New Arc Line: Early Access Review

When I was shown New Arc Line at Gamescom this year, I was blown away. It ticks all of the boxes for the kind of CRPG that I end up putting a daft amount of hours into – a fully customisable character, companions, a ridiculous amount of stats, and turn-based combat. Throw in a steampunk setting centred around the conflict between magic and technology, and I was hooked.

Expectations were tempered by a hands-on preview a month later, which took us through the first area of the game. While I could still see the promise of what the devs had shown me before, I found the starting area to be too basic, and it wouldn’t have gripped me if I hadn’t already had a peek at what comes later. I was worried that the game wouldn’t have enough going for it to make the most of its mechanics.

Now, I’ve had a chance to play beyond that, and what we have is something that is difficult to explain. The ingredients are great – the setting, the combat, the dialogue system etc – but there’s still something faintly off about how it’s all implemented, and I’m not just talking about the bugs (oh, but I’m getting to the bugs).

I still like it. A whole lot, in fact. After forcing my way through the tutorial in my first preview, the new area hosts some great side quests that centre on that main conflict. You also get two more companions, giving you a party of four by the time the Early Access comes to an end, so we’re starting to get somewhere.

Uneven, But Full Of Ambition And Promise

I’ll start with the good – the combat is great now. Once you get into the city, the fights get more varied with enemy type and location, letting you make the most of the different character builds and abilities. For the most part, I wasn’t approaching any two encounters the same, particularly once I had that full party.

However, if there’s a way to change the difficulty midgame, I couldn’t find it anywhere. There are only two options right now, but it looks like you’re stuck with whatever you choose.

The main story quests are where Early Access shines. You’re thrown into the heart of the conflict right away, with one of the tasks you’re presented with being to rig an election in one of two candidates’ favour. Both of them have their less-than-stellar attributes, so really, you’re picking the lesser of two evils. One is a technologist, and one is (not so) secretly a mage. You influence their chances by doing jobs for each side, which also influences whether the area as a whole is more technology-focused or mage-friendly.

The best quest that’s available right now is saved for last. A simple investigation into why a train has stopped running eventually spirals into uncovering the dark underbelly of how this world treats mages. It highlights how this conflict is so all-encompassing, that it not only gets in the way of something as simple as public transport operating, but quickly spirals into institutional abuse.

Towards the end of my time with New Arc Line, I had come across a few minor NPCs who used character portraits that I suspect are AI-generated. I have asked the publisher if this is the case. If true, it is incredibly unnecessary and disappointing, especially after being shown numerous examples of what I would assume is original art throughout Early Access.

New Arc Line Only Has Two Classes Right Now, But The Builds Are Varied

As you work through these quests, you level up and build the kind of party you want. And even though there are only two classes right now – Voodoo Mage and Dieselpunk Engineer – the ridiculous amount of stats you can put points into helps to flesh this out. Already, we have a lot to play around with.

The gameplay makes the most of this mage/technology divide. As I mentioned earlier, certain decisions in quests would change the level of magic in an area. If you play as a mage and cast powerful spells in an area with little magic, you gain corruption points. I was told this would eventually unlock new abilities, but at a cost. While there weren’t any consequences in the time that I had with the game, this is a feature I’d love to see more of.

Being a mage also meant I could interact with portals and unlock items that influenced my dice rolls. This suggests that the ability to increase your odds of passing a skill check in conversation comes with the risk of corrupting you even further, which is a great idea.

The Writing Is More Of A Mixed Bag

But as is the case with any great CRPG, combat isn’t everything. The conversation system is exactly what you’d want, with the unvoiced protagonist giving you a lot of options to choose from.

Then, there are all the ways you can influence the outcome of conversations. There are six different social stats you can use to get your way, and better yet, you can have companions tag in if your own skills are lacking – or you like to roleplay. For example, my character would rely on persuasion and charm. Failing that, Mick – a hulking giant – would try to intimidate them. If all else fails, you’ve probably just talked your way into a fight, but it’s moments like this that I adore in CRPGs.

However, the actual quality of the dialogue is all over the place. The biggest issue is that no conversations feel particularly deep, despite the setting calling for it. Right now, you can’t even chat to your companions on the fly, and I had very limited opportunities to get to know them, despite an approval system repeatedly popping up.

In fact, the companions are what give me the most pause right now. I liked them well enough, but their writing is quite basic, and they’re incredibly archetypal. Mick is a henchman who likes to punch stuff. Letta is a no-nonsense type who is deadset on not getting along with your character. Maghda is a teenage girl with a crush on someone, and that’s the extent of it.

That’s not to say that they can’t be fleshed out, it’s just that there’s no real way to do that in Early Access at the moment. The writers have the right idea in having the characters reflect the conflict, as they are all born from the tense environment of the new world and its politics. But when we’re not given a chance to care about them, it’s much harder to care about the conflict itself. Sadly, in their current state, they’re best described as functional. They say daft one-liners, give you a brief opinion on the state of the world, and help you out in combat.

This is far from what we got with Baldur’s Gate 3’s companions in its own Early Access, so I hope this isn’t a sign that this won’t be a focus in New Arc Line’s development – a setting like this demands a party full of weirdos who are products of the world they were raised in, and invite us to care about it.

New Arc Line Struggles With Performance Issues

Well, I said I’d get back to the bugs. There wasn’t anything that derailed my experience entirely, but my time with New Arc Line was far from stable.

The performance issues kicked in as soon as I entered the new area, and the loading times ballooned into some of the worst I’ve experienced in recent memory (admittedly I was not playing on an SSD). I could comfortably go and grab myself a drink whenever I exited a building.

Once the areas had loaded, I still wasn’t safe. At one point, I got a bug so bad that it seemingly would have softlocked me for good if I wasn’t a chronic over-saver. So, save. A lot.

Visuals are all over the place too. While gorgeous from a distance, the character models are basic, and their animations are even worse. Judging from the key art for the game, the designers have lofty ambitions, and I just hope the final game can reflect them.

And yet, despite all of this, and all of my other grievances with the game, I loved my time with New Arc Line, and can’t wait to experience more.

Ultimately, I got to run around a city as a creepy mage, performing dark magic that slowly corrupted my character. I got to pick fights with technologists and encouraged kids to practice spellcraft despite the bigotry against mages. And now that I’ve got as far as Early Access will allow me, I’m going to do the opposite as a totally different character.

Right now, New Arc Line isn’t showing the coherence I had hoped for, but it makes up for that ambition. It’s a game I’ll be sticking with throughout its Early Access, and as long as you’re prepared for the fact that this might not be a smooth ride for a while, I can recommend that others do too. I just hope that the team realises that it needs to focus on improving the writing as much as the technical issues.