New Arc Line Early Access Impression
With time to develop New Arc Line still has the potential to become a cRPG darling down the line.
Fulqrum Publishing and Dreamate’s party-based RPG New Arc Line is set in a world of science and folk magic wrapped in a 1920s Americana aesthetic. The player character is a new immigrant to the city of New Arc, the titular town, and is given a simple task: find their luggage. The player character is quickly discovered to be a courier who is smuggling some very important contraband into the city. It is not too long into the story that the player is able to meet the eccentric cast of characters that will be journeying with them for the four to six hours available in its initial Early Access release.
The narrative for its Early Access is quite simple. The player is basically directed to various points, and then told what to do in minor conversations that lack a ton of substance. The opening of the game is quite railroading, giving them an overly defined backstory and characterization by the game’s melodramatic opening, which sees both a court case and another character telling them everything they did. The game also shows its hand early, as players can respond with any choice, by the narrative continues no matter what, undercutting the player’s choice. However, with the limited content available in this Early Access version, the game doesn’t have the chance to show off any proper permutations and consequences to player actions.
The main theme of New Arc Line is magic vs. machine, reminiscent of its inspiration Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. Magic in New Arc Line is corruptive; people will deal with all types of mystical beings and illnesses to use their magic. However, technology also has a transhumanist theme; other characters use steam and diesel-powered prosthetics that slowly dehumanize them. The game doesn’t do much with these themes so far in the main story, but it is discussed, questionably and comedically in the side quests and activities.
The game opens with its character creator. Options for different types of characters are decent enough, but with the Early Access version only include humans and elves as options, there any currently no notable racial or heritage traits. The full game will let players pick between human, elf, dwarf, or giant races. Unlike Arcanum, New Arc Line uses a class-based system, with the player choosing between one of the two science fiction backgrounds (Steampunk Engineer or Diesel Engineer) or voodoo magic, with additional sub-classes to be available in the full release. Once chosen, the player is only able to equip items and abilities from that background. While this does make player character’s technically different from playthrough to playthrough, it may disappoint those hoping for something more akin to Arcanum’s classless system that allowed players to equip and use anything only stopped by their stats.
The game’s stat system is a bit bare bones, with most stats not affecting combat and instead focusing on role-playing aspects. New Arc Line uses a D100 dice system for its checks, similar to games like Pillars of Eternity I and II, and Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader. Skill checks are plentiful, though there are instances of skill checks being high for the stats players are likely to have at the time, especially in the early game. Skill checks can allow players to evade combat altogether or find new solutions to quests. Leveling lacks much punch or feeling of progression since most of the stats have no direct or indirect effect on combat.
New Arc Line plays like other turn-based cRPGs from the last few years. Players use their mouse to click around the world, engage with NPCs, and issue commands in combat to their party of up to four members. Quests are as plentiful as skill checks, ensuring players are busy. However, the objectives are oftentimes too simple. Very rarely does a quest rely on the player’s ability to deduce or reason their way to a conclusion, instead focusing mostly on combat related victories or solutions. The quests that have alternative methods of completion are interesting, which gives hope that there will be more as the game develops.
Combat in New Arc Line is turn-based, with the player picking between melee and ranged combat specific to their created character. Each system seems to have a focus on the different types of combat: steam technology is for melee combatants, diesel technology is ranged, and voodoo is technically both, but mostly just magical abilities and augments. Fights allow players to execute special abilities using their action point pool. Action points are used for both actions and movement, allowing players to take more attacks per turn or to avoid damage by moving further from enemies.
Unfortunately, the game’s combat is currently a slog. The combat lacks the tactical depth that many systems in the cRPG genre are known for, which is quite disappointing. The battlefields have little to make them interesting or keep players invested, while the music is a droning loop track that doesn’t evoke any sort of fanfare or excitement. The special abilities characters can use are simple, and don’t have any other use outside of combat or interesting correlation with other abilities in combat. There are no forms of cover or anything else that allows players to express themselves through an aggressive movement or a defensive play, nor anything like counter abilities or combos that be utilised. Everyone just pulls out their weapons and starts shooting and standing.
The game’s music is rare but the sound effects are decent. New Line Arc uses a very short looping song for the dialogue that doesn’t really set the mood of the conversations; instead it distracts from them. Most of the dialogue is unvoiced, but where it exists, the voice acting is acceptable, with no particularly standout performances. Despite the relatively low graphical requirements, New Arc Line’s initial Early Access release is a performance hog. The game utilizes the CPU heavily, requiring a high amount of computer resources to run properly. It definitely needs some optimization and becomes a pixelated mess on any graphic setting lower than max. Those looking to try out the Early Access are highly recommended to ensure they have sufficient computer specifications, while the game is currently unsupported on Steam Deck.
All of the above is worth noting with caveating with that this is early in the Early Access process. The game has some ambitious ideas that are worth exploring. While at present, it feels like Dreamate might have bit off more than it could chew with New Arc Line, with time to develop it still has the potential to become a cRPG darling down the line.
Disclosure: This article is based on a free Early Access copy of the game provided by the publisher.
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