Developer:
Arkane Studios ESRB: M (Mature) Released: Q4 2003
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Arx
Fatalis
Score:
5.9 / 10
Pros:
-
Decent game for fans of old-school role-playing games
- Plenty of gaming adventure hours
- Appeals to old-school dungeon crawler fans
Cons:
-
If you don’t like old-school role-playing games, this is a total bore
- Graphics are extremely weak for an Xbox title
- Controls can get awfully frustrating
- Eating cooked rat ribs sounds more like a “Fear Factor” challenge
than an acceptably normal RPG element
"...long
stretches of exploration that become a boring chore instead of an
extraordinary adventure."
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 their debuts there is little
to recommend in Arx Fatalis, which although packs plenty of RPG playing
hours, has too many underachieving features and worse, is just sleep-inducingly
boring for those long stretches of playing time.
The story takes you to the suddenly sun-less Earth of a medieval-type
age of magic and monsters, forcing the human population to retreat and
live in the 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).
