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Arx
Fatalis
Score: 5.9 / 10
Besides Morrowind, Knights of the Old
Republic and Phantasy Star Online I & II, the role-playing game hasn’t
been exactly well represented on the Xbox as compared to either the
RPG-laden PS2 or the GameCube. So RPG fans must have had their interest
piqued when the well-received PC game from 2002, Arx Fatalis, was
scheduled to appear on the Microsoft system. However, anybody expecting
a Morrowind-quality good game will be sorely disappointed by Arx Fatalis,
which will appeal only to old-school PC RPG gamers, who are willing to
trade off good graphics and controls for a long-lasting dungeon crawler
storyline like the Dungeon & Dragons titles that once were all the RPG
rage.
For the modern Xbox gamer who may indeed be searching for another RPG
such as Morrowind to bide the time until Fable, Sudeki, or True Fantasy
Online finally make
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underground fortress, Arx. But Arx isn’t a safe haven, as there are
ratmen, dragons, goblins and demons all around, as well as a
mysteriously evil presence that threatens the very existence of
humankind.
So basically, Arx Fatalis boils down to roaming through the dark and
cavernous underground world, searching for answers, and fighting all
kinds of creatures and beings, with magic and weapons right out of King
Arthur’s Court. Arx Fatalis borrows heavily from old-school RPGs, and
one that comes immediately to mind is the old Interplay title, Stonekeep,
and not only for the so-bad-mediocre-is-a-compliment graphics that are
just embarrassing for a 2003 Xbox title. These are horribly muddy
visuals due in large part to the game’s dank underground environment
that are bad throughout. Sound doesn’t fare much better, as even with
5.1 real-time support, there isn’t too much worth hearing that’s of high
quality.
There is a antiquated item storage system, too. There are plenty of
items to find, including food, weaponry, books, and other odds and ends.
Some of the items you can collect are bizarrely strange, such as
gathering ribs from defeated uber-sized subterranean rats. Worse, you
have to eat this unappetizing rat meat to restore your health. (Sounds
like a “Fear Factor” dare.) And in an annoying little twist, you can’t
just eat them either. You must find a fire source and cook them before
consumption, just like your mom always preached: "Make sure to cook your
rat ribs well before eating them!”
You must also cook fish and learn to prepare other foods with the help
of the Arx cookbook. Another food source can be from the farm animals
roaming around, including chickens and pigs, which you must kill first
before they give up their tasty meats. But as in other parts of Arx
Fatalis, killing something isn’t as easy as it would seem. Do you really
think it would take more than five hits with a sword to down a pig? Or a
rat, albeit a giant New York City sewer system sized one? It does in Arx
Fatalis.
Arx Fatalis’ combat system is uneven, giving your targets way too much
strength, which leads to a frustrating amount of deaths against Arx
Fatalis’ stronger targets. Making theses deaths even worse is a
not-so-friendly save system that with just one miscalculated battle, can
force you to begin again at a start point that you may have passed long,
long before your checkout point. On top of that, the controls are a bit
too loose and unmanageable at times, especially with Arx Fatalis’
ill-advised first-person person perspective where third-person would
have better suited its gameplay.
Besides using weapons, there is a big influence of magic in Arx Fatalis.
You need to learn spells that can be pre-cast and much like a fighting
game, hitting the right combination of buttons will provide a particular
magic spell to unleash on those who are trying to take you down.
The worst aspect of Arx Fatalis is the long stretches of exploration
that become a boring chore instead of a extraordinary adventure. You go
through level after level of dungeons and cities built throughout the
fortress, sometimes running into nary a creature save a tiny frog in a
shallow pool. Arx Fatalis can be a lonely adventuring game for periods
that really doesn’t get too exciting even when you eventually come
across another Arx denizen or two. Eventually after enough walking
around Arx for the many, many, hours of gameplay, you’ll figure out
what’s afoot, but that’s only if you make it that far, because the many,
many hours of gameplay are in direct relation to the excruciating amount
of endless roaming through the underground that is Arx and most
certainly isn’t for everybody in today’s gaming world.
You really, really have to like old-school dungeon crawler RPGs to
derive any enjoyment out of playing Arx Fatalis. Ugly graphics, poor
controls due to unwisely incorporated first-person perspective gameplay,
and long stretches of boring dungeon exploration create a mediocre game
that is at least five years too late to merit consideration. Those
Xboxers searching for an RPG should go get the Morrowind Game of the
Year Edition if they already don’t have it or replay it if they do while
waiting for the releases of Fable, Sudeki, or True Fantasy Online
(hopefully sometime this year, for all three).
- Lee Cieniawa
lcieniawa@armchairempire.com
(March 25, 2004) |
