Little Problems with Arcanum that should be fixed in No. 2

I like Arcanum. I don't love it. It has a lot of things in it that make it an enjoyable game that's fun to play again a few times (I especially like the modding tools ). However, to me, it's only "average". In my opinion, it doesn't have that extra little bit that's required to elevate it above the masses and make it great. To that end, I've written this. These are a few things that, in my opinion, hold Arcanum back. The list of things that would've added just that little something extra to the game. Of course this is all my opinion, I'm a critic. Incidentally, what things did everyone else think brought the game down?


1) Linear plot. At every stage of the game, I'm told what to do and I'm told where to go to do it. Here's a ring, go to Shrouded Hills. That ring might belong to Gilbert Bates, go to Tarant. Talk to Gilbert, go to the mines and repeat until final "go to the Void".

2) Dumb AI. Really, really dumb AI. Enemies that run away six squares after one of their own dies, then turn around and run straight back at you. They either run away, or they stay to fight. Not both.

3) Slow downs. Cast a spell, it slows down. Walk into Tarant, it chugs.

4) No called/targeted shots. This makes turn-based combat almost pointless (in my opinion). In real-time, I click on my enemy and wait till they die. In turn-based, I click on my enemy and wait till they die shot by shot. The advantage of called shots is you can blow your enemies heads off with an aimed shot to the eyes, cripple them with a shot to the legs, make them stop attacking by crippling their arms or blind them just for fun. You could also do it nice and slowly and rather sadistically.

5) Guns using silly ammo. The Rifle Cannon, a powerful weapon, uses 5 bullets per shot. Why? Either it's a powerful weapon because of the power it blasts a shot out at, or it uses it's own special ammo. Using 5 bullets not only seems silly, but it also means the weapon is almost a useless choice as their are other weapons that fire faster, use 1 bullet per shot and cause as much damage in the long run (I actually wasted everyone in Tarant twice. Once with the Rifled Canon, the other time with a simple pistol. I actually ran out of bullets with the canon, it used up all the 1000 I had). Also in this category is the "Blade Launcher". If it fires "blades", why does it need bullets? Why doesn't it shoot knives like it seems like it's supposed to or fire a blade attached to a rope which is recalled after every shot?

6) Really bad sounds. If my Rifled Cannon is so powerful, why doesn't the shot ring out and reverberate around the area? How come all I get is the lowly sound of every other rifle (every other rifle which sounds pretty crap too by the way)? Also, why doesn't the repeater rifle sound like it's repeating? As well as that, I swear that I must have heard the same bird tweet in the background every 5 seconds on a constant non-stop tweeting spree. It gets old fast and makes me wonder about the health of the never-stopping tweety bird.

7) Waiting for schematics. The really good weapons (tranquilizer gun, flamethrower) require extraordinary amounts of luck to get the schemetics for. So much that the only way to get them is too keep sleeping until you get a shopkeeper to sell them (then, in some cases, you have to keep sleeping somewhere else so you can get all the necessary parts). Personally I'd prefer the flamethrower to be a "learned" schematic, but if not, I'd like it to be available at some point in time, through ordinary play of the game. Or at least make it show up more often then it does.

8)Useless guns/weapons. Charged Accelerator Gun, Long Range Pistol... There is a long list of weapons that fit in the category of "sounds good, but by the time I get it, it's completely useless". The weapons should all have their own advantage, disadvantage. Yes, there should be some partially "useless" guns in the game. Though if that's the case, why are they so rare that by the time you get them, you have far better weapons?

9) Death animations. Everybody loses an arm when they get critically hit. No heads cut off, no arms flopping about, no violent "bullet-riddled and collapse" or "cut into little pieces" death scenes.

10) Speed. Do you know how funny it looks when someone fires a "speed 17" pistol? It's way too fast. Plus that and the gun never has to be reloaded, even though it looks like it can only hold 6 bullets at a time. As long as you have bullets, you can fire to infinifty and beyond.

11) How in the hell did the manual ever get released without an index or contents page?

 

WHAT!?? You mean all this time.... ALL this time... I could've had called shots? God damn! How did I miss that one? Am I the only one who missed this?!? Egads!!

*runs off to grab the manual*

:nod:

:nod:

 

The answer is Buried in this forum as well...
http://www.terra-arcanum.com/phpBB/view ... lled+shots

No wonder I missed it, it's a keyboard shortcut, not an interface option like in Fallout (damn I love that game). Apparently it also provides nice little animations too. Although, I would prefer to slowly pick the option from my weapon, click on my victim and then very slowly clicking on the body part I want to aim for... (Hmm.... I do like Fallout a lot, don't I?)