Looking for a classic RPG....

[AlaCarcuss]

Hi

I'm currently on a quest for a great classic RPG to play. However, my early research on Arcanum has already thrown up a paradox.

Over at rpgcodex.net, Arcanum is regarded, along with Fallout's 1 & 2 and to a lesser extent PS:T, as part of a holy trinity of the 3 greatest RPG's of all time. I've also been considering the Baldur's Gate series, but they don't even make thier top 10 and are generally considered RPG-Lites.

I come here and it seems the reverse is true, BG-II gets a 9.6 and Arcanum a 7.2 (lower even than Beyond Divinity - which is one of the worst RPG's ever made).

I don't have a lot of time to play games these days, so I need to choose the games I do play carefully. My question is, how can 2 dedicated RPG sites have so very diametrically opposed views of the same game?

Is Arcanum as bad/mediocre as Jason Potar makes out in his review or is it one of the greatest of all time as suggested by the RPGCodex?

[BuckGB]

Please keep in mind that our Arcanum review was contributed by one of our visitors, and was not written by myself, Steven, or Thomas. It probably should have been, but given the amount of content we were working on at the time, it wasn't feasible.

Personally, I consider Arcanum to be an very good RPG, but to me it doesn't approach the greatness that is Planescape: Torment and Baldur's Gate II. It had a lot of issues at release, though the currently patched version definitely puts it above either of the Divinities. If you haven't played it yet, and enjoy party-based, isometric RPGs, it's well worth your time. The newly released high resolution patch just sweetens the deal.

[AlaCarcuss]

Ok, I understand and thanks for the quick reply.

I was getting a bit confused, I ended up asking pretty much the same question over at the codex and yep, with a few exceptions the consensus was that as a pure 'Role-Playing' game, with C&C, char development, story, options and re-playability - Arcanum fully patched is the greatest RPG ever made (along with FO's 1 & 2).

I was laughed at for even suggesting Baldur's Gate II, although some seem to like PS:T for it's story. I do however realise their reputation as a pretty eliteist bunch, so I guess it's horses for courses. Drog, the guy that made the hi-res and un-official patch's is one of them after all lol....

Looks like I'm just going to have to find out for myself

[AlaCarcuss]

Oh, and seeing you mentioned the content of this site you were working on, I would like to thank you for producing a fantastic site btw.

It's one of my first stops when starting a new RPG, really great stuff!

[galraen]

Weird, I'm one of the most critical people on here of BG2, if not the most, but to rate Arcanum (which I loved) above it makes me wonder about the people who would say that. Each to their own of course, but in RPG terms BG2 is definitely the better game. Not the best I've ever played by any stretch, because it does have its flaws, and some of them can be killers if you're impatient. I can only assume that the people on the other site who trash the game never managed to get beyond it's blemishes.

I'd say give both of them a try if you can, but if it's a straight choice, BG22 every time, if only because there is so much third party content available for it as opposed to virtually nothing for Arcanum apart from patches. The result being that apart from being a far bigger game in vanilla form, it has far more replayability.

[AlaCarcuss]

Yeah, it's not that they hate the Baldur's Gate series by any means. In fact a few hold it in the same high regard as you and most others do.

However, most feel that Bioware and Bethesda are largely responsible for the dumbing down of RPG's for the console age and it all started with BG. Bethesda's games, especially Oblivion and FO3, are held in particualr distain.

Where as the Troika games, especially Arcanum and VtM: Bloodlines, despite the fact they were all released with a stack of bugs, are considered the last great 'pure' CRPG's (as opposed to Console or JRPG's).

As you can probably tell, I'm still relatively new to the RPG genre, so it'll be fun to see which camp I fit into.

[GawainBS]

Just curious, but how exactly did BG dumb down RPGs?

[galraen]

He didn't say BG Gawain, he said Bioware, and quite a few people are rather scathing about KOTOR, and NWN was definitely dumbed down when compared to BG. The latter more the fault of Hasboro, but Bioware obviously are going to get blame as well, unfairly or not.

There won't be much argument on here about the dumbing down for consoles that Oblivion suffered from I suspect.

[GawainBS]

True, galraen, true. Thanks for pointing out.