Larian Studios Forums General Chat RPG Chat Arx Fatalis

Anyone played this? It's almost a decade old and it is the spiritual successor to Ultima Underworld. It's a full first person RPG (no third person option here) and the entire storyline takes around 60 hours to complete. In the game, you must eat food otherwise you starve and you can cook food and even make food from multiple ingredients. There are also many other things you can do such as forging your own weapon which is done by using a hammer from your inventory and then using it on the sword you are forging.

It's truly a great game.

Sadly. Arcane Studios was recently brought by Bethesda. So if there is an Arx Fatalis 2, it'll be as bland as Oblivion. So to me, Arx ended when the credits came up.

I played it, but I'm not really a fan of it.

Melee combat is pretty bad, magic system is very interesting (having to draw runes on screen), but very unwieldy to use in the middle of combat... meaning one will prepare and use the same spells over and over again (especially Harm).

The setting didn't really capture me either.

I'm a huge fan of Dark Messiah of Might & Magic, though. It's a very linear game, but has the best first-person melee & magic combat I've ever seen in a game, and very good level design.

I tried the demo (based on a few positive comments in this forum years ago), but don't really like the first person perspective. It worked ok in Wizardry 8 and a couple adventure games I've played, but I dislike real time combat in first person, and (depending on the implementation) can't take looking around while moving in a different direction.

IIRC the readme file for the demo stated that it was in first person because that made it much more immersive and realistic, then a couple sentences later described how you attacked using a mouse button, and the longer you held the button down before releasing it the harder you would hit. I thought the juxtaposition was rather amusing.

I played on the Xbox so I didn't have any problems with controls.

There's a lot to love and a lot to hate in Arx. It's incredibly immersive and there's a lot you can do, but I'd honestly say the chance that anyone will finish it is pretty low. Some of the things you need are almost impossible to find without a walkthrough, and 'The Annoying Dog Level' will kill the enthusiasm of all but the most dedicated gamers.

The spell casting system is the best I've seen in any game. It really feels like you are casting spells, rather than just pressing buttons and hoping you're fast enough. The cookery system is great and the underground societies are well developed.

I've played through large chunks of it many times. But I've never finished it. It's fun until the 'Annoying Dog Level'.

Worth getting cheap if you can, though, just to mess about with.

Yeah, I keep hearing how people needed guides especially for the crypt quest where you need to get an ancient shield but Arx Fatalis is a game where anything can be done. In the crypt quest - I didn't even find the runes (and complete the puzzle) to open the gate at the end, I just jumped up onto a platform (it took some time) above where the gate was and behold - I saw a gate leading into where the shield was. I grabbed it, opened the gate from inside and escaped. I think the lich who I met while escaping from the crypt was probably attacking me because I cheated (he tells you that to get the shield, you need to solve the puzzle, I'm guessing if you solve the puzzle, you don't fight him) but he didn't stand in my way and he died.

Third playthrough and I didn't even go to the crypt - I just killed everyone in the rebel camp and stole the ring (forgot its name but it's important to the main quest line).

I didn't even need a walkthrough. I love Arx Fatalis because their are many ways to solve quests and the game doesn't hold you by the hand either.

The Annoying Dog Level? What's that?

The Hell Hound. I thought the description would be enough for those who had played it, without spoiling anyone else. Sorry.

Heh. I actually loved that level. Most of it involved thinking and not actual combat but then again - a lot of Arx is about thinking and paying attention to your surroundings. I didn't even know where The City of Arx was and how to get to it in my first playthrough - 4 hours later after exploring troll infested caves and carrying loot, I eventually found Arx through a cave near the start.

I loved everything UP to that level... It didn't involve thinking, IMO, it involved knowing exactly what you had to do beforehand. I didn't see any possible way of working out what to do on your own, as a player, with the information you have (None) and the time constraint you are under (Move or die!).

There was also the jumping problem. In a game that was NOT designed for the character to have to make jumps, there were a couple that were all but impossible.

I looked up how to do it, eventually, and promptly gave up. It was just that bad. 'Guess you need THIS corridor you've never been down (Rather than the other ones), stop to loot THAT, even though you are being chased, make this jump you've failed literally 12 times already...'

I've replayed huge chunks of it several times, since. But I hate the dog level with a vengeance and I've never gone near it again.

To each their own, I guess

Yes. I heard people had problems with the jump but I never did. The thinking stuff comes after you escape from the creature and have to throw bait under a machine to crush it.

I know how it's done. Read a walkthrough to find out where I was going wrong. And it's not really thinking because you don't have time to think. You have to do several things in quick succession and if you stop to think you'll get eaten. It's know it already or get chomped.

If you DID work out how to get the wretched beast on your own, you're one of a tiny elite and I salute you! I don't think I'd ever have gotten it.

This was a game I got about six hours into, realised I had done something in a way I didn't like, re-started and went through the whole thing again because I loved it so much... A thoroughly terrific and immersive experience.

I can't even begin to tell you how much I hate the dog level...

Wasn't there a chase by a giant worm as well?

Don't remember being chased by a worm... Can't comment on anything past the Annoying Dog Level, though...

LOL no. There was a giant worm in the game though and you had to get past him. To do so, you had to kill him and had to plan your attacks because his attacks did high damage. Though in my 4th play through, I cheated by jumping up through an opening in a wall (it took some time since the opening wasn't meant to be reached but it was possible) and attack the creature from behind so it could do nothing. I also noted that it had no visible behind - obviously because the player wasn't meant to be behind it while it was alive. The cave also had guts and blood all around it which the player would assume was the worm after the player kills it and it explodes. Though if you do the little trick I did, you'll find these guys and blood already exist.

Oooh, I remember that, now! I think I blew it up with fireballs (But then, I tended to blow everything up with fireballs in Arx! :D). It's blocking the passage you need to get down, so it had to die.