Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura Preview

Arcanum is the first game to be released by the Troika Studios, a software company founded by the three great names in electronic entertainment industry: Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky and Jason Anderson. Any well-informed RPG player should know that they were the ones that created Fallout, while still working for Interplay. This game is highly original, for its name, Arcanum, conceals something very peculiar...

What are you, some kind of zombies?

Our EIC Uros in his early days...

The world of Arcanum is strange indeed, with magic and technology coexisting in an instable balance. Science and technology develop rapidly (like in our world during Industrial Revolution), which greatly influenced the balance between magic and technology. Ordinary people gained access to items they could earlier acquire only by using magic. One side is using the elements of physics and nature, and the other is doing exactly the opposite, which inevitably leads to antagonism between the two. The mechanical age is in its infancy in the Arcanum world, and Humans, Dwarves, Orcs, Gnomes, Elves, Ogres, and other races are coming to terms with living in the newly erected industrial cities. The sudden shift from magic to technology created a volatile situation. The wizards have a reason to start worrying because the people started manufacturing light bulbs, steam engines, and guns. In short, the game will feature weapons and machinery from the industrial era, combined with spells, and the dragons will have to share the skies with zeppelins resembling those of the WWI.

The basic story line begins with our hero (who you generate RPG style) flying in a zeppelin over an unknown country on his holiday trip. Orcs flying fighter planes shoot down the peculiar craft, with our hero being the sole survivor. He will soon face one of those worn-out-cliché missions that we all know so well - to save the world from the disaster that would occur as the result of the conflict between techies and wizards. (Kick ass - save world!) He will soon change his Victorian era clothes for a fine piece of armor, which will come in handier in the adventures to come...

Arcanum has identical gameplay as the Fallout serial: isometric view with a completely new engine that supports higher resolution and 16-bit color. Just like in Fallout, with its funny drawings and ads from the forties, Arcanum will have a look that is a mixture of fantasy and industrial worlds. It will resemble Jules Verne's stories, and have a kind of early XIX century atmosphere. The clash between magic and industry is the focal point of Arcanum's story. The game world will be enormous, with numerous secret locations, which some quests will lead you to, and others you might stumble upon. Fortunately, there will be trains for easier transport, so the hero won't have to cross vast distances on foot. (Lucky him! -Ed.)

When generating the character, the player will be allowed to choose from following races: Human, Elf, Half-Elf, Half-Orc, Gnome, Dwarf, Halfling, Half-Ogre. Only the first four races will feature female characters. The stats are divided into four mental powers (intelligence, willpower, perception and charisma) and four physical powers (strength, constitution, dexterity and beauty). All these characteristics are standard in RPGs apart from beauty. Let's say you generate a short, ugly, evil-looking Gnome or Dwarf. The NPCs will ignore you! This increases the game challenge, because apart from the exterior look of your character, charisma and reputation stat will still influence the way the NPCs react to you. You will meet many interesting characters during your quest, and just like in Fallout, some of them can be recruited to join your party.

The Fatigue stat plays an important role in the game. All characters have a certain amount of Fatigue points, which are depleted and gradually regenerated through the game. This stat is used for (check this) spell casting! Many of you may think that the guys over at Troika Studios pasted Fatigue over Mana (conceptually speaking), but that is not the case. Fatigue is lost while running in combat, or walking, if the character is overloaded with heavy objects or armor. There are weapons in the game (like mallets or clubs) that will claim Fatigue points. This is a logical and inventive solution, since a tired or wounded wizard won't be able to cast devastating spells. If the Fatigue points come down to zero, the character will fall unconscious! (Hey, this reminds me of The Sims! -Ed.)

Snake-man, spooky...

Prepare to be electricuted!

While exploring or solving quests, the hero gains his hard-earned Character Points, which can be distributed into Skills: Combat, Thieving, Social and Technological. There are four Skills for each category, with additional levels that can be achieved within categories. Arcanum is a classless system; hence your character can develop in any direction! The character can be a fighter, thief, diplomat, game reviewer, or any other lucrative occupation. (Although, I'm not sure how the last one fits the profile. Just ask our EIC! Ain't that the truth! -Ed.) It is also important to maintain a balance between good and evil in your actions, and since there are many do-goodies in the game, you shouldn't exaggerate with evildoings. (Or else... -- Ed.) There is a scale of good and evil on the interface, so if you kill a "Good Samaritan", the scale will lean to evil. If you continue as a villain, it will alter the plot of the game. Thus, Arcanum is a totally open system where you can build your character any way you like! There will also be a choice of "backgrounds" (does 'Perks' ring a bell, anybody??), like "Raised in the Sewers", allowing the character to move easily through dark (and smelly) places, or "Raised by the Snake Handlers" which makes him resistant to poison. There is an option by which you insert your own data or picture, in order to customize the character as much as possible. So, if you are short and ugly, you get a chance to play a short and ugly Gnome! The essence of the game, and in the same time its biggest challenge, is which side in the conflict between magic and technology you will choose. Since 70 game years had passed since the industrial revolution (not much in terms of history), magic users have to compete with a relatively large number of technological disciplines. Characters may choose Old School Magic, New School Engineer or use benefits of both schools. The game will follow each choice of your character, like for example, each successfully cast spell provides further progress in the field of magic. The more the character strengthens within one school, the weaker he will be in the learning of the other. The technology and magic systems in Arcanum are broad, offering neat "rewards" to the followers of both paths. Magic is divided into 16 colleges, each of them having five characteristic spells. Since studying magic is a common practice for most FRP/RPG games, the interesting innovation is Technology. The character can acquire knowledge in electricity, traps, robots, therapeutic pharmaceuticals, hallucinogenic, explosives, and guns. There are nine technology disciplines, each divided into seven degrees. As you advance, and gain levels, it will become possible to assemble things and read complex diagrams, which lead to interesting contraptions, such as a giant mechanical spider which will fight instead of your character.

Combat system will have two modes-turn based and real-time. It is, naturally, up to the player to decide which one he wants to use. Both systems rely on character speed. In the turn based mode, character speed is used to determine how many action points a character has per move, and in the real-time mode, the speed of the character will dictate his dexterity. The modes can be dynamically switched during the game.

Even the Arcanum interface holds a few novel surprises for RPG fans. One noteworthy innovation is the auto-pack option that makes room for new items in the inventory. Then, you'll have a journal that will keep track of quests (completed, failed, open), the reputation in various cities, blessings or curses the hero picked up along the way and the number and sort of characters killed.

To top all these options, the game will feature a particularly interesting multiplayer mode. It will have its own maps for conflicts of up to nine players via all known connections. It includes an editor for designing individual maps and quests. That means the players will be able to create maps for both multiplayer and single player modes. Developers claim it will be a great system for all players wishing to create their own maps and insert advanced scripts.

The biggest Arcanum asset is the humongous number of options. In praxis, this RPG system has more options than you will ever need. By the time it is released in the beginning of next year, this game will be a turning point for many RPG systems that aren't strictly set in fantasy or futuristic/cyberpunk settings.