Gorillaz - Clint Eastwood
______________________
Review. Spoilers implied.
______________________
They spelled magic with a "k" so you know it must be good. The K stands for Kuality. Here's a perfect example of the Betty Boop stage of creativity spurred by new technical options which I described in my post before last. In 2001, large-scale isometric RPGs with full GUI were still relatively new on the market. Much of Troika's effort, much of what now seems clunky, time-consuming and repetitive assumed the innocent expectation that customers would enjoy clicking that mouse-driven GUI for the sheer love of clicking.
Arcanum made a bit of a splash when it came out, for its scope, for the relative freedom it offered, for its convoluted plot, for mixing drow, dirigibles, divination and dynamite and riding the upswing of steampunk's post-Y2K popularity. Unfortunately it also gained a reputation as hopelessly buggy, unbalanced and insufficiently tested in general. Though the GoG version has been patched in the intervening decades to satisfactory playability, it can sometimes be hard to distinguish the bugs from the poor design decisions. For instance, at first I thought it a bug when my replacement late-game companion, Raven, a dark-haired, smooth-voiced elven archer, just randomly decided to strip down to her skivvies during one fight and toss all her gear on the floor. A wonderful, wonderful bug. Then I realized she just automatically ditches all her gear when shapeshifting. If your inventory's full, this leads to a very tedious couple of minutes' worth of loot juggling after every. single. fight!
I had recruited Raven after the starter companion, Virgil, suddenly absconded with all the loot I'd stored on him to go run his side-quest. Fine. Except when I went to pick him up he wasn't there, either as a companion or as a corpse or as an "I.O.U fifty grenades" letter.* Was the quest just more complex than it seemed? Nope. Bugged. And if it were the only such quest I'd count myself lucky. Bugs also prevented my character from mastering the Dodge skill, as well as quite a few less impactful issues. At least you can usually reload an earlier save to try to get an NPC or item to interact properly, but still, it only compounds the frustration of trying to find one's way around in the first place. A combination of limited character models, generic decor, huge uneditable maps, small screen size and frequent pixel-hunting will set you abusing online guides quite a bit in order to get anything done.
A year ago I said "Arcanum makes an incredibly shitty first impression" and I stick by that statement. While most RPGs make the mistake of skimping on the rags in the "rags to riches" adventuring plot, of making the player too powerful from the start, Arcanum's a rare example of overcompensating too far in the opposite direction. Not only can you completely fail but you can harm yourself by attempting to attack with weapons in which you're not skilled. Even after buying into apprentice melee combat, my character could still end up punching himself to death. And, after such a frustrating beginning, the late game can actually be too easy, as you can rapidly outlevel your available challenges. Somehow Troika set up a combat system both frustrating and boring. Character stats lack any semblance of balance, with maxed dexterity almost a must. All the less fortunate your enemies' limited and repetitive combat styles, mostly interchangeable melee mooks with no complications.
In terms of immersion, it fares much better. They captured that old-timey wrought-iron industrial aesthetic well, and the music's apt to the the story's general mood. The writing tends to be uneven, with engaging exposition (especially for the main quest) but weak dialogue trees with few and tangled options. The main plot's interesting enough, though its various twists are presented too abruptly, lacking necessary hints and padding. Finding Nasrudin alive should have been the only entirely abrupt shock in the chain of discoveries. Quite a few of the more involved side-quests also manage to be entertaining, despite limited presentation, simply for their scope within the game world. Subvert one monarch and assassinate another, track down entire secret cities of elves and mages, unveil the entire cyclical nature of your world, oscillating endlessly between magic and technology.
They can also reflect rather poignantly on your chosen character background. I started out as a hideous but intelligent half-ogre and decided my character would have quite a chip on his shoulder about his heritage. I flew into quite a few murderous rages along the way, especially if an NPC insulted not only my parentage but my intelligence. Imagine my shock when I discovered most of my kind were being bred as chattel:
If there's ever a sequel to this game, I'll be playing a serial gnome-murderer.
Its central thematic central choice of magic(k) or tech was itself handled surprisingly well. I had started out determined to balance the two but while that may be possible, the game does an excellent job of enticing you further down each path while not forcing an artificial choice. In the end, my swordsman / grenadier still relied on a small repertoire of buff spells while mass-producing healing salves instead of potions. Yes, it's a terrible combat system, but at least it can be terrible according to your own personal tastes. Beyond your own abilities, different map locations can be more accessible by magicians or technologists (the train vs. the Tulla teleporters being the most obvious example.)
And that's really the one thing which actually works in Arcanum: personal choice. My leveling sped up dramatically once I acquired a lightning-fast Sword of the Derian-Ka... by going off-script and killing Cedric Appleby when he insulted my noble half-ogre heritage, instead of listening to his quest proposal. As I said in my first post, it's a rare RPG where you can fly off the handle and murder questgiver NPCs left and right while still progressing normally. Dialogues even support this playstyle by letting you verbally taunt most characters into attacking you. Not only that but you can combine support, ranged and melee abilities without completely pigeonholing yourself as a tank/healer/nuker. Be a charismatic leader of a large adventuring party or a fugly rageaholic with one token sidekick. Though as a relatively primitive and quasi-modoed attempt it can be incredibly frustrating, Arcanum qualifies as one of the more memorable computer role-playing games for its dedication to empowering you, the player, to play the role you want.
_____________________________________
* Come to think of it, the type of loot I'd stored on him might explain Virgil's death. Someone lit a match near him and... well, it would also explain why he didn't leave a corpse.
_____________________________________
edit 2019/08/14
Fixed a couple of tie-poes.
No comments:
Post a Comment