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Arx Fatalis has created a
buzz for over a year prior to its release. After the European
release the excitement has all but died out, which usually means bad
news for a game. This is why I was a little worried when Arx Fatalis
hit the shelves in the US three months later. The fact that the game
was the first release of an unknown developer (Arcane Studios) whose
key designers had not been credited with ever designing a game
didn't give me much hope. To make my expectations sink even lower;
Arx Fatalis’ Austrian publisher, JoWooD, is better known for various
tycoon games (such as the Industry Giant series) than role-playing
games. I am very happy to report that I my worries were unfounded:
out of the three major first-person role-playing releases this year,
Arx Fatalis alone manages to dethrone The Elder Scrolls III:
Morrowind as the best of breed.
The story
The game takes place in
Arx, a kingdom deep underground. The sun has burned out. Humans,
with the aid of other races (ranging from goblins and trolls to the
mysterious snake women) have found a new home closer to the planet's
warm core. While this undertaking unites all races, time passes and
they start to drift away once again. In their squabbles they ignore
the increased frequency of earthquakes, which may mean only one
thing: the Chaos God is about to return. You wake up in a cell, with
complete amnesia. The rest, as they say, is history...
Game mechanics
Arx Fatalis is a
first-person role-playing game. In the beginning, you create a
character and assign him the relative strengths in different areas.
There are four primary statistics: strength, intelligence, dexterity
and constitution. All these stats affect one or more of the
secondary skills in a certain way. These skills include close and
ranged combat, casting, sneaking and more; altogether nine skills.
You will be able to improve both primary and secondary skills in the
beginning, and to a lesser degree every time you gain a level. Once
you set out adventuring, the world will be viewed as if through your
eyes. You will be able to pick up and combine items, converse with
others, or fight them.
Sometimes others will
attack you straight away, sometimes they will be friendly to you. In
addition to fighting you will be able to sneak around and cast
spells. The game features a rarely used spell-casting system, in
which you have to draw spell symbols with your hand. Whenever you
finish a quest or kill somebody you will gain experience points, and
once you reach a certain threshold you will be able to improve your
skills.
Gameplay - overview
All of action takes place
in an eight-level dungeon. This dungeon includes several cities,
temples, caverns and a multitude of enemies. While the story is
relatively linear, the dungeon isn't. Each level has multiple
sections, many of which are accessible only from other levels.
Despite this enormous labyrinth; Arx Fatalis is one of the most
linear role-playing games ever. This is not a disadvantage, though.
In fact, there's nothing better that could have happened to this
game than being very linear. Let's face it: some games give the
player a lot of freedom, but also add a certain level of boredom.
Within a few days of playing, the gamer starts loosing interest. His
character is strong enough to take on most of the opponents, there's
very little left to do save for a few quests that are more tedious
than challenging, and often there are not enough clues left to tell
the character how to proceed. In better games (such as Wizardry 8 or
Morrowind) the gamer will run into tougher random monsters which
serve to keep the challenge up, but which still get progressively
easier over time. In a more linear game (if executed properly) the
player will know what to do, will enjoy a more coherent storyline
and will always face tough enough opponents to keep his interest
going.
This is exactly what
happens in Arx Fatalis, which is more tightly controlled by the
developer than any other role-playing game I’ve ever played. The
control borders with that of an adventure game, but is so superbly
executed that you will barely notice it. Only in hindsight will you
realize how linear the game was, how few side quests there were and
how little you could actually explore before having to unlock
another part of the dungeon by finishing certain quests. Over the
course of the game, you will meet progressively stronger opponents,
but always maintain a thin edge, which will allow you to defeat them
if you try hard enough. This control extends far beyond the gaming
environment, including your character as well. While you will be in
charge of forming your character, you will be limited with only
eight to ten (the extreme case, achieved only by few) advancement
levels. With a relatively limited number of skills and a very
limited number of advancements, there is only so much you can do to
improve your character, and the developers have covered all
alternatives. The resulting effect is that no matter how you build
up your character - whether you create a strong warrior, mage or
thief - you will always be able to advance throughout the game, but
never get bored because of a lack of challenge.
The last aspect in this
tightly controlled environment is the meticulous attention to
detail. Each of your actions will change the game world somehow, and
those effects are almost always visible. In one scene, for example,
you will come across a ransacked fort with pieces of dead bodies
everywhere, one defender even impaled on a pole. Once you get new
soldiers to the fort and revisit it, you will see that all the body
parts have disappeared and the fort has been tidied up. Even the
small vegetable garden has been tended and now offers more food.
However, that is not all. Very soon, you will notice that there is a
lot of talking going on in the game. People talk among each other,
so do goblins and other creatures. Sometimes it is simply fun to
stand still and listen. You will be able to catch the latest rumors,
judge the attitude of other races towards humans, and more. The
attention to detail is almost uncanny and greatly increases the
authenticity of the game. However, this tight control has one weak
point. As it is often the case in adventure games, there are many
spots that allow you to do something stupid. This may increase the
authenticity of the game, but it also frustrates the player.
Sometimes, you will be
presented with several avenues of action; however, choosing the
wrong one may make the game too hard to be enjoyable. For example,
in one part, you will need the goblin king to allow you to do
something in his domain. The proper avenue of action would be to get
him to the bathroom where you can talk to him undisturbed. It is
also possible to poison the king, and by doing so the relatively
straightforward adventure sequence turns into an all-out slaughter
of a whole goblin town.
Interface
There's no such thing as
a perfect game, Arx Fatalis is no exception. As it is often the case
in other games, the interface is the weakest point. While the game
adopts a keyboard layout that is standard with first-person games,
this is not a shooter, and things like magic and inventory
management play a major role here. The magic system was implemented
rather well, but the inventory control really hurts the game. At the
beginning, you will have relatively little space in your inventory.
Considering the fact that the distances in Arx Fatalis are rather
small, returning for items that didn't fit into your inventory is
not a real problem, especially because before you get too deep into
the game your inventory expands.
However, the handling of
your items is a different story. Normally, you will be in an
exploration mode, where the mouse cursor is locked in the middle of
the screen and moving it will turn the head of your character. You
will move back and forth and sideways using the keyboard. Once you
switch to the inventory mode, however, the mouse cursor will become
independent and you will be able to move around only with arrow
keys. This should not be a problem; I personally prefer an
all-keyboard interface, but in this game, the movement through arrow
keys is very limited. The sensitivity is so low that turning around
tight corners is almost impossible, and fighting is not even
possible. This will force you switch back and forth all the time,
and since time moves when you are in the inventory mode; sometimes
you will be very unpleasantly surprised and promptly killed before
being able to close your inventory. Another problem is closely
related to the tight story. You will not be able to choose topics to
talk about with the people you meet. Instead, whenever you meet
somebody important, the game switches to a cut scene, where you can
only sit back and listen. This was the only time that I realized how
much I was controlled by the developers in this game.
Players will soon notice
another problem: the lack of various weapons and armor. In fact,
there is so little to choose from that those who are accustomed to
trade for better equipment often will be sorely disappointed.
Halfway through the game I have had the best equipment money could
buy, a lot of extra money, and was only able to find better
equipment while adventuring. This makes magic much more important
and somewhat limits the other character classes. The last interface
issue I've had problems with is food. In order to make the story
more realistic, the designers have included food. After a while,
your character will go hungry, and you will have to feed him. This
is solved by a very unique approach: you will be able to fish,
extract meat from killed animals or mix different products to make
something tasty. Nearly everything will require fire to cook.
While this approach is
very unique, the developers did not implement it properly. In the
unpatched release of the game, your character will consume more food
than a small nation, virtually every dozen of steps requiring
another loaf of bread or apple cake. There is enough food in the
gaming world, but feeding him will become very tedious. After the
latest (v.1.15) patch, on the other hand, your character will eat
much less, leaving a lot of food lying around. This defeats the idea
of rationing, as feeding becomes more a nuisance than a challenge.
Magic system
The magic system is
unusual enough to have its own section in this review. Considering
how successful it has been in this game, how much it helped the
overall gameplay, maybe in the future the designers will use it more
often. In Arx Fatalis, you will collect different symbols, runes,
which you will be able to combine into spells. To cast a spell, you
will have to draw the appropriate symbols with your hand in the air.
If executed properly, the spell will be cast. Many reviews have
accused the designers of copying the magic system from Black &
White. While the interface may be the same, the idea behind it has
been entirely different and has much deeper roots.
In Black & White, this
magic interface was included for the sake of novelty, whereas in Arx
Fatalis the interface greatly enhances the authentic feeling and
level of realism of the game. Casting spells now requires a certain
degree of concentration from the player, and time to complete, both
of which seem much more realistic than simply clicking on the
appropriate spell in a book or hitting a shortcut key. This spell
casting system was first implemented in 1989 in the legendary game
Dungeon Master. There, too, you had a set of runes (all meaning
something different) and combining them has allowed you to cast
spells. If you ever played the game and still remember how you
frantically clicked on different runes in order to complete the
spell while dodging attacks, this feeling is back. Arx Fatalis has
brought Dungeon Master's magic system to perfection. Casting the
spells this way has two more effects.
First, there are many
undocumented spells that you will be able to cast by combining the
runes. It only depends on the imagination of the player to explore
different possibilities, all of which the designers covered. Second,
this system of magic allows for many easter eggs. The designers
included a multitude of "secret" runes, which have some interesting
effects. My favorite one will change the graphics to those of Ultima
Underworld, the spiritual predecessor of Arx Fatalis.
Difficulty
There are two issues at
play here: One is a very unique AI scripting, which will please all
action game fans. The other is the difficulty level of puzzles,
which has gotten me (and other old school gamers) into a state of
absolute ecstasy. As soon as you fight the first enemy, you will
notice a few peculiar things. Your opponent will try to blindside
you, and when injured too much he will run away and call for help.
Often, the help materializes in the form of tougher thugs, with your
previous victim hiding behind their back. This causes more trouble
for you, but also adds a whole new level of realism, never before
seen in a role-playing game.
Puzzles are a different
story. With the rare exception of one or two puzzles, all are very
logical and most are quite hard. The puzzles range from simple lever
switches, through devious code cracking, to some rather unique ones,
such as navigating other characters to stand on pressure plates for
you. None of these puzzles is terribly original, but only very few
were ever used in the past seven to ten years, so most players will
find them rather unusual. The publisher boasts a gameplay of up to
100 hours. I am willing to believe it, mainly because of the high
difficulty level of the puzzles. However, people like me, who
enjoyed role-playing games since mid 80s, will have such an easy
time that they will shave off up to 40 hours from the projected
gameplay time.
Technical issues
Along with the interface,
technical issues hurt this game. The worst problem may be very high
hardware requirements. Consider that the game takes place
underground, offers no separate engine for cutscenes and has not the
best graphics around. The hardware requirements (which are higher
than those for Morrowind) should not be necessary. On my home
computer, a PIII - 750MHz with 256MB RAM, the game resembled a slide
show on any but the minimal graphical resolution. Trying
progressively better computers, the first one where the game looked
good (1024x768 resolution, 32-bit color) was a Pentium IV - 1.4GHz
with 512MB RAM. The likely buyers for this game will generally be
behind the upgrade curve, mainly due to the fact that this kind of
RPGs has been scarce in recent years.
Thus, many of the game's
target audience will not be able to enjoy Arx Fatalis the way they
should. Other technical problems include very long loading times
between levels, relatively frequent crashes and occasionally even
corrupted save games. Considering the game was released in Europe
three months prior to the US release, I first assumed that all bugs
were fixed. Much to my surprise, however, the US version went into
print only days before a major patch release. Currently, there are
two patches available, but without an in-game automatic update (for
those connected to the Internet) and due to the considerable size of
those patches (for those of us who aren't), fixing the game is
cumbersome. The technical problems, however, are in great part
offset by the unprecedented level of technical support you will be
receiving. Members of the development team are constantly scanning
the official Arx Fatalis message board and offer help. They go even
farther: when the player cannot solve the problem, the developers
may ask him to send them his saved game, and they fix the problem
for him. Such a deep caring for a game is very rare these days, and
I appreciate it very much.
Gameplay - 7
Overall, Arx Fatalis
features the best concept for a game that I have seen in a long
time. It successfully merges features from many classic games, most
notably Dungeon Master, Ultima Underworld and Thief, to create a
very authentic world and a truly engrossing adventure. However, the
weak interface and serious technological issues hurt this game
considerably.
Graphics - 8
As you explore the world
of Arx Fatalis in high resolution, you will be taken aback by the
environment. "Lavish" doesn't even come close to describing the
graphics. Textures are very detailed, and have more depth that I
have seen since the time of Amiga games. I often tried to catch the
game at repeating textures, but could not. Most levels have their
own theme, very well implemented, ranging from medieval towns,
crypts, tunnels and lava lakes. The graphics are so incredibly
detailed that even stone steps are slightly slanted towards the
middle, as if worn down by decades-old use.
The main problem is the
character models, especially humans. They are blocky, and far
removed from the organic curves of the walls, clearly not belonging
to the setting. It is most apparent during cut scenes, which feature
in-game graphics and simply rotate the camera around the people in
conversation. This is the only time you will see your character in a
third-person perspective and you will notice in a few close-ups that
his face closely resembles that of Kyle’s brother, Ike, in South
Park: when talking, your character's mouth splits his head into two.
This should simply not happen by the end of 2002... I have also
noticed another minor problem with the graphics: apparently, they
work in layers, and sometimes don't load fully when entering a new
level. Even on the fastest computer I tested the game on (P-IV 2GHz,
512MB RAM), atmospheric effects sometimes kicked in with a
considerable delay. For example, in the crypt level, (which is
supposed to be filled with thick, green-gray fog) the fog appeared
occasionally only after I was halfway through the level.
Sound - 10
The game has by far the
best directional sound I have ever heard in a game. For a
first-person role-playing game, it is extremely important to know
whether there is someone behind you, whether a door opened or closed
nearby or whether there is an ambush waiting behind the next corner.
You will be always aware of those things in Arx Fatalis. If you have
ever considered getting surround speakers, this is the time to do
so. Voiceovers are also extremely well done, giving a lot of
personality to all the characters.
Not only that - each race
has its own manner of speaking, and you will soon fall in love even
with goblins and their contempt for humans. Sometimes, the
voiceovers go a little too far. The goblins are a little cartoonish,
which is most apparent in a scene where you follow a trail of coins
that lead to a chest, you hear a goblin voice warning others that a
"stupid human approaches". The first time I was ambushed here I was
laughing so hard at this cheesy trap that I got killed without a
fight. There is not much music in the game, which is the way I like
it. The tunes are pushed into the background, with the exception of
the throne room that features a musician, who plays awful music.
That, too, adds to the authenticity of the game.
Replay value - 9
At $40 and 60-100 hours
of gameplay, the game is way cheaper than its fair value. While you
cannot get as many different characters as in other games (most
notably Morrowind), the game is very well balanced and will allow
you to successfully finish with all three major classes - a warrior,
a mage and a thief. Expect to play the game at least twice when you
get it, and numerous more times in the next decade or two. This game
is clearly heading to a cult status, and will remain on people's
hard drives for a long time.
However, it is very
important to note that this game will appeal to only a limited
audience. People who never or only occasionally play other
role-playing games will get frustrated and shelve the game within
hours. Even people who are good with other role-playing games, such
as Morrowind or Might and Magic IX may find this game too difficult
and unforgiving to enjoy it. If you are one of those who enjoyed
Wizardry 8 and other classic role-playing games before it, you will
find Arx Fatalis just challenging enough and not frustrating.
Overall - 8.5
Arx Fatalis is the best
old school role-playing game I have had the honor to play this
century. With its very tight storyline, great combination of
features from several older games, challenging but not frustrating
puzzles, good graphics and awesome sound: this game beats even
Wizardry 8 in its peer group. While technical problems and weak
interface take away some of the enjoyment, the game is still very
absorbing to people who’ve played role-playing games since the
1980s. However, Arx Fatalis will not appeal to the majority of other
players, who may find it overly frustrating. Even so, Arx Fatalis is
a worthy successor of Ultima Underworld, Dungeon Master and other
great classic dungeon romps.
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