Arx Fatalis

The Good
The graphics are nicely done, not extraordinary, but alright. The sound is quite good, only there is too little of it and no music at all. I especially liked some of the cutscenes, which are done with sparsely animated stills. Sometimes animation will only consist of moving across several elements of the still, or of a flickering light effect, but all in all it's very effectively done and creates more atmosphere than many state-of-the-art rendered cut-scenes in other games.

Some of the dungeon crawling is sufficiently moody as well, I recall an interesting, lofty ice cavern and the last level of the maze was quite spooky.

What else...oh yeah. You can bake bread in "Arx Fatalis". What is it that people like about baking bread in games, I wonder? A rush of primal satisfaction à la "My digital character can live off the work of his own, digital hands?" I never understood that sensation. Neither do I understand why quite a lot of people liked this game.

The Bad
First of all, this game goes out there shouting "I'm the 'Ultima Underworld' for a new generation". Since I played both "Ultima Underworld" and "Arx Fatalis" not too long ago, I can clearly say that this new generation is to be pitied. Let's quickly compare gameplay features.

In "Underworld" you have a great sense of exploration due to an enormous amount of non-linearity in its trail of events. Very often there is more than one way to get through a door, an NPC can be killed, lured away, ignored or bargained with in well written multiple-choice dialogue. The element of "life simulation" is very predominant, too, since your character gets exhausted and has to eat and sleep, furthermore, you can always have a look at the time of the day. The story involves the cliché of a kidnapped daughter, but other elements, like for instance the whole "murder of Cabirus"-affair, are original and well executed (these weird dreams!). Moreover, "Underworld" is delved into an extremely rich background (e.g. the whole colony-founding affair) and, ultimately, even carries a message, namely that for all the bickering and war going on between different races, the ultimate evil can only be defeated when all of them lay aside their differences and contribute, symbolized with the respective talismans the Avatar has to get from each race. It may not be much, but hey, for a game of the early 90's it sure is something.

What do you have in "Arx Fatalis"? Level exploration is extremely linear, there are dozens of doors one can only open when they're supposed to be opened and if, by mere chance, one gets into a new place before the story would expect one to be sent there, confusion quickly claims its toll, because linear item A is missing to perform linear task B and there's no other way to get around mentioned B. Dialogue is non-existent, the number of NPCs is little, there are no memorable or even remotely talkative NPCs at all and one simply cannot talk to them - except in generic one liners which the computer conveniently chooses to say for the player (I would have loved to at least have the option of not saying anything and keep my mouth shut). Considering the "life simulation"-element, well, there is no way of measuring time, your character has to eat, but doesn't need sleep. Did they do that to come closer to a roleplayer's life? As for the story of "Arx" - all right, so what if this game is linear, as long as it would come up with a decent story I wouldn't have minded, but truthfully, this is just a perfect example of the most boring "You are the chosen one and have to save earth against evil-evil god" mumbo jumbo. At least they put some fine twists and turns in between, like for instance "find this to get that to wield those against them to destroy said evil-evil god!" As I mentioned, there is no dialogue, so you're not even allowed to protest, neither are you allowed to solve these formidable "quests" in any other (perhaps more intelligent?) way. It's all destiny and prophecy, and this streak of thought is not only still a predominant one in many games, it's also an archaic one, based on the old and wrong assumption that each of us just has to do what we're "chosen" to do and everything will be sugar & spice. Last but not least: as for a background to its abominable tale, "Arx Fatalis" has nothing to little of it. Never does any of the numerous races really go beyond your stereotypical fantasy alphabet: trolls are stupid, goblins are stupid but think they're clever...etc., etc. The initial idea of people having to live underground because of a fading sun might have been a nice one, but "Arx Fatalis" simply fails to fill it with meaning.

However, the trail of mistakes doesn't end there. Worse than the contents of "Arx Fatalis" are its gameplay mechanics and balancing. Some quick facts: there is hardly any light anywhere, torches will last about a minute, and the appropriate spell to see in the dark colours your screen pink (quite psychedelic, that, but obviously destroys any means of "dramatic" lighting). Still worse, the game is haunted by some peculiar sort of "riddles", especially in the crypt levels. These riddles consist mostly of illogical, trial-and-error switching of large numbers of levers, clues as to what one should be doing are either rare or non-existent and - worst of all - these sequences are in no way integrated into the game. They appear to be present merely to stretch the "gaming experience", never is anything explained, leading to questions such as "Why did they put all these levers in a tomb anyway?" popping up, or "If they didn't want anyone to enter that grate, why didn't they just lock it and threw away the key? If they did only want those to enter who knew a certain combination, why can I still solve the riddle and open it, i.e. why is the combination not insolubly complex?" And - the most important question - "Why does the almighty hero-from-another-world player-character not carry a file around to get rid of mentioned grate in a more 'in-yer-face"-way?" You can carry a shovel and a sledgehammer, or wield fiery spells of mass destruction, after all...

Finishing off this rather bleak review, the "Arx Fatalis"-interface is clumsy and reacts outright strangely from time to time. Jumping is imprecise at best, fighting can be quite tricky to manage, which is not helped by the game's absolutely horrible balancing. I know that everybody who played this game has said it already, but here it goes: the battles against these tough-looking, bald-headed Ylsides are laughable. I didn't need a single healing potion for five huge levels of "Arx", I pondered selling them because I thought they might be obsolete after all...and then - I used twenty of 'em during one fight which lasted ten seconds max. Whoever came up with such a weird "twist" really has to re-enter game-school, or rather fun-school - because that simply isn't fun.

The Bottom Line
I know this has been a long review, but I felt that someone had to say something negative about this game because, although it wasn't hyped, it nevertheless acquired some "cool indie stuff"-status. Well, here's the short of it: "Arx Fatalis" is mediocre in presentation, generic and boring in content, boasts a whole lot of horribly executed, "original" gameplay features while not even being able to implement standard stuff such as jumping and fighting well. In the end, it's not a step ahead but a large leap backwards compared to a classic such as "Ultima Underworld" (which also had its faults, but more than enough virtues to redeem itself).

The Good
Arx Fatalis is an obvious homage to the Ultima Underworld series, with a similar core concept and gameplay lifted right from the pages of the Underworld manuals.

The core idea of the game it that it's an RPG with freeform character dynamics but a linear plot. It succeeds in as far as making building your character an entertaining process and simulating freedom of gameplay.

What keeps the game so fresh is that despite being locked to the game's straightforward plot at all times, there are plenty of unique things to do along the way. All sorts of items can be combined to make more useful ones, and the world can be interacted with in unique ways. For example, fish can be cooked over a fire, bread can be baked and potions can be distilled.

Arx has an innovative magic system in which you collect runes and draw their shapes in the air to form combinations which cast spells. It's clumsy on a technical level, but there's an inherent coolness in drawing runes in the air that makes up for that.

Apart from these innovations, the game is pretty standard RPG fare: Talk to someone, get a quest, kill a creature, get better items, level up, increase your statistics, rinse & repeat. There's nothing to complain about as Arx succeeds in keeping this formula quite entertaining for the duration of its game.

Also of note are the game's sound, which is above average, and its visuals, which, while not particularly striking in terms of special effects, evoke the atmosphere of dank, oppressive underground catacombs quite well. (Whether this is a good thing or not is clearly a matter of opinion.)

The Bad
Unfortunately, Arx trips over its own feet on the way to RPG greatness. It's horrifically unbalanced. Any poor sod trying to play as an archer will soon find that all their points spent in ranged weapon skill are completely useless, as ranged weapons are barely useful against the very weakest of the game's sorted enemies. Similarly, some spells are useless while others are the miracle cure as soon as they're acquired.

Another major failing is the plot. For an entirely plot-driven game, Arx really doesn't have a lot of it. It clearly attempts to be a fantasy epic, but there's nothing here that one wouldn't expect to find in a paperback Forgotten Realms 'novel': Strange prophecy, ancient evil, foretold savior, Ring/Sword/Teddy Bear of World-Saving, et cetera.

Arx's voice acting is subpar, but since it's a translated game that is to be expected.

Finally, one of the biggest problems with Arx is that it's incredibly short. A veteran RPG player will probably be able to churn through it in under fifteen hours, possibly less. The only RPG I've ever played shorter than Arx is Fable.

The Bottom Line
I've learned to judge game's plots by much lower standards than books or movies, so I was able to forgive Arx's lack of originality and enjoy the unique, innovative RPG game dynamics and the rich environment. For RPG players who can forgive a terribly unbalanced game, I recommend Arx; it really is quite fun... for the short time it lasts.

The Good
This game reminds me of one of the games that made me switch from C64 to the trusty PC (386 at the time): Ultima Underworld. It's a heavy RPG that plays out entirely underground and is filled with treasures, problems and difficult quests. It has a complicated real time magic system where you have to draw runes in the air using your mouse pointer! It sounds kinky but it's actually working really well. There's lots of original equipment, boss fights and well written dialogue in there too, plus a great deal of character development. And food. And more!

The Bad
I didn't like the weapon deterioration, the fact that you have to eat continously and since I am bad at drawing things, the magic system got on my nerves. Other than that, this is a high quality game.

The Bottom Line
If you liked the Ultima Underworld-series, then you're almost bound to love this. It's a great homeage to those old classics, yet it contains a lot of original ideas and implementations, enough to make it stand on its own proud feet. A hard core 3D RPG with a real time fighitng system and a real time magic system that isn't the best game to choose if you're claustrophobic.