One of the deepest and most involving games in the history of the industry is Morrowind. It featured so many unique aspects that drove it to the mass popularity it endures today. From a sprawling, seemingly endless world, to the enjoyable dungeon exploits of your character. It took non linear games where no developer had ever dared to go. So when you go up to someone and ask them what Arx Fatalis is, you may get a blank stare. It’s very unfortunate that the PC sleeper Arx Fatalis didn’t get the attention it deserved. When someone would go to a store, they would see Morrowind and they would see Arx Fatalis, and most of the time they would choose Morrowind, simply because of its mass media exposure on the net and PC publications around the globe. So the PC version of Arx fell into a dark hole that only the most die-hard of role playing fans would go. So now it is time for the game’s second chance, to bring this enjoyable romp through immersive dungeons and castles to another platform, one where the proper attention might be given. For all intents and purposes, Arx Fatalis for the X-Box does a good job of being an alternative to Morrowind on the X-Box, but technical issues tend to bog this game down so far, that some people may once again be drawn into the same myriad world of choices.
Arx Fatalis is a very deep role playing game that requires a lot of dedication and attention. People who are not used to the genre should definitely tune their skills elsewhere because Arx isn’t the type of game you can simply be good at. I’m not saying you have to be excellent in the genre, but it helps to be at least mildly proficient in the area, because Arx Fatalis is not going to hold your hand. The story starts off being fairly simple and it will evolve in your mind depending how you choose to play it. If you visit every person, read every pamphlet and do every quest, you will find the story to be quite intriguing. On the other hand, if you are playing Arx Fatalis simply to hack things up, you may not find the story to be very engaging. The basic plot outline is that you are being held captive by the goblins in a cell, and you have forgotten who you are. Yeah, it doesn’t sound very original but putting pieces together definitely puts things into perspective. The world of Arx Fatalis is completely underground because the surface has become a barren wasteland. You will be underground for the entire game navigating yourself through hundreds of dungeons. The game’s controls are fairly simple, but feel loose sometimes. You move around and aim with the analog sticks and perform all of your basic functions through the other buttons. You select items from your inventory by using the D-Pad and you can throw almost anything around. For the most part, the world is fairly interactive. You can pick up whatever is selectable and pretty much sell most of them. The combat is fairly simple in terms of melee weapons. You select your weapon and attack with the right shoulder button. To make your attack more severe, hold the button down to unleash more powerful attacks. You will find yourself looking for new weapons quite often as they do come with usage limits. The leveling up is pretty basic and you can customize your character to be proficient in different areas of the game. Battles are also fairly simple, you use the same attack, move away tactics that you would in most games like Morrowind. One feature I must mention though would be the ability to cook your own food. If you find and open fire, you simply place your food on it and it will be cooked. Yes, it’s not much, but it’s just another layer of interactivity that makes the game such a charm to play. The next feature is undoubtedly the most unique, and that would be the spell casting. On the PC version, you performed spells by drawing a symbol on the screen with your mouse. In the X-Box version you perform a series of button commands to ready a spell and you can save them up for when you are ready. This adds a little more strategy into the fairly basic formula. In terms of longevity, you will probably find yourself playing Arx Fatalis for a little over sixty hours. This all can change depending on how you choose to play the game out, but for the most part, that’s a pretty round figure. It’s nowhere near as long as Morrowind, but it can be every bit as satisfying if you let it. Tons of different enemy and weapon types will keep you occupied as well as the endless amount of items to collect and utilize. The story really picks up mid-game and will help give you a better sense of direction. The whole underground concept really works well to convey a sense of isolation in the game, and it helps the atmosphere especially when playing. Now only if the other parts of the game were as polished as this.
You have heard a lot of praise in the first part of this review. Arx Fatalis is a great game when you look at it from a gameplay perspective, but the other aspects of the game often times fall flat and bring the overall effect of the game down to the pits. The graphics are very much intact with only slight noticeable drops in texture detail. The framerate however, isn’t so faithful to the PC version. The framerate is usually at a solid ten but can drop down to some pretty choppy levels once you reach the more technically taxing areas of the game. It’s never unplayable but it does become quite annoying during later parts of the game. The character models are something I didn’t even like on the PC version. Some of them are too blocky and angular, while the enemy models are superb. One aspect of the graphics has the ability to completely change your mind, well only if it’s the kind of thing that catches your eye. The ambience within Arx is amazing. The dungeons are detailed to the bone with rocky textures and the kind of things you would find in real caves. While they are by no means realistic, the shadows, water effects and spell effects really work together to make the world of Arx Fatalis feel real. The music is fine for whatever little there is of it, most of the game you will spend listening to the awesome ambient sounds of the caves which as it did with the graphics, makes for a very immersive experience. The only area that seems to suffer is the voice acting and sound effects. The echo sound that comes from almost all of the characters is gut wrenchingly annoying that I sometimes wanted to slam the mute button, and when more than one character speaks at once, you’re in for a brain freeze. The main character sounds brave, arrogant and naïve, typical of the dungeon crawler hero types. The sound effects are plainly just ok, and some of the boss noises are interesting, but for the most part, everything sounds pretty generic. I wish these areas had been polished up before release, but I do understand the difficulties of working with ports.
To put it simply, Arx Fatalis is a victim of unreasonable expectations. Every person on the planet in some way shape or form has compared the game to Morrowind in some way, as I even have. It’s quite unfair but due to the problems that the port faces, it will all depend on if these negative factors are tolerable to you. Personally, the shoddy framerate, groggy voice acting and lanky character models are made up for in the gameplay, but if that isn’t all you want, you will have to think harder about it. Overall, Arx Fatalis is an excellent RPG at heart that any die-hard role playing fan should pick up. For the more mainstream gamers, it’s all about what you want, so I would advise a rental, at least for the beginning.
Written by Joseph Bennett. Posted year 2003.
