You can take this blog as a message that I have finally given up on Arcanum. 20 some hours later, the problems I stated in my impressions blog have become much
Unlike Jade Empire, which was immediately disconcerting, Arcanum gave a decent first impression. The character creation system looked deep, the setting and story looked promising, and a decent pedigree existed. However, I already explained why the character development aspect is bunk (and I continue to support that statement after several more hours of play.), so allow me to explain some other things that really drained my patience. The lack of autosave is an issue, especially for someone like me, who saves sparsely because I assume that the autosave will cushion me if it comes to that and hates having to make up 2 hours of gameplay because of some fluke critical hit. Yes, maybe I do come from the pampered generation of post-1998 gamers who expect it, but Arcanum came out in 2001 and therefore there is no excuse for why it doesn't exist. Baldur's Gate 2 had a fairly reliable autosave and came out a year earlier. I'm sorry if this sounds like bitchy whining, but it is an issue that I have trouble with, and it's probably an issue that others have had trouble with.
However, there are some other issues that the game has other than the autosave (or lack thereof). As I tried to play my character as a good guy who tried to talk his way out of violence, it's disconcerting to see that a single wrong dialog choice (that, in turn, looks just as viable as all the other dialog choices) can mess up an entire quest with no "I have changed my mind" style coverup. This, combined with said lack of autosave led me to resolving quests in manners that I found unsatisfactory because I didn't want to replay the last hour of gameplay.
In turn, the story hasn't really progressed in any meaningful direction since I wrote my impressions. A dozen or so hours later, I'm still trying to find a clan of Dwarves that was banished somewhere, and there is a bad guy who claims he will return and destroy the world. And apparently I'm the chosen one. From what I have read (yes, I spoiled the plot for myself, because I at least wanted to see how it ends): The Dwarves were banished to the void to help the bad guy come back. The bad guy isn't the same guy people think he is. I'm not actually the chosen one, because the guy who I'm supposed to be a reincarnation of is still alive. At the end you either defeat the bad guy or you join him. But all of those things aren't revealed until the last 5 or so hours of the game... soooo...
Another thing I found when I was researching was that I still have a looong way to go. Considering that I beat Dragon Age in a pithy 34 hours, and Fallout 1 in 10 hours, that should mean something. Unless the gameplay suddenly becomes above mediocre, or something about the story becomes interesting, I'm done. There really aren't any truly memorable characters in Arcanum, because even the ones who are important enough to have voice acting rarely have anything to say other than "If you keep on killing innocent people I will get mad and leave". I simply don't want to use any more of my time playing a game that I don't especially like, and since it's not a job, I have the liberty to do so. There were some parts that I enjoyed, and I got my $6 out of it, so in closing, I will direct you to a video review of the game by Greg Kasavin, who's sentiments echo mine, except without the quitting part, because that guy had the balls to actually finish it. He has hair in this video too!:
But enough with the doom and gloom! Here are some other things. I am considering making T. Hawk my main in SSFIV, in a case of choosing him ironically only to discover that I am pretty good with him. He hits like a truck and takes hits like one too, although like Zangeif he has trouble with fireballs. For the record, my main in vanilla SFIV was Ryu, so I could afford to have some variety. I also made this little chart when I was bored in my graphic design class at school
Take it for what it is, but for the most part I agree with most of where I put everything in hindsight. And that is that.
Next up: Baldur's Gate, X-Com, and Star Wars Jedi Knight. Expect at least one to show up eventually.
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