Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
Worth it · RPG · 2016
Steam Deck UnsupportedThe verdict
BUY IT.
Worth it at $5.99.
- Length
- 31.5h
- Value
- $0.19/hr
- Reviews
- 89% positive
Watch this gameOne alert when it is worth buying.
Minimum on the Steam store: 256 MB of memory, DirectX 7 Compatible 3D Card, 1.2 GB of storage. Windows only.
Imagine a place of wonder, where magick and technology coexist in an uneasy balance, and an adventurer might just as easily wield a flintlock pistol as a flaming sword. Welcome to the land of Arcanum.
What drives the score
How to read this
Grades run S to D, read from the buyer's side. ▲ marks a lift, ▼ a drag or a dock, ? an input we do not have, • a fact this genre's score does not use. How the grades work
The value story
The lowest price on record is $1.49, set in November 2018. 77 discounts in the 10 years on record. They run about 35 percent off, roughly 5 weeks apart.
Against its own genre it lands in the top 2 percent on value. It is cheaper than 63 percent of its genre, and better reviewed than 93 percent. Among the games that feel like it, Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition ($19.99, scores 81) beats it on value, while it beats Vampire's Fall: Origins ($12.99, scores 53).
81 from critics against 89 percent from players, and the player number comes from people who own the game.
5 of the 402 Steam-purchase reviews sampled here come from buyers who refunded the game, sampled from reviews written April 2020 to August 2026. Inside the two-hour refund window, 82 percent of the 446 reviews written there were positive, against 89 percent overall, and those are 25 percent of everything written about it.
The main story runs 31.5 hours. Doing everything runs 81, 2.6 times as long.
Players
31 players online when we last checked, on Sep 30, 19:49 UTC.
Player counts from the Steam Web API.
What players say
Best 18.3 hours of my life. Incredibly immersive and the worldbuilding/writing is reminiscent of some French art gallery where you can only get in if you have like a million dollars or something. I was a mage my first playthrough and now I'm going to do a gunslinger build. I would eat this game for breakfast lunch and dinner for the rest of my sorry life.
One of the best RPGs, let alone cRPGs, ever made. Can't believe how incredibly fun a 20 year old game is. 100% recommend to anyone. The technology-magic balance system is very cool, with tons of great spells vs. the awesome schematic system (crafting different machinery, from different guns to armor to automatons - smithing, electrical, chemistry, explosives). Definitely holds up great. But MAKE SURE to also install...
A truly inventive and well written product. Its downsides are made up for in its playability and its over-all enjoyment factor. You will need the 2.0 unofficial patch to play on modern systems and monitors.
Steam reviews, mixed to match its Steam ratio and rotated daily. Opinions are theirs.
No data upstream: achievement curve (Steam global achievements).
Cite this score
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura scores 80/100 on the BANG Score (worth it) as of Oct 2, 2026. The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/500810/arcanum-of-steamworks-and-magick-obscuraReviews set the ceiling, and price against real length moves the BANG Score inside it. How it works, and where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Sep 26, price as of Oct 1.
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