You know what would suck even more than living in a town where everyone does not only own a gun and always walks around carrying it, but is also trigger happy? Being the person who is obliged to uphold law and order in such a town. However, in a computer game where the worst thing which can happen to you is the game over screen, it can actually turn into fun.
Law of the West puts the player in the shoes of the local Sheriff. Unlike most games of this type, it's not all about shooting people, though. In a series of eleven encounters with other characters, you get the full flavour of life: arresting crooks, getting tips about planned robberies, getting romantically involved with the ladies and, if anything else fails, gunfights.
The time has come. The night of all nights has arrived, where I will dive into darkness. Evil awakens and a nightmare comes true: Dracula rules our city of New York and the lord of darkness is also the head of the local corporation for cyber-genetics, cyber-space, cyber-surgery, cyber-technology, cyber-weapons and cyber-surveillance. Appropriately, it has been a very long time since the city has seen any light; we are in an apparently endless night.
At first glance Arcanum looks like a role playing game full of great ideas: Its main attraction is its fantasy world, which is set at the time of an industrial revolution, that is about to turn it into a science fiction setting. It is a refreshingly unique place, full of whimsical magic and technical marvels, that has great potential for interesting twists to age-old cliches: How does an ageless being, like an elf, react to the rise of science, which is about to make the magic, that has kept him alive so far, obsolete? Is there a cheaper workforce than orcs, which can be exploited at will, for they are obviously evil and therefore deserve no less? Or what about safety: Should a wizard, whose magical power has an unpredictable effect on machines, be allowed to get close to steam engines or trains? There are so many new stories that could be told…