Summary
New Arc Line presents a fantasy world in which magic and technology clash for supremacy. You wonder how your protagonist is involved in the events that lead to the destruction of the world. However, New Arc Line doesn’t stand out too much from other CRPGs at the moment. There’s certainly more to look forward to but right now your options are limited.
Developer – Dreamate
Publisher – Fulqrum Publishing
Platforms – PC (reviewed)
Review copy given by publisher
NOTE:
The following game is being reviewed in an Early Access State, the game may change after the release of this review, this review reflects the game at the time of publishing.
Have you ever wondered what it is like to be in a world where magic and fantasy clash? Not just metaphorically, but literally? That is what New Arc Line promises to investigate as you dive into a world ruined by conflict. At least, that’s what the prologue shows, though your character seems to forget what happened. The adventure begins with a retelling of your character’s arrival and how it shaped things to come.
Selecting your character and creating them is standard RPG fare as you pick races, classes, and starting abilities. Your starting races and classes don’t have much variety, limiting you to only two at the start such as humans and elves. There are giants and dwarves that you encounter early on, giving you hope that there’s more to come. However, the lack of variety means that you are mostly testing things out.
It might be confusing to keep track of the story at first but the quests do have their charm. There’s multiple ways of completing certain quests and it’s fun to investigate the possibilities. Your success and failure for stat-based choices is determined by a dice roll, with your success depending on your stats. It’s nice to see some variation as well as a way out even if your stats aren’t great.
The UI is standard for a CRPG and isn’t too difficult to navigate. However, it’s often unclear who you can target for activities such as pickpocketing. The tutorials have mixed levels of completion; some are informative but others could use more explanation. For example, in pickpocketing, you can uncover more exit slots. However, you can’t use those exit slots, making it pointless to unlock them. Better explanations would help especially when the game introduces more concepts.
Combat is also standard with a turn order and free movement around the battlefield. Ranged weapons have infinite ammo though they need reloading while melee weapons are limited only by range. There’s pros and cons to each playstyle but your character doesn’t get much to work with at the beginning. You can develop your preferred style overtime but you are limited to melee, ranged, or magic combat.
Magic in particular is hard to get used to in the beginning because there isn’t much support for it. While it does grow stronger, it feels like it needs more help. Otherwise it feels like you struggle too much for it to be worthwhile. Thankfully you do get companions to assist you, but they extol the value of picking melee and ranged.
It’s also difficult to keep track of quests because you must constantly refer to your journal. Having the active quests at the side helps you understand what your goal is. There can also be some bugs triggering when it comes to quests such as what is and isn’t considered complete. The game is in Early Access and some bugs are expected, but it’s something to watch out for.
New Arc Line has potential but right now it doesn’t differentiate itself from other CRPGs. It’s in Early Access and there’s room for improvement but it’s tough to recommend. If you enjoy playing CRPGs then this is worth taking a look. But whether it’s something you can sink your teeth into is too early to say at this point.
