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Name：Arx Fatalis
Catalog:Software
Release:30 January, 2004
Manufacturer:Encore Software
SalesRank:7661
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Arx Fatalis is one of those games that seems to start well but eventually wears on you.It's like hearing a good song and then having to hear it over and over again.First of all, I liked the idea.Your character starts out in a goblin prison underground and must find out what evil has arisen to destroy humanity (and others).At least in the beginning, it's an interesting dungeon crawl, with some decent graphics and very well-done sound effects.However, several hours into the game you'll find yourself backtracking a lot through dungeon levels, wondering aimlessly for clues, stumped by some outrageously hard puzzles, and generally frustrated with the little information the game provides about your quests.It's really a shame, because Arx Fatalis could have really been a great game.However, some poor design decisions by the developers have doomed it to be simply a decent game, if you can force your way to the end.
Gameplay: The interface takes some getting use to, however, contro!
ling your character is much like other first-person shooters.There are not many options when it comes to character creation, but there are enough to roughly make a fighter, magic-user, or thief character, or some hybrid.Combat is fairly straightforward, but the magic system never appealed to me.You literally have to find rune stones and then trace (using the mouse) a series of symbols in the air before you can use the spell.Fortunately, you can store up to 3 spells--you would never last in combat if you had to cast spells on the spot.The game has a limited variety of foes, largely spiders, rats, goblins, and trolls.Also, while you'll come across a few varieties of equipment, very little of it seems up to snuff.The armor and weapons seem to break rather quickly and are inconvenient to have repaired.
Unfortunately, this game has a few major problems that just drain the life out of it.These issues are aside from the minor annoyances of a near-useless journal, an inventory scr!
een that opens a little too often, and no way of gauging the h!
ealth of
your opponents.First, there is just too much going back and forth between places.If you were being asked to travel to new places and see new things, that would be one thing.However, much of your time is spent going between the city of Arx and one or more of the same old dungeon levels.It gets real old fairly quickly.It seems that the developers anticipated this, and your character is informed that there is an easier, quicker way of traveling between levels.However, in true Arx Fatalis style, my character never came across both of the runes that would have allowed him to teleport between levels (and no one in the game gave him a clue about where to find them).
Besides the repetitious travel, there are some puzzles in this game that make absolutely no sense.Without a good walkthrough guide, the average person will not be able to finish this game.There are not only the annoying "find the hidden button," "make a crazy jump," "guess who to talk to next" kinds of puzzles, which !
are bad enough.There are puzzles that I honestly don't know how any intelligent person could figure out without consulting a guide.One involved making a mithril sword that had several steps that involved three separate rooms, three different machine processes, and fighting several foes, with almost no hints about how to accomplish it.If you get through this one without help, it would be no more than blind luck.It is rare for me not to complete a game, but after running into one particularly outlandish puzzle (the star map one in the crypt) I finally decided that the game was more pointless head-scratching than entertainment and called it quits.
Graphics: One thing that Arx Fatalis definitely has going for it is atmosphere.Some of the caves are truly creepy, and some of the visual effects can be downright chilling.The game is played from first-person perspective, so you do occasionally feel that you are in the game.Character animations are decent, but there is not a wide ra!
nge of face models.Overall, the game has a good appearance and!
does ma
ke you feel as though you were underground in dark, foreboding dungeons.
Sound: This area is generally well done.The caves and dungeons have all sorts of strange and scary sounds.The voice acting is decent, and there was nothing wrong (or particularly right) with the music.
Bottom line, if you play Arx Fatalis, do so knowing that you are in for an atmospheric dungeon crawl with a good story, but also a heavy dose of frustration and mind-numbing repetition.Given that there are much better games out there like Morrowind, Baldur's Gate, and Gothic 2, I can't really recommend Arx Fatalis.It is really only for those gamers who don't mind spending hours lost in dungeons or stumped by puzzles, or who don't mind making progress with the generous assistance of a walkthrough guide. CustomerReview by amazon
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