darketernal's Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura review

Man, I've had this game for about three years now and still never really felt I'd scratched the surface, no matter how many hours were sunk into playing it. Never was able to finish the main storyline. My high-intelligence low-charisma dwarf machinist was outmatched most of the time since he was too much of an asshole to recruit useful party members. Grenades and spider droids only get you so far.

Great game. Does it just "end" as anticlimactically as your review indicates?

It really depends how much time you are willing to sink into it. Like I mentioned, every action has a reaction in the game, and many quests will have lasting implications at the end of the game. For instance, if you failed to save a person in some quest in the game, and it turns out that guy/woman was a potential revolutionary leader for a great cause, you will be very mocked and reminded of said failure at the end and what happened due to your failure.

Honestly, I didn't really want to go into the mechanics of the game in the review of what is overpowered and what is the way to go, since the mage tree is superior to the tech one in the end even though only a few spells are worth a crap.

I'm normally too proud to let an RPG of all things beat me, but Arcanum did the trick. Despite repeated restarts with different types of characters, I cannot stay alive beyond reaching the first town and running like hell in any sidequest that involves any kind of combat, unless the game mercifully crashes before I die, which is about 50/50.

It's a shame because it's oozing potential and I want to like it, but like in love, sometimes it just doesn't work out.