Steampunk CRPG New Arc Line turned me into a murderous, drug-addled inventor with a giant assistant, and despite its rough edges it won me over

GamesRPGSteampunk CRPG New Arc Line turned me into a murderous, drug-addled inventor with a giant assistant, and despite its rough edges it won me overWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: Fulqrum Publishing)

New Arc Line early access

As a CRPG fan of a certain vintage, I have a lot of fondness for Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines developer Troika’s fantasy steampunk RPG. But it’s now over two decades old, and still incredibly rough around the edges (and, frankly, everywhere else), so it’s not the most playable RPG romp in 2024. Which is why I found myself eager to playNew Arc Line, another fantasy steampunk CRPG, which recently launched in early access.

(Image credit: Fulqrum Publishing)

New Arc Line early access

The city of New Arc is the heart of all this progress, but finding the promise of this land of prosperity a wee bit suspect you—human or elf, engineer or voodoo practitioner, at least in this early access build—take a trip to the New World to see what’s going on across the ocean. And that’s where New Arc Line begins. With you searching for your lost luggage.

Well, sorta. It actually begins a few months later, in medias res, after a disaster that you seem to be at the centre of causes some apocalypse-level devastation, leaving you injured and wearing a hospital gown. But you don’t get to learn much about that before you’re kicked back to the docks, as you arrive in this fantastical mechanical city.

Two things are immediately apparent: New Arc Line is very much a classic, tabletop-inspired CRPG, full of dice rolls and skill checks, along with turn-based brawls. It also constantly lurches all over the place when it comes to the quality of its writing—so much so that it’s hard to get a firm grip on.

Awkward bants

(Image credit: Fulqrum Publishing)

New Arc Line early access

As I got to know the residents of New Arc, the dialogue fluctuated wildly between crude banalities and flowery prose.

There’s just a jarringly inconsistent tone. Sometimes New Arc Line attempts to capture the patter of the era that inspired the setting, broadly the 19th and early 20th centuries, but it frequently veers into anachronistic modern slang, and even instructive text can come off as weirdly casual and conversational, like when the game refers to an NPC as “a guy”.

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

New Arc Line doesn’t put its best foot forward when it comes to the initial set of goals, or the first companion it throws at you: the abrasive brawler, and one of the city’s giants, Mick. Right off the bat, I’m told to pay off his debt to a bookie, because it’s apparently my fault he got knocked out in a competitive brawl. For the record, I had nothing to do with it. I showed up, he waved to me, he got knocked out. It’s not my fault that this musclebound giant has a glass jaw. But you just need to go with it.

(Image credit: Fulqrum Publishing)

New Arc Line early access

This was among the first of many tasks I was set—scraping together some cash. Only then would I be able to continue on my epic quests to… erm, find my luggage? New Arc Line really likes sending you on fetch quests, constantly trying to get you to find people and things. To get into the city proper, for instance, I had to pose as a theatre director’s assistant, and my first job was, naturally, to round up his drunken thespians, scattered throughout the area. There’s a lot of busywork.

But there’s something to be said for the playful silliness of it all, eschewing the sometimes staid trappings of the fantasy genre. When I encountered a depressed alcoholic later on, he was under the sway of a literal green fairy (a nod to absinthe’s nickname), who I then had to bargain with (or beat up) to rescue the unfortunate lush. Bullets, it turns out, are a great hangover cure.

Big picture

(Image credit: Fulqrum Publishing)

New Arc Line early access

While the moment-to-moment writing isn’t impressive, the narrative has got its hooks in me. The relationship between magic and technology that sits at the centre of New Arc Line spits out some genuinely compelling scenarios, and there’s also an interesting interplay between the narrative and mechanics, allowing you to decide what happens when these two competing philosophies clash.

When I found the thespians, for instance, there wasn’t any time for them to learn the edited script. One of the city’s politicians had mangled it with his red pen to better reflect his vision for the city, promoting the views of the technologists and celebrating his accomplishments. To make sure the play went off without a hitch, I was told to provide the actors with prompts, allowing me to determine the outcome of the play.

(Image credit: Fulqrum Publishing)

New Arc Line early access

This rivalry continues to be the focus throughout the early access build, as you start to meddle in the city’s politics and keep finding ways to pursue one of the two agendas. Even the way you interact with the environment, like repairing mechanical gizmos, moves the dial. But the tumult engulfing the city goes beyond the simple magic vs technology conflict, especially once you get to dig into how New Arc Line’s ideologies affect regular people.

As a CRPG sicko the systems that prop it up are exactly my kind of shit.

Just like the real Industrial Revolution, there are concerns about automation taking away jobs, and how all this progress can heighten the struggle of the already impoverished. With all of 2024’s concerns over the impact of AI, the issues facing the citizens of New Arc don’t feel a million miles away from reality. Ironically, the game does leverage AI’s generative abilities, both when it comes to some of the art and localisation—though in the case of the latter, at least, this is just an early access concession, and developer Dreamate aims to provide “professional localisation” for Ukrainian, Spanish, German, French, Simplified Chinese and Russian at launch.

The big picture stuff is very much up my street, and even though New Arc Line is inconsistent in its quality, as a CRPG sicko the systems that prop it up are exactly my kind of shit. Like Baldur’s Gate 3, the dice rolls are never far away, with skill checks popping off all the time, whether you’re just walking down the street or chatting up some of the locals. Observation will help you spot NPCs you need to talk to, for instance, while insight will let you determine if someone is being less than honest with you.

High roller

(Image credit: Fulqrum Publishing)

New Arc Line early access

Though hardly novel for a CRPG, there’s still a thrill when you pass an observation check and get a big description of an NPC, providing you with extra information that will help you to make informed dialogue choices. You get to feel like you’ve peeled back the curtain a bit: not a gormless tourist anymore, but a savvy detective, ferreting out clues and motives. Passing skill checks also nets you more tangible rewards, like getting your mitts on previously out of reach loot.

And as you build out your party, their skills are at your disposal, shoring up any weaknesses. Not a chatty type? No worries: your giant pal Mick will happily intimidate any NPCs who are less than free with their information.New Arc Line does front load the adventure with engineer companions, though, so if you’re looking for variety, you might want to go down the magic route yourself. That said, your buddies still have their specialities within that broad class, and you can then develop them as you see fit, finding them their own niches.

(Image credit: Fulqrum Publishing)

New Arc Line early access

At first, I favoured diplomacy over violence—and I appreciate the fact that this is so often an option—but once I got my hands on some dual-wielding pistols which let me pull off trickshots and counter-attacks, I became positively aggressive, looking for any excuse to kick off. Even though it has a loose, slightly janky quality, once the combat options start racking up, murder begins to hold a great deal of appeal.

A few hours in, things had started to click, with the flaws buried underneath a bevy of systems and the constant drip of choice and consequence.

New Arc de Triomphe

(Image credit: Fulqrum Publishing)

New Arc Line early access

It’s a striking setting that manages to tease out lots of oddities, even though both fantasy and steampunk are well trodden settings, and it’s a city built for sauntering: every street and corner tries to catch your eye with shops, quest-givers, peculiar contraptions and, of course, containers full of loot. It’s a lively, bustling place, and one of the most fetching isometric RPGs I’ve played—at least when it comes to the environment. Character models are less impressive, and it seems to be impossible to equip anyone with gear that doesn’t clip.

While I enjoyed my trips across the city, what I absolutely did not enjoy was the terrible optimisation. Even with my beefy rig (RTX 4090, Intel i9-13900k, 32GB RAM), I frequently had to contend with frame rates as low as 20. With that in mind, I suspect everyone is going to be dealing with significant bouts of poor performance. Oh, well! My tolerance for that sort of thing is pretty high when it comes to early access games—but it’s worth noting for those of you who want a smooth ride right out the gate.

Dreamate is aiming for New Arc Line to leave early access late next year, and it’s rather reassuring to see that the team isn’t attempting to create another 100 hour epic. What’s available now will keep you busy for around 10 hours, and it’s apparently around a third of the game. With a shorter script to worry about, I’m hoping its writers will have time to punch it up, going a long way to alleviating some of the early access version’s shortcomings. What we’ve got now, though, is an undeniably creative game that makes great use out of its TTRPG-inspired systems.

More about rpgCD Projekt Red boss says ‘around 100’ Witcher 3 designers still work at the company, while the Witcher 4’s story director is ‘the same person since Witcher 1’Watching an all-romances speedrun of the legendarily janky Fallout: New Vegas is a delightLatestCruel is a frantic run-and-gun shooter where you boot cultists out of windows in a cursed apartment block that wants you deadSee more latest►

More about rpg

CD Projekt Red boss says ‘around 100’ Witcher 3 designers still work at the company, while the Witcher 4’s story director is ‘the same person since Witcher 1’Watching an all-romances speedrun of the legendarily janky Fallout: New Vegas is a delight

The Witcher 4 - Ciri

CD Projekt Red boss says ‘around 100’ Witcher 3 designers still work at the company, while the Witcher 4’s story director is ‘the same person since Witcher 1’

null

Watching an all-romances speedrun of the legendarily janky Fallout: New Vegas is a delight

LatestCruel is a frantic run-and-gun shooter where you boot cultists out of windows in a cursed apartment block that wants you deadSee more latest►

Latest

Cruel is a frantic run-and-gun shooter where you boot cultists out of windows in a cursed apartment block that wants you dead

Cruel

Cruel is a frantic run-and-gun shooter where you boot cultists out of windows in a cursed apartment block that wants you dead

See more latest►

Most Popular

This bizarre roguelike has a new take on the Vampire Survivors formula: letting you build your own custom weapons out of brains, eyeballs, and chimpanzee spines

18 games the PC Gamer team can’t wait to play in 2025

The Witcher 3’s now 2-year-old bonus quest is our first taste of the ‘vibe’ CD Projekt is going for in The Witcher 4

2024 was the year updates for old games beat out all the new ones for me

Train like you game with this adventure-inspired workout

‘It’s simply impossible to make a difficulty level that’s just right for all players’: How Final Fantasy 14’s lead battle designer has been playing a precarious balancing game for Dawntrail’s dungeons and raids

Please join me in getting super excited for all the cool looking survival games coming in 2025 (and beyond)

Competitive shooters are at a crucial crossroads in 2025: ‘sweaty’ teamplay vs. casual fun

Call of Duty’s $28 Squid Game skins are the perfect crossover for our capitalist dystopia, and Activision knows exactly what it’s doing

These are the 14 biggest upcoming RPGs of 2025—get ready for another amazing year for the genre

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review: An anarchic treasure trove of jokes and skits2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review—like juggling chainsaws on horseback3WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review4Ikea Utespelare desk review5Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

A bunch of the best Steam Deck accessories on a blue background.

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review: An anarchic treasure trove of jokes and skits

Thank Goodness You’re Here review

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review: An anarchic treasure trove of jokes and skits

Thank Goodness You’re Here! review: An anarchic treasure trove of jokes and skits

2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review—like juggling chainsaws on horseback

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review—like juggling chainsaws on horseback

3WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review

WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review

4Ikea Utespelare desk review

Ikea Utespelare desk review

5Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

Awkward bants#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

Big picture#

High roller#

New Arc de Triomphe#

Awkward bants

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

Big picture

High roller

New Arc de Triomphe