it again.

I’m generally fairly opposed to remake culture in games, but if any game ever deserved a remake, remaster, sequel or honestly anything to explore its amazing setting just a bit more, without the things that weigh it down, it’s Arcanum. I could go on and on talking about things I loved and hated but I guess that just goes to show how strong my feelings on it are. Gnome quest kinda sus tho

horrible combat
amazing dialogues

i honestly dont know how to feel about it, but the final conversation with the bad guy was honestly pretty fucking cool so i'll give it that.

this game desperately needs a remake

“There's an old joke - um... two elderly women are at a Catskill mountain resort, and one of 'em says, "Boy, the food at this place is really terrible." The other one says, "Yeah, I know; and such small portions." Well, that's essentially how I feel about life - full of loneliness, and misery, and suffering, and unhappiness, and it's all over much too quickly.”

A lot of suffering for a little happiness. Such is the nature of life. Such is the nature of Arcanum. The only difference being you can actually choose to play the latter. You won't forget either it's charms nor it's broken ass mechanics, just beware, there's an abundace of the latter.