10th Anniversary Review - Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura 

Aye, it's been an epic journey, of joys and d' tears. And through it all, we've seen DWT grow from an eager lad to a full grown man.

Gratz man, Wow, it doesn't feel that long. You sure have come a long way!

10 Years? Good job DW. Good Job. Here's to another 10 years.

Why are gamers today so hesitant to sticking with learning how to play games ? When I played Ultima 7 as an 8 year old I never played one RPG, didn't even knew what the genre was, but found the game so interesting that I learned everything in the game by the way of trial and error and taking notes. Same with Fallout 1 and later Arcanum. I was patient and took my time reading and learning the mechanics and that was part of the enjoyment to finally know how to play the game properly. But you give this to someone today they're just gonna completely move away from it. Everything has to be instant gratification today.

Excelent video! Played for the first time back in 2010, always loved the ads in the magazines.. never finished. I am playing it again right now, in 2021... hope i can finish it..... wish me luck! (and strength)

Arcanum...man this game brings back so much memories. The atmosphere, world, music and the overall feel is top notch. Combat is still unbalanced, but Arcanum Multiverse fixes a lot of the other bugs and issues.

Congrats on 10 years, my friend!

I just really like String Quartet music in general.

Just yesterday i stumbled upon one of your reviews from 10years back and i couldn’t believe how little views you have for such quality content. Happy 10th anniversary!

Well, looks like I'm getting Arcanum... Yes I'm a fan of RPGs and I've been wanting to play it but now I really want to try it cuz it seems really unique and interesting.

congrats on 10 years man. we all really appreciate your hard and dedicated work throughout the years. even if you happened to shit on a game or two that we so happened to like :P

Arcanum was the first RPG game I ever played! I loved it to bits and never found anything comparable to it, all the other games I tried left me wanting more story immersion! I played it around 20 years ago and still think of it fondly!! The companions are so real and yet you can manage them enough, the main NPC have so much character and the endings are just unbelievable on how different they can turn out to be!! Great game!! (btw I never used turn base combat... just blast harm at the opponents and then let Virgil finish them off while you're down with your fatigue at some -50 lol)

Given this was the first game of a newly fledged studio, born out of the frustration of management meddling, and which was understaffed for quite some time, it's a miracle that this game even exists. As a standalone experience, it really falls apart in the polish side of things, but still has a lot to offer.

Love the endearment to this game... My top 3 games are: Witcher3, Ocarina, and Arcanum!!! You're an old skool enthusiat! Nice to meet u :)

Really all CRPGs have a somewhat unintuitive interface, and this one actually looks a bit more intuitive than say Fallout to me

Great channel, really enjoy your reviews and get a lot out of them. Have bought this game.....

I love the Victorian era dialogue

I really love the graphics from this era of crpgs, that early fallout baldurs gate isometric look just captures my interest in these games but I can see why people criticized it for being a 2001 game.

Losing fatigue when attacking in Turn Based Mode is not a glitch but a part of the gameplay. You start losing fatigue once you run out of action points during your turn. The amount of fatigue lost is equal to the amount of action points needed to complete the action.

26:10 You only lose fatigue in turn based when your last attack goes beyond the action point needs. If you have 3 action points left but your attack costs 4, you can still attack, but at the cost of one extra fatigue. If you would only have one action point left and attack, you'd lose 3 fatigue. Also don't forget that most attacks made against you also do fatigue damage as mentioned on the weapons.

Grats on surviving 10 years on youtube :)

I picked this game up a while back on GoG but haven’t tried it yet. It’s often cited as a must own title for rpg fans but I’ll admit I’m a bit intimidated by it.

I be buying this with my first pay packet just in time for my birthday

It has been about 3 years and I'm still waiting for the splinter cell reviews, please tell me if they are going to happen this year, I am a fan of them, I can't wait long. P.s:I can wait but still can you give a date

So it's basically a fantasy/steampunk version of Fallout awesome!

I started playing this game so many times, and I love the early parts, but I feel it becomes kind of weak past the halfway point, and I ended up not finishing it, sadly. I should really give it another spin, sooner or later, I really like the atmosphere and the idea of it all. The real-time option for the combat was awful and exploitable, I still wonder how it got past testing as it is. XD

Any chance beamdog can remaster this ?

wee I finished with it last week and recorded some lame game footage (stuff I wanted to see on RU-vid and not do myself). your rating for a game is higher than mine for once.

Dw after watching this review i feel like im gonna love this game but i dont have time to play this and fallout 1 at the same time. Which ine would you recommend i play first ? Thanks for the review as always

Full voice can be so bad. Even if it's well done. I prefer text.

Watched many and i like your views

I remember I made my money by stripping the dead clean and selling everything off.

Will you review NieR Automata sir DW??

I find this game is unplayable even with the Unofficial patch. They interface is just ridiculously bad.

You know I was wishing for final fantasy7 review

Mabye now we can get Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment.

I spent an hour on character creation the first time I played this game. I played for about 45 minutes, was dissatisfied with my build, then did a reset. I friggin loved it. Also, happy early 14th anniversary on RU-vid.

You forgot to mention it has one of the best villains in videogame history

My favorite crpg. Issues galore, this is THE roleplaying game. Also love the story and the setting. Did you play this on that Russian patch? What I'd give for conversion with ToEE combat.

This game always has a special place in my heart - and on my hard drives. It seems the most recent version of GOG has improved performance so I can get back into the game again.

Finally. Been a decade but you finally got the review out.

I always got frustrated by the leveling system, finally getting some skill I really wanted only to find out that I have to level four other things to be able to use it.. Now I tried adding some skill points with console commands and over-did it a bit, but being able to try everything the game offers isn't bad. With more advanced guns the combat feels almost like fallout, thanks to awesome death animations. Guess I'll finish it and try again not so owerpowered, now knowing better what's usefull and what's not. Despite it's faults the world and atmosphere are simply amazing.

I just love that era 3D story animation on games like this and Planescape: Torment!

Should I get it on Steam or GOG? Also, how well does it run on Windows 7? Probably will get it otherwise

This game has a soul which modern games clearly lack on top of too much hand-holding. No walkthroughs, to guides or tips/tricks. mods or cheats when I played this when I was younger when this game was released back In 2001 (we had our internet installed around 2004)

This was probably my first real rpg I played. I funnily enough got it when it came out and I was barely a teenager when I got it. Also, the music soundtrack is available for free online, at this point. DOWNLOAD IT! I remember I used to sit on the pause screen and just have the music play. This is an awesome game. I should probably go back and play it. I never did my dumb run (which is bloody hilarious from what little I've seen).

I'm watching this video five years after it was published. And yes, I know the exact track you're alluding to at 9:34. It's been stuck in my head for twenty years.

fatigue lose is not a glitch action points are displayed in green meaning you can act when they are displayed in red meaning you do not have any and you use energy to act meaning energy (fatigue is not the best name) will deplete so if you press end turn then action points are displayed in red instead of attacking again energy will not deplete

This review is something of a dream come true. Now I finally know why you've hesitated reviewing this for so long. :-) I hold the game in much of the same respect as you. Games like this - and there are very, very few of them - are why I see potential in roleplaying games. Even well over a decade ago, when I got my first opportunity to regularly play Arcanum, I saw clearly the gameplay is rather buggy and the graphics decidedly old-school. But I couldn't be bothered to stop playing, the atmosphere, the storytelling, the setting, the music, everything just clicked nicely. At first, I didn't even own the full game. I just kept playing an old demo over and over again (the one that ends after Shrouded Hills). Even that fairly brief bite of the game convinced me that getting the full version is an absolute must. I own a GOG.com version to this day and play it to this day (even though I've had a bit of a hiatus for a while, but I'm planning to continue playing again). Thank you for the review. It was detailed but to the point. Despite all the things that could be said about this game, you didn't meander and I think you have done a review of this game justice. Textbook good 10th anniversary review !

congrats with the 10th years anniversary DW!

i got excited to play this out because of this review, but i went without patches since the video implies the game has no major bugs with all the official patches up However, not only there was constant infinite loading screens where the clock on top of the screen would keep spinning to no end, but my saves got corrupted just by starting save files at some points or saving while i was sneaking, after a lot of frustration trying to beat this and grinding for 1 entire week to complete the dungeon with those damn golems i kept playing until i reached the isle of despair, then i fought some challengers in the pit and thought it was cool to try and kill them with my spells, i thought it was ok to save after that and my save files were ALL corrupted, making me lose almost 40 hours of gameplay I gladly could save my game files with a save editor, but i got so frustrated with it that i went all my way to research for this bug and found a GIGANTIC list of bugs describing a bunch of game breaking bugs that are still in the game, why did you say they werent a thing anymore? i could have saved a bunch of time for just using the fan patches.

BTW have you tried out Factorio ? It's the kind of "crafting" game that's actually good because it has a final goal and some combat and a lot of cool research. Just look at some of the crazy contraptions people have made. Look up, Big Bertha and GreyGoo MK1.

Nice review. I really should give this game a try someday.

I'm very temped to try this now as I've just fallen head over heals in love with Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines.

Physically big box still sealed with all its glory shiny things inside.

Congrads for 10 plus years reviewing games. I've always enjoyed watching your reviews.

Are you talking about Qintarra when you mention the "stage with incredible music later on in the game"? Yeah, that and Stillwater are easily the best 2 tracks. 5:03 You can quickly take items by right clicking on them, i think. No need for drag and drop. Btw, in regards to voice-acting, it's one of the most limiting factors of modern day rpgs. Full voice acting usually means much less writing, less choices and less consequences.

New Obsidian game boys

Congrats on 10 years DWT. Love your stuff, keep it up!

i just found this channel

Holy shit you finally reviewed Arcanum ♥_♥

I had this game but never really played it

Have you considered doing reviews of table top games?

Someone needs to remake this game as a Diablo-style ARPG.

I've watched this channel for about 6 of 10 years. You've really come a long way, DW. Keep up the great work!