Developer & Publisher: Dreamate Gates/Fulqrum Publishing
Release date: 26th November 2024 – Early Access
OS: Windows 10 or higher - 64-bit
Platform: Steam/Epic/GOG
Price: £19.99/ $19.99
“Take a stand in the eternal conflict between Arcane Magic and Steampunk Revolution and tip the uneasy balance between sorcery, elves, dwarves and mysterious monsters on one side and steampunk gadgets, zeppelins, and tesla guns on the other in this single-player, party-based, story-rich RPG.”
What Is It
New Arc Line is a single-player party-focused turn-based Steampunk CRPG that touts a rich storyline and allows the player to be good or evil, human or elf. The game draws inspiration from Baldur’s Gate 3 and other turn-based RPGs. It brought me back to playing Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, which I enjoyed very much. If you have never had a chance to play, I highly recommend it.
The Mostly Good
Story
The prologue drew me in immediately. Without giving too much away it begins at the end. The player is then transported to the past to discover what led to the future outcome. Being able to decide how I play the game is important to me, yet I feel as if it is much more linear than how it is described. While there are branching dialogues and side quests (that can be ignored), there is no noticeable effect on the direction of the story.
The story and dialogue are adequate. I would not expect the game to wow but there is a lot of intrigue there to hold my interest, at least for a little while. I have played for five hours and I have only scratched the surface. The premise has piqued my interest but I am not enthralled.
Controls
The controls for New Arc Line are very basic. The mouse controls pretty much all your actions. Alt can be used to highlight important objects and NPCs, which is a plus when you have umpteen quests you are attempting to complete.
Another positive, as far as controls, is that F5 is used to quick save. F5 is your friend. However, F6 is not. F6 is the quick load button, which means if you accidentally miss F5 when trying to quick save, you are going to lose what progress has not been saved yet. The F6 key should not be right next to quick load but instead F9 would be a good choice. It was frustrating but made me pay better attention when trying to save.
Customization
The customization options were decent. I would have liked more race choices besides elf or human. There were limited head choices, as well, but plenty of options for hair and eyes.
New Arc Line only offers two classes, Voodoo Shaman and Diesel Engineer. I chose the former because if I am offered the chance to be a Voodoo Shaman I take it. While the lack of classes might seem limiting, there are a good amount of subclasses to choose from, which helps to create a character more suited to the player. My Voodoo Shaman will not only charm you but rob you blind with her sleight of hand ability.
Not All Is Well
Voice Acting
The voice acting, which I suspect is AI, is not stellar. It is not even good. Sometimes less is more and in this case, the game could be told without spoken dialogue. It is distracting and pulls me out of the moment. I find the use of spoken AI off-putting in general and would prefer to read the dialogue rather than listen to it.
Quests
While the narrative is intriguing, the quests are not. The player is tasked with fetch quests from the beginning. Fetch quests are a part of RPGs, however, the overuse of them does nothing to enhance the story. What it does do is frustrate the player (me, I’m the player). Even the side quests should have purpose and some depth, however, one cannot expect more than that when the main quests are also fetch quests.
One of the early main quests was to retrieve my own suitcase, retrieve an NPC to follow me, talk to the boss, or who I thought was the boss, and fetch him actors for a play he was directing. This was all straightforward and easily completed. Therein lies the problem. I had no idea why any of it was important, except for having a big brawny guy as my bodyguard (not really, my mage can handle herself).
A side quest involved a missing child that had run off from his mother. The mother, instead of looking for her child, is standing still and sobbing. That is fine; I know how these things go. However, when I find the child, he is acting peculiar after some other kids he was with had run off. Instead of bringing the child with me (I guess I am good with letting the weird kid stand around by himself), I run back and tell the mother about his behavior. The quest then ends. There is no follow up on the kid or additional quests to discern why he is acting odd and who did it to him. It just ends.
All of the quests objectives I completed were rather shallow and what I thought was a promising narrative was quickly losing its appeal.
I’m Melting?
While I did not expect the visuals to be over the top, they were adequate. In the character creation, my Vivienne Luna looked amazing. However, in game, she and all the other pretend people looked as if their faces were melting. This goes for the character screen as well. I do not mind graphics that are not realistic and beautiful. Games do not need flashy visuals to wow me but the creation process led me to believe the characters would look amazing. It looked as if each of the characters were made with silly putty and left in their semi-finished state.
It’s a Bumpy Ride
For five hours of play, I experienced quite a few technical issues. From full on crashes, to freezing, to visual anomalies, and more. They were nuisances but none seemed to be game breaking, and I was always able to continue past the point of the issue from the last save.
The biggest issue I had was that quests did not always display in the journal and even the ones that were listed did not provide enough information. It helps to be able to look at the journal after taking a break from the game to see what needs to be completed. If it is not there to direct me, I am not going to remember it happened. People are busy, playing other games, and living their lives. We cannot remember what side quest needs completing that we were given five days ago.
Conclusion
New Arc Line tries to emulate the deep narrative turn-based CRPG that Baldur’s Gate 3 did so well but with a steampunk twist. I think it draws heavily from Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, which was an amazing game but sorely overlooked. Unfortunately, NAL fails to deliver. Is it awful? No, not at all but to paraphrase a quote from Obi-Wan Kenobi, “This is not the game I am looking for.”
Yay Or Nay
It all depends on what you’re looking for. Will I finish? Yes, I most likely will as I was drawn into the story from the opening segment. Would I ever replay it? No, there is not enough to bring me back. No real choices to make outside of the main quest that truly matter. The characters are middling. The spoken dialogue is atrocious. This game might fill your CRPG void for short term, though, as I mentioned, replayability is low. The game is ok but it does not have that wow factor I was hoping for. I would say a sort of Yay, if only to keep you held over until the game you are looking for comes along.
C+ - New Arc Line is a C+ for me. It strives to be more than it is and is far from reaching that summit.
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