Arcanum

[EnderAndrew]

You could even build a town on your server and have a gateway of travel to a city on another server, making it seem like one seemless world.

[Walsingham]

...So maybe we could explain why Arcanum did so badly at the stores?

 

 

Anyone who says bad graphics will get hit with a folding chair until they wee themselves.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

It wasn't a HOT AKSHUN TITLE!

 

Unfortunately I suppose the graphics were part of the reasons. While they were no doubt possessing of a good art direction the animations were jerky and special effects were for the most part minimalist. I suspect tile-based graphics also aren't as appealing as fully pre-rendered backgrounds as those used in the Infinity Engine games.

 

I think initial reviews and word of mouth are the main things by which casual gamers go by, and so it's not hard to imagine them flocking over to other games after hearing about the graphics, the bugs on release (inclusing the always fatal savegame corruption) and the poor balance.

[EnderAndrew]

Maybe Sierra just didn't market or push it enough?

 

No one knew about balance issues when the game was first available for sale.

[Guest Fishboot]

People really weren't beating down the doors at Genre Hut in anticipation of a fantasy/steampunk title, either. The game isn't balanced for real-time combat and the turn-based was at best a lateral move from Fallout and, unlike Fallout, Arcanum has large stretches of forced combat Diablo-like dungeon crawls against run-up-and-kill-me enemies. The "Bam! You're the Chosen One! Now, ignore that and start with the open ended gameplay!" whack-to-the-head at the beginning of the game also primes the game to seem hackneyed. I can see where the bad reviews and negative buzz on it came from. Now, that doesn't discount bad marketing (which Sierra was obviously capable of) but that wasn't the only factor.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

I'm not entirely sure of how Sierra handled Arcanum. I heard they weren't very good at it and often damaged it more than helped it, but then again I also listen to voices out of nowhere saying all kinds of things. Arthur Conan Doyle, eat your heart out.

 

As for balance issues, I reckon they were pretty noticeable for those that played the game, reviewers included. All it takes is a couple of posts on a forum or a line in a review to make a good or bad impression.

 

 

The "Bam! You're the Chosen One! Now, ignore that and start with the open ended gameplay!" whack-to-the-head at the beginning of the game also primes the game to seem hackneyed.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I thought it was a fun twist on the Chosen One principle considering the whole Panarii religion identity crisis and the dubious role of the zepellin survivor.

[SteveThaiBinh]

If you take the Gamespot review as an example, its tone was very lukewarm. The main criticisms were of the graphics, combat and bugs.

 

Troika seem to have got most of the bugs, but when I played the first time as a human character, there was a vital point in the game when my intelligence always sank to 1, and there was no patch available at that time. It was very annoying, but I replayed as an elf and avoided it.

 

I always play turn-based combat unless the opponents are very very weak, so I think the criticism was a bit unfair. That said, the combat in Bloodlines was also criticised, so it seems to have been a common theme in Troika's games.

 

As for the graphics, I think they were just out of date. It came out two years after Planescape: Torment, after all.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

As for the graphics, I think they were just out of date.  It came out two years after Planescape: Torment, after all.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yes but that is usually the case with tile-based. Even Neverwinter Nights, although 3D, lacked a gripping art direction for its tilesets; they were all rather bland and could not hold up to many other CRPGs which used fully rendered 3D backgrounds. There's a compromise between graphical quality and interactivity. While there was much more than could have been done in Arcanum, no doubt, the use of a tile-based system allowed for several interesting things: the destruction of environments and items (doors, windows), manipulation of light sources, seamless navigation trough large maps (the absence of a need to load minute areas because they are all separate, as in Fallout), and individual properties for each tile (sound and resistance).

 

Most, if not all of which weren't exactly possible in Torment, and all other Infinity Engine games for that matter.

[Guest Fishboot]

If I were going to make a mod with the intent of making the game more enjoyable for first time players I'd just flat out remove Virgil. The gnome

dwarf!

and ring are enough of a plot hook to get you started and the

Molochean Hand attacks

are enough to crank up the pressure to keep moving. Virgil's character has too much of an agenda

(chasing Joachim and calling you the Chosen One)

to the point that it makes no sense that he'd stand around while you take the time to rescue cats from tree limbs and organize your thimble collection.

 

And getting splatted with the whole Chosen One thing right off the bat is eye-rolling

even if it is eventually subverted

. Maybe if you could move him back to somewhere in

Tarant or Dernholm

he'd work much more seamlessly.

[Walsingham]

I do see what you all mean, especially about the shoe-horning. And I think it stands as an excellent example of how badly graphics can skew a review. I mean they ARE on a par with Fallout 2. I don't care, of course, but many would.

 

I would say tere's probably some w8nky minimum standard.

 

Anyway, I also see hwat you mean about it feeling more constrained than it is. I am playing trhough again and finding tonnes of stuff I missed the first time. It really feels more like having a new adventure. The crates and so forth also contain a minor amount of variation which is neat.