Ever heard the expression “a good compromise leaves
everybody mad”? I know it’s cynical, but I have a strong suspicion that
this is precisely the result I’ll get from my review of Arx Fatalis.
Based on the buzz this game has generated, there rarely appears to be a
middle ground – people love it or they hate it. Alas, in my Game Review
101 class, the teacher drilled objectivity into my head, so I’ll stay out
of the It Sucked vs. It Rulez argument, and in doing so, please
neither camp entirely.
In fact, there is much to both like AND dislike in Arx
Fatalis, the first offering from French developer Arkane Studios. From
the opening cutscene to the final credits, my experience ran hot and cold
with the game (or more specifically, “up and down”, but more on that
later). If you’re hoping for a quick yea or nay about buying the game,
you won’t find it here, because there’s no easy way to help you decide.
Nope, you’ll have to sift through the details, balance the positives and
negatives, and determine for yourself if Arx Fatalis is for you.
If you’ve ever wondered where, exactly, “the sun don’t
shine”, Arx Fatalis is one of those places. According to legend, the sun
mysteriously died out over the lively, vibrant medieval world of Exosta.
In order to survive the deadly cold, it was necessary for the various
races to move underground and rebuild from abandoned dwarf mines. Cut off
from other societies that did the same, this game centers around the
subterranean human city of Arx and the twisting passages in outlying
areas.
Unfortunately, as if permanently living in a cave isn’t
bad enough, animosity runs high between humans, orcs, goblins, trolls, and
ratmen, and outbreaks of violence are common occurrences. To make matters
even worse, a secret cult is attempting to bring about the incarnation of
Akbaa, the god of destruction. Thankfully, just before his murder, a
royal astronomer sends a plea to the Sybarta (a kind of spiritual
peacekeeper) to deliver a guardian who will prevent that from happening.
This is where we come in, playing the role of the
guardian – dubbed Am Shaegar (“He Who Has No Name”). The catch is, the
trip from the ethereal realm is a little bumpy, and we arrive sporting
only our skivvies, with no memory of who we are or why we’re here, no
astronomer to aid us, and locked up in a goblin prison. Ahh, the life of
a hero…
As the game progresses, your character begins to regain
memories, and in pursuing the goal of stopping the cult, uncovers other
complex mysteries that tie in either directly or indirectly to the main
story. Overall, the plot is sound, but it is certainly guilty of relying
on traditional fantasy clichés. Really the only truly novel element in
Arx Fatalis is the tale of moving underground, which is fleshed out in
books scattered throughout the game. Unfortunately, nothing is ever done
with it, and it serves merely to justify locating the game beneath the
surface. I was also a little disappointed by the number of times I
encountered a tale that began “no one really knows why…” or wording to
that effect. Once or twice was understandable, but Arx overdid it, and it
felt like a narrative cop out at times. Isn’t the whole purpose of
legends to explain the unknown, whether factual or not?
As far as gameplay, Arx Fatalis is an unapologetic
dungeon crawl that plays out in a single player, first person perspective,
reminiscent of the classic Ultima Underworld and its sequel. This may be
one of the polarizing aspects of Arx – some who loved those Ultima games
and have been starved for something similar in the many long years since
their release might embrace Arx in a way that others do not. But any game
must stand on its own, and Arx isn’t always steady on its feet.
The first issue at hand is stability. Arx Fatalis
shipped with bugs. A lot of bugs. Big bugs. Show stopping bugs. You
get the idea. Fortunately, several patches have now been released, and my
copy ran fairly smoothly, so anyone playing after this point should be
relatively safe after updating with the latest patch. This news is always
a mixed blessing. It’s fairly inexcusable for a game to ship with the
number and type of problems as Arx, but full credit to the developers for
following through with the necessary support. Really the only gripe I
have with the technical aspect of the game is its load times upon
ascending and descending levels, which are both long, frequent, and
unavoidable, even with a full install.
As you begin the game, you’re offered a handful of
character models to choose from – disappointingly, all of them male.
There are no varying classes available; just 4 main traits, and an
additional 12 secondary traits, all of which will be standard choices to
RPG veterans, and clearly described for any newcomers. An auto-character
generation feature is provided, or you can distribute your stats as you
wish. Many players will want the control, although since the game proves
to favour a balanced character, it’s probably just as worthwhile to let
the computer do it. Each time you level up, you’re provided one point for
your main traits and 15 for your secondary traits to do with as you
choose. I quickly found, however, that Arx offers the fewest
opportunities to level up of any RPG I can remember, so there really isn’t
much chance to change strategies mid-game.
It is right here that Arx hits its first massive
roadblock, and has driven more than one player away in disgust. The
interface is atrociously implemented. There’s nothing overly complicated
about it; it simply doesn’t work well. Right mouse clicking alternates
the mouselook and “cursor” modes, and this simple little function leads to
a score of problems. Not only does it continually disrupt the flow of the
game and severely restrict camera control, it results in every action
being two or three steps more cumbersome than it needs to be. The worst
aspect of this is that it seems so unnecessary, and proves a colossal
waste of the right mouse button, which could have been much better
utilized in other ways. This makes the introduction to the game more than
a little frustrating, and even after getting used to it over time, it
never feels natural. Yet this is only the worst offender of numerous
non-intuitive actions.
The map feature, while absolutely VITAL in what is
essentially an 8-level series of intertwining mazes, is inadequate. Very
few key landmarks are noted, and it dominates the viewing area when called
up, so it’s virtually impossible to navigate with the map onscreen.
Inventory is a mixed bag, both literally and figuratively. There are
three separate inventory screens, which saves on clutter, but results in
scattered items that can’t be combined or grouped easily. The journal
feature is also woeful. Not only does it record the barest amount of
information, but it always opens at the beginning each time, so flipping
through the pages is required. Again, a case of a simple action requiring
far too many steps. The final culprit is that the manual does such a poor
job of explaining these artificially difficult actions, leaving players to
figure things out for themselves. This is HARDLY the way to win converts
early, and not everyone will be willing to invest the time and energy in
overcoming the hassle. I sincerely hope Arkane learns from this
experience and streamlines their interface in future offerings.
Graphics are one of the game’s stronger features,
although not spectacular. The surprising number of settings was
appreciated, and did a good job of conveying a “world” underground. More
than just a handful of differing caves, locations range from an eerie
crypt to a royal castle to large caverns with ice and waterfalls. The
scenery changes provide plenty of variety while maintaining an overall
sense of claustrophobic confinement. The unique races were wonderfully
modeled (although again entirely clichéd), and there were plenty of small
touches, such as your character always appearing in cutscenes in his
current armour. There are a fair number of clipping problems,
unfortunately, and I could clearly see the re-draw lines as distant views
came into focus, which occasionally proved distracting. My only other
minor complaint is that outside of a few key non-playable characters (NPC’s),
each race had only a couple distinct models, including the humans, so
everyone looked alike.
The sound in Arx Fatalis is far and away its best
feature, as the effects do a fantastic job of establishing an abundance of
atmosphere in each of the varied environments. Whether it’s the
echoed water drip in a darkened cave, or the haunting moans of the undead,
or the sharp, hissing voices of a mysterious race of snake women, each
ambient noise pulled me in like no other aspect of the game. In another
great move, the sound of Am Shaegar’s footfall varies depending on the
type of leg armour he’s wearing. The jingling of chain mail is distinctly
different from the clanking of heavier iron armour. Believe me, you run
so far and hear it so much, it’s a wonderful addition.
Voice work is rather mediocre, and Am Shaegar himself is
in need of a cup of coffee or twelve, but the acting is functional. The
lesser NPC’s utter little phrases to themselves that make them seem more
relevant. Whether it’s someone contemplating asking for a raise, or a
royal guard wishing he’d become a cook, these were a nice touch. I only
wish there were more of them, because after I’d heard the same ones
repeatedly, they’d lost all their initial charm.
Movement in the game is a definite handicap. I’m not
sure of the physics behind this, but it seems as if Arx is developed
around the principle that the deeper in the earth you are, the heavier the
gravity, because my character moved like he had lead weights in his boots
and rocks in his pockets. Bad enough that the motion wasn’t always fluid
and that camera angles could become disorienting at crucial times, but
getting anywhere was so SLOW! With all the to’ing and fro’ing in this
game, this isn’t a drawback to be taken lightly. As the game progresses,
you’ll gain access to teleporters to accelerate movement, but even these
are scattered far too few and far between, so much time is wasted just
trekking back and forth between familiar locations.
If the slow-mo movement affected only travel, that would
be tolerable, but what is totally unacceptable is that the problem plagues
combat, as well. Arx Fatalis is not one of the most combat-intensive
RPG’s, but there’s enough to become frustrated by the wretched real-time
fighting system. Even at its fastest speed, a single weapon thrust
takes an interminable length of time, but to achieve a stronger blow
requires holding the mouse button down until the weapon “powers up” (go
ahead – ask me why a melee weapon needs to be powered up…). So combat
consists of a ridiculous series of sword swinging, backing up to power
your weapon and moving forward to strike again. Except as I just said,
your character moves so slowly that any enemy can advance on you as you’re
retreating, so you’ll soon find yourself trying to wriggle free so that
you can start backing up in a DIFFERENT direction. Fun wow. The majority
of the smaller encounters are manageable if you’re properly equipped, but
the battles against the major enemies can be particularly grueling. As a
first person game, the movement should measure up to the quality of
current shooters, and Arx falls a fair bit short in this department.
There aren’t very many enemy types, but the few
presented are well done, and some are extremely nasty (and I mean that in
a good way, the little rotters!) AI isn’t a particularly strong suit, as
most baddies will simply lumber over and attempt to go toe to toe with you
(evidently unimpressed with your pokey technique), but they’ll
occasionally run away a short distance when wounded. A word of caution to
the squeamish, however - there is definitely some gore in this game
(decapitation, anyone?)
Whenever weapons combat fails to deliver, normally I’d
suggest turning to magic… but not this time. The method of casting magic
in Arx has been trumpeted as the latest and greatest thing in RPG’s.
Well, Arkane, you’ve done it again – you’ve taken a wonderful idea,
displayed lots of promise, and yet still managed to shoot yourself in the
foot with it (or at least cast a fireball at it).
The idea behind the magic in Arx is to collect runes
which can be combined into spells. When you acquire the necessary runes,
you then “draw” the rune combinations onscreen to cast the spell. There
are many spells available in total, and the system is designed to give the
player the sense of really being a spell caster, and it succeeds in doing
that. Unfortunately, this same accomplishment that favours and delights
some players will discourage and alienate others. First of all, it’s
necessary to trace the runes (between 2 and 4 per spell) EACH TIME you
want to cast a spell, so memorizing the correct complex sequence or
constantly looking them up is necessary. The “drawing” system is not very
forgiving, either. Although not complicated shapes, many many times I
traced runes the game wouldn’t recognize as correct. Given these factors,
casting magic in the middle of combat quickly becomes a near impossible
task (there’s no pause feature, either). The game does offer 3 “quick
cast” slots that you can prepare in advance, but 3 is not nearly enough to
be much use in tougher battles, and once you use them, they’re gone.
While I recognize and appreciate what the developers were trying to
achieve, I won’t pretend that it worked, and whenever I could help it, I
used magic only before and after battle in a support role. So the highly
touted spellcasting element was a fun (but needless) little “you are
there” diversion, but making hand to hand combat UNrealistic and
spellcasting TOO realistic is not my idea of fine game balance.
The strongest feature of Arx Fatalis is its abundance of
atmosphere, and the game has a real “adventure” quality to it, with a
focus on exploration and plenty of puzzles to offset the battles. The
gameworld offers plenty of interactivity, as a huge number of items can be
picked up, bought and sold, made into potions, or even cooked and eaten.
The latter is a requirement, as your character will periodically inform
you that he’s hungry and must be fed, so it’s important to keep a
significant supply of food on hand to satisfy his piggish appetite. The
environments aren’t overly populated by inhabitants, but there are enough
to give the sense of a dynamic world, and the presence of such animals as
mice, chickens, and little puppies is a welcome touch.
The game is not overly long, and follows a largely
linear path, with only a few optional sub-quests in the mix. If not for
its obvious drawbacks in other critical areas, I would wholeheartedly be
recommending this game as a good crossover title for adventure gamers
looking to break into the RPG genre. As it is, I can’t quite bring myself
to do so.
What Arx does well it does QUITE well. Unfortunately,
what it does poorly, it does VERY poorly. This will understandably
disappoint some gamers, which is all the more a shame because the problems
appear to be design decisions rather than flaws in the execution. So the
final question is, is it FUN?
All in all, the pluses do ultimately outweigh the
minuses, but not by nearly as much as they easily could have. Whether or
not the game will appeal to you will be a personal matter and highly
dependent on your expectations going in. I’m not as willing as some to
overlook the game’s glaring weaknesses, but I’m glad I persevered through
its failings, because there’s a reasonably good time to be had if you can
find it. Much like the city of Arx itself, it’s an impressive,
interesting world that’s regrettably hidden deep underground.
Final score: 67%
Played on:
Win XP
P4, 2 Ghz
512 MB RAM
GeForce 4
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