Released in 2001, Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura ranks as one of the finest examples of the RPG genre. It was the first product released by Troika Games, and it remains the studio's best-selling game. Twenty years later, the game still deserves a playthough.
Troika Games is well-known among RPG fans, having also developed The Temple of Elemental Evil and the lauded Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. Arcanum was its first release, and its strong writing would come to be expected of Troika's games. It features some of the most comprehensive and in-depth storytelling in all of gaming -- after all, few games have dialogue for every important NPC that is only used if their spirit is conjured after their death.
Arcanum provides the opportunity to play a vicious game, as characters are never locked out of learning the information they need. Most modern games limit what players can do when interacting with plot-critical NPCs, but not Arcanum. Here, anyone can be targeted and killed, but doing so does not lead to an unwinnable situation. Other RPGs have allowed player to kill certain NPCs, as is the case with Ultima and Lord British, but in the majority of case, the game will punish the player for indulging in such behavior by requiring them to reload a save to continue the story. In Arcanum, players can playing as a Necromancer with access to the Conjure Spirit spell, which summons a ghost one can talk to from any corpse in the game.
While most of the ghosts use the same dialogue, a fair few reveal critical information that would otherwise be lost. It is a small detail, but it truly gives players the freedom to role-play their own characters. In fact, Arcanum is one of the few games where characters who specialize in Charisma remains completely viable throughout the entire game. They will rule any social encounter of course, but their lack of combat skills is effectively covered by the fact that they can recruit more companions. In fact, it's actually possible to debate the final boss and win the game without ever having your character engage in violence, leaving all the combat to companions. That may not be the way most gamers want to play, but it's a feat that few others have replicated in the twenty years since Arcanum's release.
Unfortunately, this strong writing is hindered by an unrefined combat system. Troika would learn from this, going on to make a successful port of the Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 Edition rules for PC in The Temple of Elemental Evil -- which in turn had a weaker plot than Arcanum. Still, the weak combat is somewhat redeemed by the great variety of character builds available to players stemming from its interesting setting. Arcanum is set in a high fantasy world undergoing an industrial revolution.
Few other games have attempted a setting like this where technological progress clashes with magical conservatism. This is quite separate from most expect from the steampunk aesthetic, which tends to lean into fantastical technology rather than having it compete with magic. It gameplay terms, it allows players to mix and match skills and abilities, but each will suffer in effectiveness unless the player fully commits to either pursuing the wonders of technology or the power of magic. Within these two broad categories are a number of specializations, such as different schools of magic and different scientific pursuits. This grounds characters in the setting, establishing them on one side of this ideological conflict.
The number of character building options keeps the game fun, even though combat can be frustrating at times. Also fascinating are the games themes as, while most games sidestep to societal upheaval associated with the historical Industrial Revolution, but Arcanum embraces that topic. Some quests involve assisting labor unions or committing insurance fraud, and the conflict between magic and technology mirrors the real-world tension between maintaining tradition and making significant progress.
The game never shies away from its industrial atmosphere, with violins being a major feature of the soundtrack. It really makes players feel like they are adventuring through Victorian England in a way that few other video games ever have. Even 20 years after its release, no other game has really done what Arcanum did, making its unique among RPGs.
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