Arca-done!

So, I finally finished Arcanum. Although by the last session, it was pretty much 'check walkthrough, and do that', 'cos I was ready for it to be over. Whether my interest has waned, or it just goes on too long, I can't say, but I won't be replaying it any time soon(*)

So what do I think of it? The basic story line is interesting enough, there are twists and surprises to be had. Although there were also many times when I was being told the twists and surprises that my eyes were glazing, and I was just cruising through the walls of text (again, the walkthrough helped to keep me up with what I was doing). I would say I got my worth out of the game in terms of cost vs time played (go GOG!), and there is some replay value in trying out different character paths, but I'm thinking you'll need to be really invested for that.

And I did get easily annoyed by bugs. Virgil was a problem, once I got him back, in that he kept disappearing from my group and causing my game to crash. Eventually threw him out on his ear. And some locations I couldn't access until soem arbitary thing had been done (I have no idea why I could suddenly access Tulla when I couldn't before - no reason I couldn't have gone in earlier even if I couldn't do the big plot related bits).

The ending was also a wall of text. I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with the ending, but then what would I want to see as an end sequence? Dancing cheerleaders? (Okay, maybe that.) Instead, we get 'this is what happened to y', and in one case I was told 'this place died'... because you didn't give me the quest option, damn game! Don't blame that on me! And speaking of options, according to the walkthough, if I took that guy, I should get a talking option at the end... I took the guy but didn't get a talking option! Instead I had to use violence... which was in keeping with my general approach, but the talking options are fun to do as a variant...

Would I recommend it? If you like fantasy rpg, this is a good one. If you don't... depends on your tolerance for games...

(*) Okay, one proviso on that. If I can cheat to over power myself, then maybe so I can check out some of the other options, but certainly don't plan on a straight play through any time soon.

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