Arx Fatalis is the first game from now-famous Arkane Studios, most known these days for their immersive sims Dishonored and Deathloop. Unlike the vast majority of their output though, Arx isn't an immersive sim. Kinda.
It's a WRPG most obviously, with all the morrowindy trappings you'd assume, but without the big large open world. Instead, you have a series of caverns set on different floors, and you're free to roam around them (in fact, you'll need to go back and forth through them fairly often. Honestly, what comes immediately to mind is System Shock, which, given what the studio would go on to do, kinda makes sense.
Honestly this game feels like a WRPG Imsim hybrid a lot of the time, and that's kind of where some awkwardness tends to come in? Like the way you interact with people and towns and all that feels very WRPG, as does the setting and plot, but the reality of gameplay is more about figuring cryptic puzzles out and sneaking or fighting your way through baddies.
It's all a bit clunky, but that's no big issue really. The spell system is the only one that pushes that a bit far (you have to draw the runes in your spells, and it can be finicky) but you can pre-cast a few spells for quick use). Otherwise it's pretty standard fare for early 2000s imsim/wrpg interface design, which is to say, a bit too complex for its own good.
The atmosphere is pretty top notch, which is helped by the fact that the whole game is set underground. It's all dark and the ambient noises and occasional soundtrack blurbs are turned way up. You feel like you'll never quite escape the cold, claustrophobic caves before they come tumbling down on your head, burying this whole civilization and all their mythology.
What ended up pushing me off the game the most is how cryptic it can be. It's a world full of secret passages and hidden notes and it feels nicely lived in and real, but also tends to turn into pixel-hunting essentially. Once you're on your 3rd or 4th round through a dungeon looking for whatever hidden path you missed, for the 3rd time in the game, it just starts to feel kinda eh. On top of that, the combat doesn't have a whole lot of feedback, turning a minorly awkward system into the feeling of punching brick walls until they fall down. None of it is a death knell, especially with atmosphere like this, but it started to feel like I was forcing myself to boot the game up just to get through it, and that's usually how I know I should drop something.
This seems like a really cool game, with loads of atmosphere and charm, but progression is just too cryptic for me right now, and I’m feeling the combat get monotonous. An interesting and charming game, but maybe not much more
It's a WRPG most obviously, with all the morrowindy trappings you'd assume, but without the big large open world. Instead, you have a series of caverns set on different floors, and you're free to roam around them (in fact, you'll need to go back and forth through them fairly often. Honestly, what comes immediately to mind is System Shock, which, given what the studio would go on to do, kinda makes sense.
Honestly this game feels like a WRPG Imsim hybrid a lot of the time, and that's kind of where some awkwardness tends to come in? Like the way you interact with people and towns and all that feels very WRPG, as does the setting and plot, but the reality of gameplay is more about figuring cryptic puzzles out and sneaking or fighting your way through baddies.
It's all a bit clunky, but that's no big issue really. The spell system is the only one that pushes that a bit far (you have to draw the runes in your spells, and it can be finicky) but you can pre-cast a few spells for quick use). Otherwise it's pretty standard fare for early 2000s imsim/wrpg interface design, which is to say, a bit too complex for its own good.
The atmosphere is pretty top notch, which is helped by the fact that the whole game is set underground. It's all dark and the ambient noises and occasional soundtrack blurbs are turned way up. You feel like you'll never quite escape the cold, claustrophobic caves before they come tumbling down on your head, burying this whole civilization and all their mythology.
What ended up pushing me off the game the most is how cryptic it can be. It's a world full of secret passages and hidden notes and it feels nicely lived in and real, but also tends to turn into pixel-hunting essentially. Once you're on your 3rd or 4th round through a dungeon looking for whatever hidden path you missed, for the 3rd time in the game, it just starts to feel kinda eh. On top of that, the combat doesn't have a whole lot of feedback, turning a minorly awkward system into the feeling of punching brick walls until they fall down. None of it is a death knell, especially with atmosphere like this, but it started to feel like I was forcing myself to boot the game up just to get through it, and that's usually how I know I should drop something.
This seems like a really cool game, with loads of atmosphere and charm, but progression is just too cryptic for me right now, and I’m feeling the combat get monotonous. An interesting and charming game, but maybe not much more
2 Comments
This is 100% an Immersive Sim. It was originally supposed to be Ultima Underworld 3, and still ended up a sequel to the original two Ultima Underworlds in everything but name. Ultima Underworld began the immersive sim school of design and, while not immersive sims, themselves, was the inspiration for the entire Elder Scrolls series, so the Morrowind comparison is backwards. There were also two Elder Scrolls games before Morrowind that were more like Underworld and, if the comparison had to be made, would be more accurate to reference. Finally, Deathloop, in contrast, is much LESS of an immersive sim than Arx Fatalis, with countless elements that are essential in those games completely absent and shooting prioritized. Your other critiques are fair as your own subjective opinions and this is a well-written review, but just wanted to clarify these points.
P.S. Great taste in favorite game.
Rothchild_III
1 year ago