Arcanum Sequel?

[Chilloutman]

nice setting, good writing, great music, nice atmosphere, but game mechanics quite sux, which is shame because they got huge potential.

[Tanjaxxx]

I beat Arcanum and I don't remember anything about that game except for racist NPCs in the first area

 

The world of Arcanum wasn't just racist, it was sexist too. But did I mind? Not even a little bit! 

 

You see, you start of as a nobody. Sometimes a dumb nobody, other times an ugly nobody......

 

But as you go quests and all that (level), people start reacting better to your presence; And even if they don't. You can kill them. 

 

I remember this one time, my female was about to get ra*ed by a rich gnome.....I killed him of course. xD 

 

Well, then another time when I was playing a kinda dumb beautiful girl, I had sex willingly - for money if i remember correctly? Made her work as a prostitute as well. 

 

I loved both of these characters, and by no means do I mean this as an insult. There are so many possibilities on who you play, and if intelligence is really really low (or if you get drunk) your speech pattern changes and well....it's awesome. :D I love flawed characters! 

[Tanjaxxx]

nice setting, good writing, great music, nice atmosphere, but game mechanics quite sux, which is shame because they got huge potential.

 

One of the reviewers on youtube described Arcanum as a 'Broken Masterpiece'....I don't think I'd be able to pick better words for it myself.

[Tanjaxxx]

The thing that I did not like about Arcanum was that it set up this really amazing magic vs. tech conflict and then had you fighting endless waves of animals and monsters the whole game. It very rarely used its own gimmick.

 

The ending almost made up for what a let down that was to me....almost.

 

So if Obsidian does decide to do a sequel to that game I sure hope they don't repeat that. That game is so old that Sierra published it...I presume they are long gone so it couldn't be hard to get the rights. But maybe they are but under a different name.

 

Hmm...strange. I loved the whole game so much it was going to be my favourite....the thing that ruined it from being true number 1 for me was that very ending you're mentioning. 

[Tanjaxxx]

 

 

I beat Arcanum and I don't remember anything about that game except for racist NPCs in the first area

Are you talking about Virgil? First playthrough was as a half ogre with dumped int. Virgil was pretty savage. :D

One of the best aspects of the game imho. If half ogres were real, people like Virgil would have very negative reactions if they were supposed to save the world.

 

 

Virgil also reacts differently (kinda hesitant) if you're not an elf or a half-elf at the very least because... *spoilers* )

[Amentep]

That game is so old that Sierra published it...I presume they are long gone so it couldn't be hard to get the rights. But maybe they are but under a different name.

Sierra was bought by Vivendi Games, which merged with Activision.

[melkathi]

 

 

I remember this one time, my female was about to get ra*ed by a rich gnome.....I killed him of course. xD 

 

 

 

My summoner killed that gnome as well. Then she uncovered the truth about half ogres. So she went back to Tarant and left no gnome alive.

[Valmy]

 

That game is so old that Sierra published it...I presume they are long gone so it couldn't be hard to get the rights. But maybe they are but under a different name.

Sierra was bought by Vivendi Games, which merged with Activision.

 

 

Well there you go. If a sequel is ever made it will have to be published through Activision. Good luck.

[Yonjuro]

...

 

Arcanum IP is owned by Activision, AFAIK.  So unless Activision wanted it to happen, it ain't happening.  A magic steampunk themed original game, they could do, but not really a sequel to Arcanum using the IP/Lore/Systems.

 

 

 During the Deadfire Fig campaign, Feargus was answering questions on the Fig Q&A page and somebody brought up Arcanum.

 

Apparently, Feargus talks to someone at Activision every few years about doing something with the Arcanum IP and has had no luck so far. The person who asked him the question started a petition about the issue to send to Activision. 

 

 Long story short, nobody should hold their breath waiting for an Arcanum sequel.

[Gromnir]

 

 Long story short, nobody should hold their breath waiting for an Arcanum sequel.

 

good advice seeing as how we vomit a little at the thought o' an arcanum sequel. hold breath and vomit?  no thanks. 

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Lexx]

I love Arcanum, but the combat mechanics and encounter design is just bad. It's obvious that the game needed at least another development cycle to get done for real. The game in its release state is something like an advanced beta only.

[Epaminondas]

Arcanum was actually a pretty good game. I don't remember all that much about it, but I remember I enjoyed it. I don't think it was really any better than that Lionheart game that everyone panned. ...And I talked my way past the last encounter (and a lot of encounters) in Lionheart (or whatever it was called). I enjoyed Pillars 1. I enjoyed it a lot. It didn't make my top ten, but I did like it. If Obsidian doesn't get stuck in an Eternity rut, then I think another new setting would be great. I have yet to play Tyranny past the prologue, but I'm hoping I can try it again soon and see if it really grabs me this time. Nevertheless, whether or not I end up loving either Tyranny or Deadfire, I'd rather have a new idea than a sequel, spiritual or not. Except maybe the Lovecraftian game finally done right. That could work also.

[Humanoid]

Reusing the Arcanum IP doesn't really add anything to any potential follow-up. I mean, if anything it might be a millstone, creating a sense of obligation to stick with its many many poorly designed elements. It's a game more suited to a spiritual successor that can be a bit more liberal with changing up the formula.

 

Now it can often be worth recycling old IPs for the marketing benefit associated with name recognition, but I don't think Arcanum was ever popular enough to make it worth the drawbacks. Consider by way of contrast a hypothetical Baldur's Gate 3. The commercial upside would be absolutely huge, and far outweigh the annoyance of being obligated to go by D&D rules.

[Ganrich]

Yeah, as much as I hold Arcanum in high regard, I don't see the need to maintain the IP.  Steam Punk meets magic, Turn Based, Open world, with crafting, deep classless character system.  That's all I'd want out of a Spiritual Successor.  Make it the Steam Punk Fallout that Arcanum was supposed to be. 

[Katphood]

I loved Arcanum. I started the game as a diplomatic/melee fighter Human-elf halfling and towards the end of the game I was unbeatable. I still like to return and replay the game as an evil tech focused dark elf since most of my first playthroughs are usually the pacifist ones.  

 

I like how mastering every skill in Arcanum has its own unique quest.

 

 

Most people say Arcanum is a steampunk game and I wouldn't disagree but for me, it was the dark and mysterious nature of the game that made me fell in love with it. It also didn't shove the steampunk elements in your face... 

 

 

It had elves who lived on top of giant trees, lizard people that lived like nomads, magic enthusiasts who lived on the edge of the desert, a town like shrouded hills that was struggling for its basic needs, an Island with mad scientists...

 

So many little stories that were truly worth exploring. 

 

 

 

 

 

But yeah, give the licence to good ol' beths and they will make every character in the sequel look like something out of a steampunk fan fiction. 

Edited April 27, 2018 by Katphood

[Amentep]

I think all you have to do is go to Turn Based and level up Harm a bit and you can't be touched in combat.  In real-time pretty much everything could kill you if you didn't click enough.

 

Also I hated the how weapon durability worked

[Wormerine]

I am not particularly attached to IP itself (steampunk was cool, and all chamber quartet OST was good) but I would oppose a more systemic RPG in a vein of fallout or Arcanum. Divinity1 filled this gap to some extend. We will see what the secret project will be - it might scratch the itch is some way or form.

[melkathi]

I think all you have to do is go to Turn Based and level up Harm a bit and you can't be touched in combat.  In real-time pretty much everything could kill you if you didn't click enough.

 

Also I hated the how weapon durability worked

 

Real time you had to be a magic user Thrown Weapon Master. If you grabbed the chakrams that cast time stop on hit you could kill everything: click - freeze. And since at that point your attack speed was the speed at which you clicked...

[Lexx]

Well, combat was never hard. At least for my characters it never took long till they one-hit head-popped everything around.

 

Always playing a technocratic half-elf, by the way. Suit and tophat until I get the power armor. Also I love the mechanical spiders and stuff.

[Yonjuro]

 

 

 Long story short, nobody should hold their breath waiting for an Arcanum sequel.

 

good advice seeing as how we vomit a little at the thought o' an arcanum sequel. hold breath and vomit?  no thanks. 

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

 

 

 I'm not sure that there is anything wrong with Arcanum that writing a completely new game from scratch wouldn't fix. 

 

 I don't think I've ever had a copy of the game that I could actually run for any length of time so I don't have a strong opinion about the IP.

[Katphood]

Damn, I forgot that Dark Elves are unplayable as a PC.

[Ophiuchus]

For all its flaws, Arcanum remains one of my favorite CRPGs for the sheer amount of weird stuff you can do: there's a lot of tricks you can pull off if you play around with the (albeit sloppy) mechanics. I return to it on occasion, and 17 years later I'm still impressed by the diversity in character creation, lore/setting, and reactivity.

Favorite highlights over the years:

Stealing the Bangellian Scourge for myself instead of destroying it, then laying waste to Arcanum - lore says it possesses the wielder, after all.
Deactivating and stealing all the mechanized enemies in the Vendigroth Wastes and setting them on Kerghan.
Siding with the horrid creatures of the Void.
Bringing Torian Kel (best companion in the game, imo) to meet his nemesis: The Bane of Kree.
Resolving the final confrontation through speech and reason.
Abusing NPC pick-up mechanics to plant cursed items and weaker weapons (a rail spike would replace a bare first).
Abusing fate points to get infinite gold in the first town.
Abusing the Ashbury graveyard for easy early exp; abusing the Void portal southwest of Blackroot for later exp.

Stun spell + Backstab on a high dex character = gg.
Locking doors through a spell to prevent enemies from reaching you.
The Arcanum X-Files questline.
Running a Ranger-type build with Dogmeat that focuses on buffing him.
Broken Sneaking bonuses that let you hide in plain sight and sneak while running full tilt.
Assassinating the King of Caledon (one of the most rewarding stealth missions I've seen in a crpg).

Killing a named NPC and animating it at as thrall/mind controlling it, then using the Dweomer Shield trick to make the effect permanent.
The obligatory low-INT brute run.
 

 

Damn, I forgot that Dark Elves are unplayable as a PC.

There's a Dark Elf background. It doesn't offer any reactivity on its own, but you could always side with them later.

Edited May 3, 2018 by Ophiuchus

[LittleRose]

My highlight on my last playthrough a couple of years ago was convincing the thugs at the bridge that I was a high ranked member of Taran's Thieves' Guild. And I was not happy about them charging me without permission. It's amazing how polite those guys could be.

Unfortunately, the game kept crashing in the elven settlement in the woods. I haven't touched it since. Maybe I should get the GoG or Steam version this Summer Sale. There could have been something wrong with the CD. I'd love to finally do a complete tech playthrough. There are so many blueprints to check out.

[Ganrich]

My highlight on my last playthrough a couple of years ago was convincing the thugs at the bridge that I was a high ranked member of Taran's Thieves' Guild. And I was not happy about them charging me without permission. It's amazing how polite those guys could be.

Unfortunately, the game kept crashing in the elven settlement in the woods. I haven't touched it since. Maybe I should get the GoG or Steam version this Summer Sale. There could have been something wrong with the CD. I'd love to finally do a complete tech playthrough. There are so many blueprints to check out.

Did you use the unofficial patch?  It helps a lot.  It gets my GoG version chugging along.  I have a few issues, but not like the base game.

[LittleRose]

Thank you. I had the game from a magazine. So, no, I didn't. But I want a digital copy anyway.