Steampunk and magic? Where do I sign?
If you are like me and think those two themes are a fantastic idea, New Arc Line might be worth looking into. It recently launched into Early Access, and while it suffers from some jank and performance problems, there is a delightful CRPG on offer. It is worth watching for the world alone, although I recommend waiting on some performance patches first.
Releasing a story-heavy RPG in Early Access is always a gamble, but developer Dreamate has made a good call. For launch, there are two races for character creation (Human and Elf), with two classes (Voodoo Shaman and Dieselpunk Engineer). The current build contains about 10 hours of content and 25% of the planned story, a decent amount of starting content for the $20 asking price. This is a first impressions review, and I will likely write a follow-up review once I have completed the current content.
New Arc Line’s story kicks off into high gear, although I was asked by the developers not to go into any detail. Therefore, I’ll be brief! The world has gone to shit as magic anomalies tear people apart, and our player character is smack bang in the middle of it. It threw you in the deep end, and I had trouble figuring out what was happening. This also counts as an early tutorial to practice movement and the turn-based combat system, although the tutorial continues past the prologue.
With your character on trial for his actions, New Arc Line brings people into a ‘Previously on Dragon Ball’ sequence, and we are put back in time to our character arriving in the New World. We can pick up the pieces and discover some hard truths from there.
The world design and lore are stellar, which is the game’s strongest point. The world environments are gorgeous, and blending the classic struggle between technological advancement and the ancient art of magic bleeds into the setting through every pore. Dreamate has clearly worked hard to present its world, and I can tell how much love went into crafting it. As I entered the New World, the opening scene was quite breathtaking, the dock filled with merchants and craftsmen showing off the mighty technology Dieselpunk offers newcomers. Despite the grandeur, the stench of class decay is everywhere, and New Arc Line trickles in the unease that something is rotten. This is how you do environmental storytelling. There is a lot of dialogue in New Arc Line, and while only some voice acting is implemented right now, the voiced characters play their roles well. The ambient dialogue is basic and repetitive, however.
The opening mission highlights one of New Arc Line’s strengths. Your character meets with Mick, a massive giant of a man who has a fighting debt to be repaid before he can join you. This can be accomplished through several different ways: stealing the money needed, taking on fights in the arena in Mick’s place, and gambling with the several festival minigames set up at the port to ‘welcome’ the new immigrants. Because I ran about the port stealing money from fellow immigrants (and getting away with it because of my incredible charm and rugged good looks), I had more than enough money to pay the debt straight away.
Gameplay-wise, it plays like a typical CRPG. There are quests and areas to explore, and depending on your character skills, you might discover something new. There is loot everywhere, from money to random trinkets, so loot goblins will be at home here. Inventory management is messy right now, and there is no reliable way of sorting through all that loot. Combat is the classic turn-based affair, and while I only had a chance to experience a few scenarios early on, I did not find anything to comment on.
Performance is where New Arc Line currently struggles. Even on my RTX 3060 laptop with 32 GB DDR5 ram and a 6800H processor, I had problems getting 60FPS in many areas, although the rich environments and early access optimization probably contributed to that. There are also some rough edges with dialogue typos and some character animations bugging out, although I have yet to experience a crash. That’s something, but it does highlight the woes of making a complicated RPG in Early Access. Things can and will break. Fortunately, it is available on Nvidia’s Geforce Now cloud service if you have problems running it natively.
To conclude, there is great potential for the New Arc Line, but it is still in the early days. The world is breathtaking, and we need more Steampunk RPGs out there, so I am interested in how this develops!
