Developer: Troika/Sierra

Just a couple of years ago, role-playing games were all but dead and buried. Then, thanks to a couple of truly ground-breaking games including Fallout and Baldur's Gate, the RPG genre was back with the force of a hurricane. While it still lags behind first-person shooters and real-time strategy (and regrettably all those 'Who Wants to be a Deer Hunter' mass market titles), the role-playing genre seems like it is on solid footing…but could the lack of originality put it back on the endangered list? Most of the current crop of successful RPGs fall into one of two settings, either post-apocalyptic or fantasy setting. Even in these two sub-genres the storylines usually have been somewhat limited even when they've been highly compelling to play.

But RPG fans looking for something a little different can take heart, a totally new and original game called Arcanum promises to deliver a gaming experience unlike anything we've seen thus far. This new title is being developed by Troika Games, a company started by former Fallout team members Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky, and Jason Anderson. Once again players can expect to find a world populated by Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs and other races, but this time they've advanced beyond the medieval fantasy world that has come to be associated with this assortment of races. The game's full title, Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, helps explain – at least sort of – that this is a world where technology and magic co-exist in an uneasy balance. There are still dank and dark underground corridors and small agrarian villagers, complete with inns and pubs for the hearty adventurer, but this time around there are also industrialized cities. Keeping with the fantasy theme, all is not well in the world as the industrial revolution appears to be in full swing and this has caused a rift between technology and magic, while players also can expect to visit dirty and sprawling cities that are the result of “progress” where men of all races toil away in dank factories.