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Summary: arcanum LOOKS nice...
Review: but it was supposed to be out last year, once again sierra disappoints.... and diablo 2 is a weak excuse for an rpg, so dont even compare the 2, diablo 2 is an easy point-click-hit that takes no real skill to conquer; baldurs gate I & II, icewind dale, planescape: torment are real rpgs and none are better than them on pc, and any is better than diablo2
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Summary: Not Just a D2 clone, also a clone of......
Review: If a female friend was setting you up on a blind date with Arcanum, when asked what arcanum looks like your friend would respond, "oh she has a pretty face, really nice hair and a great personality!" It was definately wise of Sierra to put Arcanum out now, during the late summer gaming lull, instead of forcing it to go toe to toe with Warcraft 3 or Neverwinter Nights. In principle, Arcanum is a good game. It combines the battle system of fallout, the gameplay of Diablo, and the quest system of Bauldors Gate 2. The drawback is a pretty steep lack of originality, and graphics that were only average in 1999. All this combines to give a pretty decent RPG with little or no punch. The story is the only area that raises above mediocre. It basically takes your classic dungeons and dragons world, and combines it with the industrial revolution. The result is a society in conflict between magic and technology, a struggle that creates a motif of the late 1800's combined with old school nights and sorcery. As in Bauldors Gate you have a completely open ended story, where your actions will decide your fate. This fate is controlled much by the postitive or negitive interactions you have with the many NPC's throughout the game, giving those points you place in charasima some actual use. The sophisticated interactions in the story contribute to that wonderful feeling of controlling your own destiny that you recieved all throughout the fallout series. Although not as buggy as Black and White or Anarchy Online were when first released, Arcanum still suffers from periodic freeze up. Also I suggest you keep reading material handy because this game takes its time loading, even on fast computers. All around there's nothing that a small patch couldn't fix though, which is a pleasent change of pace for gamers such as myself, who have been driven cynical by unplayably buggy games at launch. All around Arcanum is a reasonibly fullfilling game, with enough surprises to make you want to play it again. I recommend it for RPG fans whose main intrest is item hunting and character building. If your not a fan of the genre though, this is definately not a piece that will change your mind.
Rating: 
Summary: Load times aren't that bad
Review: Ok let me start by saying this is a very good game, you have tons of quests and your charter is very customizable.Ok ived read alot of reviews on this site and they all seem to say this game has long load time well it dosen't. It dose however have alot of stops in the game(while your battleing or try to cast alot of spells in a row) but if you have alot of ram you won't have that problem.(when i first got the game i had only 256 mb ram and had alot of stops while playing, but after i upgraded to a 1 gb of ram i didn't have the stoping problem anymore.)So if you computer is decent like mine you shouldn't have any major problems playing this game.
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Summary: Involved Gaming - complex ? ... worth the learning curve !
Review: I don't want to rehash what everyone else said. I agree with their reviews. This is a wonderful game. Can be a bit overwhelming, but with patience, you will "enjoy the ride".
I wanted to inform those looking to purchase this fine game, you can find the game/new at eBay, fifty% cheaper(...I paid twelve bucks) than what the new marketplace sellers are requesting. If you need a manual, you can download a .pdf version some 100+ pages long. Do due dilligence and you won't regret it.
Rating:
Summary: A nice refreshing break from hack and slash RPG's.
Review: First things first, I LOVED ARCANUM. Man it was so nice to have a decent RPG come out that was not centered around hack and slash. Not to bash Diablo or anything but the repetive hacking can get old and with a background story that does not care what you do leaves me wanting just a little bit more. Thats where Aracnum comes in. It basically takes the best of Fallout and puts it into a richly detailed and unique fantasy world. The beginning of the game was very good and had some nice hooks to draw me in. And then after that it didn't let up and I had to keep playing to figure out more of the cool story, complete all the cool quests and see the new areas. I absolutely loved the alternate situations throughout the game. I believe that is one of the biggest things that made the Arcanum game stand out from all its predecessors. And another cool thing was that if you beat the game with one character you could replay it with another character and have a brand new experience. The only drawback I had with the game was the level limit. I reached level 50 way before the end of the game and found myself running from almost every random encounter because I could not reach a higher level and it was getting real boring beating up every monster that came after you. And another drawback I found was the ease with which the end guy could be beaten. I expected a very tough enemy, but it only took me two tries to beat him down. The first so I could see what he was all about and the second to counteract all his moves and put the smackdown on him. But those are very minor details and the overall game was a satisfying RPG experience. I hope to see more types of these RPG's in the future and less action oriented RPG's. Sorry action fans, RPG does stand for Role Playing Game which means playing a role not clicking a mouse button as fast as you can. Maybe they should come out with a new genre Hack and Slash and keep it seperated from RPG.
Rating: 
Summary: Sleeper masterpiece, but missing a few touches
Review: Arcanum is a good example of a sleeper hit on the PC RPG genre. Although many have forgotten, or have not even heard of it, it DID win 2001 RPG Year of the Award and other accolades from various sources. And at $9.99 (without shipping/handling), it's quite the bargain as well.
Arcanum's strong points lie in its original concepts, well crafted storyline and well scripted events. Betrayal abounds, and it's hard to know who to trust.
Arcanum was the first major game to offer two different sides in the form of technology and magic. Wield a nice automatic gun, or maybe a tranquilizer rifle. Or become a stuffy mage, carry a flaming sword, and send bolts of lightning out of your fingertips. Teleport yourself to distant lands, or ride the train.
The game is also very imaginative in terms of character interaction. If your mage becomes too powerful, the railroad conductor may eventually not even let you on the train, for fear that the warping of reality around you will damage the machine. The world is quite realistic- there are tailors, ordinary folk who just live in houses, blacksmiths, guards, etc. Some things will only happen at night. And unlike many other senseless RPGs, if you break into someone's house in plain view, it IS a crime. You want something valuable in that house? Sneak in through the shadows!
Arcanum is just an amazing game. The number of characters you can develop is startling, and the dialogue options available for each character are equally so. They range from the normal, to the cautious, to the sarcastic, to the outright absurd (i.e. "You're too nice. You have to die now.")
The spellcraft in Arcanum has been impleneted very originally. Casting a spell causes fatigue instead of mana, and spells actually will cost a certain amount of fatigue to upkeep, which allows for many interesting balances between technology and magic. Gun runners will never be afraid of suddenly getting too tired, and just running out of spells. On the other hand, they will be quite afraid of running out of bullets.
Of course, a game as ambitious as Arcanum also comes with several weaknesses as a result. Like any other pioneer in its field, Arcanum has a few pitfalls that kept it off the wish lists of some players. Arcanum has a steep learning curve unless you played a similarly styled interface (e.g. Diablo II).
Second, technological characters will find their time more difficult than the spellcasters because in the early game, they have to search everywhere- even garbage bins- for enough components to build decent weaponry. This perpetual scavenge hunt can quickly tire some less advanced players.
Third, some spells are simply too good. Disintegrate for instance, simply destroys the enemy monster. There is no equivalent for this on the tech side, and even if there was, it'd still be quite "broken" and unfair. There is no challenge in simply walking up to a boss monster and simply playing one spell that knocks it away into oblivion.
Another major complaint is that combat in Arcanum is too biased towards melee. Oftentimes the person who survives is neither the mage nor the techie, but the ogre who's got some good armor and a really, really big sword. Ranged weapons, as a general rule, are quite weak. The ones that aren't (i.e. explosive grenades are sort of good) are usually rare, even the components for them.
Last but not least, the controls in Arcanum are a bit clunky and the way the world map works is counter-intuitive. The game slows down periodically for little reason, even on fast systems, which suggests that the programmers may not have written entirely efficient code. Anyway, look at the advantages and disadvantages, and invent your own rating.
P.S. Arcanum does not support Windows XP officially. You have been warned. It may or may not work, depending on your specific PC. Also, some computers with older CPU's will have problems with their 3d acceleration. Try safe mode. Worked for me.
Rating:
Summary: A Breath of Fresh Air for Veteran RPGers
Review: After nearly a decade of not playing CRPGs, I can honestly say that Arcanum sucked me back into the CRPG world. What makes Arcanum great is the flexibility. You can choose to be good, evil, start out good and become evil later (or vice versa - although becoming evil is a bit harder to recover from), become a technologist, or a mage or neither, or a bit of both. What seperates this game from many of its predecessors is the lack of restraints. You don't feel like you MUST do quest A then B then C. You can blunder around aimlessly and pick up a plethora of side quests that have branches of their own.
Another thing to note is the cleverness of the world created and the mystery of the main plot kept me guessing all the way until the end. The atmosphere of the game is unique that has been cleverly adapted with a combination of Victorian England meets the Wild West. The story is not lacking or flat and the dialogue allows you to be as gallant, devious, or just plain ornery as you want to be. The main shortcomings of this game really are the odd tendency to CTD (crash to desktop), so save early and often to avoid losing much. The other shortcoming is the pathfinding of the NPCs leaves a bit to be desired. All in all a very nifty game with a brilliant world that has few constraints. As an aside, their are some clever little mods out there that can enhance the gameplay experience. The most useful of which are those that allow your character to continue to grow and gain experience. The game, as shipped, caps your character at level 50. During my first go, I found myself only 80% through the main quest before I found out that I couldn't advance my character further in experience.
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Summary: The COOLEST PC RPG I Have EVER Played!
Review: Arcanum is a great mix of the worlds of fantasy and middle-ages, and of magic and technology. The story is very interesting and kept me playing straight through. The vast customization of you character is pretty impressive. Since I don't normally play PC RPGs (or any PC games period), I highly suggest ARCANUM for everyone and anyone who likes video games.
Rating:
Summary: Good ideas stretched too thin
Review: I'm a fan of PC RPGs, and when I heard this one was made by programmers who previously made the great Fallout/Fallout 2 games, I figured I would check it out. It's a few years old now, but is just as good as I'd hoped. The only thing that feels a bit dated about the game are the graphics, which isn't too surprising..they're in the same isometric view as the Fallout games, and the resolution is sub-Diablo II. Nonetheless, they're good enough, and the game play dynamics are awesome. One of the great features of the Fallout games was that your character was initially class-less; you could emphasize whatever skills you felt like without getting bogged down in 'Fighter' or 'Mage' or whatever other categories some games bind you to. Arcanum keeps this great feature, but also expands it by adding Technology skills. As the title of the game suggests, the setting involves a world where magic is now forced to share space with crude but advancing technology. The classic elven magic user now has to worry about a magic-resistant dwarf who might be packing a crude automatic rifle and a protective cast-iron robot spider. Arcanum allows you to pick and choose from all sorts of skill categories, including combat, thieving, magic, technology, and various social skills. To be successful you tend to have to pick a few areas and concentrate, but even lower level skills can be worth picking up on the cheap..both the Magic and Technology areas are vast and have plenty of good low-level abilities you can take without committing your character forever to that one area. The Technology skills also require physical components (springs, metal plates, etc.) and you can even purchase or discover schematics for new technologies as the game advances, which are in addition to those you can earn in the regular technology tree. Another great aspect of Arcanum is that the land is simply vast. You can stroll about it in real time, or use a world map feature to travel between various points. According to the FAQ, the world itself is a giant realm about 3000 by 3000 areas..pretending it were empty of the many secret areas or encounters you run into, it would still take your character about *35* hours to walk across it if you didn't use the world map. That, my friends, is a *big* game. Arcanum has all the other trappings of a great RPG..it has lots of equipment and goodies to find, interesting areas to explore, and a fun sense of humor. One of the best aspects, and the rarest, is the fact that an evil character can also do well. Some stores exist only for evil characters, and many 'evil' dialogue options (such as threatening people or otherwise acting cruel) actually result in compliance rather than a fight involving the entire town. So if you've ever gotten sick of some weaselly town constable or farmer giving your 30th level claymore-wielding half-ogre a hard time, now you can actually do something about it that makes sense. I intentionally used a cursed helmet to give my latest character a -100 alignment (the lowest/evilest) from the start, because it had other beneficial effects, and it hasn't slowed him down at all. That means that the dialogue options are actually *options*, rather than being the obvious good/proper choice surrounded by a bunch of obviously suicidal choices added just in case you click there by accident. In short, Arcanum has aged well and offers a very large and detailed world for folks to explore. The replayability seems almost limitless, which is why it still seems popular after several years of release.
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