Techtite's PC Game Reviews!

"This is an impressive RPG, and was one single demon rat away from being a Techtite.com RPG Of The Year candidate in 2002. In this light, even a solid-thumbs-up is a shame. However, it's still a good game. Try it."

---from the review

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Sidebar :

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Worthless Trivia about Arx Fatalis that was worth a sidebar. It may interest people to note that this is the first work by "Arkane Studios," which first conceived of this game in October, 1999. At the time, this fledgling game design team consisted of a mere four people! Later, when a publisher was found, the team grew, though only to a total 10 people within Arkane Studios, with another 20 additional people responsible for its distribution. So, this opens the question: who is responsible for the singular level that is so bad, it reduces the whole value of the game? It could have been due to limited input outside of the original team of 4, though more likely, it's because of the later 30 people who, quite possibly, were too many witches spoiling the broth. Something to ponder, as Arkane begins work on its second project, which word is can only be Arx Fatalis 2.

No longer for sale? Already...? This game is being ported to the X-Box just in time for 2004; look for it. Otherwise, it doesn't seem available for the PC anymore, or at least, all records of it having ever existed for the PC have vanished! This, when as of this sidebar update, it wasn't released for the PC any later than maybe a little over a year ago. It's as if all effort to sell this game for computers has been abandoned. Weird.

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Feel free to contribute. As always, review submissions are accepted!

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It's hard to rate Arx Fatalis. For all the little details that make it a totally enjoyable, enthralling, fun experience, there is at least one, little moment of complete hair-pulling frustration, that would almost warrant a (marginal) thumbs-down, if not for all the fun you were having elsewhere. This could have been the cult hit "game of the year" very easily, yet must be rated lower than it should, thanks to a few very preventable mistakes.

A prologue tells you the woeful tale of Arx; an underworld city of humans, built at a time when their planet's sun suddenly disappeared. All life on the planet --Trolls, goblins, humans, etc.-- were forced to move underground to survive. While these races have managed to live in harmony to ensure survival, a sinister plot threatens to change all that. You are the one to stop this from happening. The problem...? You got a bad hit to the noggin, only to be thrown into a dank dungeon with amnesia. The game begins with your eminent escape.

Here's the interesting part; the whole game is played "underground," --in the darkness of various dungeons and crypts-- with only a few flickering torches to light your way. It is also played in first-person perspective, making all the action in these dark caverns up-close and personal. This leads to a game that "pulls you in" far better than most modern, third-person RPGs. As fun as any number of Diablo clones were, I treated those games' so-called "scares" with moderate apathy, since the third-person action was less engrossing. In this game, you're going through crypts with a flickering torch, while a moaning undead creature stalks you face-to-face. Such edge-of-your-seat thrills enhance this impressive game.

There is also a career path choice. Well, sort of. Not unlike Sierra's classic adventure-RPG game Hero's Quest (aka Quest fot Glory) you can choose the life of the Thief, Mage, or Warrior. The truth is, however, that the thief can only be so sneaky; a mage can only take so much time to cast a spell (more on that next), in the thick of battle. In truth, you are a warrior with the occasional option to solve a puzzle with magic or by stealth. Whatever; it's a fun RPG any way you look at it.

You may ask if this game has anything "new" to add to the first-person RPG formulae, and it does; you get to "draw" your spells in the air, based on the ancient rune symbols that empower that spell. To me, this is a lot more amusing than simply quickly on a spell from a list. However, let's be realistic; one person's "Z" is not someone else's "Z." More specifically, my way of drawing "Z" was not the game designer's way of drawing a "Z," so it took me some time getting my spells to work at first. Be sure you use your spell book to see exactly how you're supposed to cast a spell. Personally, I would've liked it if the spell system cut me some slack, and allowed any three-line zig-zag to count as a "Z", though...whatever. I got the hang of it in time.

The problem with an elaborate spell-casting interface like this is: you have to cast spells like this even in combat! While you can commit up to three spells to "memory" to use later, each "memorized" spell can only be used once before you must "draw" the spells on screen all over again. This makes magic-only combat a fool's folly, aside from a few protection spells. Given how much ease your mage opponents have at casting spells, this isn't very fair, is it? Mind you, this could've been easily corrected in a patch...yet sadly, never was (or will be; word is the team has patched all bugs, and is now moving on to their next game already). However, this means diddly-squat to the fighter or thief classes, so let's move on to those...

Simply put, the fighter and thief classes are a lot of fun. Furthermore, such classes have less of a need for magic, so the occasional spell-in-the-air can be shrugged off as the amusing, non-life-threatening lark that it is. They can even search for spell scrolls, avoiding the need for magic expertise, entirely. Fighters can either go on various mini-quests to find items to avoid a fight, or beef up their armor and fighting skills, and go in with swords swinging. Thieves can sneak up on people and pick their pockets when their back is turned, "acquiring" items the easy way. They can even swipe the key of the bank president, and attempt to rob the bank itself.

However, whether you choose the life of thief, mage, or warrior, you'll still experience the game's best feature: realism. The world of Arx Fatalis is more interactive than I've seen attempted since the days of classic Ultima games. While you can find a fair amount of potions as well as stores to buy more, you can grind the right flowers or herbs, and distill your own potions. Find a long stick and a rope, and combine them to form a fishing rod, which you can use to fish for added food. Just be sure to drop your meat and fish products on any open fire to cook them, or else fall victim to possible poison; how's that for realism?

Now for the gripes: the biggest of which involves one of the most inane, ill-conceived, hair-pulling (and quite frankly, completely unnecessary) game levels I've ever played. Near the end of the game you must go to the abandoned dwarf mines to forge the ultimate weapon. No sooner do you enter said mines when a giant mutant devil rat (I kid you not; complete with a long tail) comes to bite you. This rat cannot be killed by conventional means, and furthermore, the simplest nick from him means instant death. Did I mention, for no reason whatsoever, that magic in the mines is impossible? Did I mention that there is a jumping puzzle to avoid this demonic rodent, over lava that also means instant death? Did I mention that this level was clearly made by an idiot who had no idea that this game allows your character to barely jump or run at all, YOU MORON?!? It is this level and this level alone which every game critic will look to with total contempt, leading to many "final grades" that are far lower than they should be. Choose your level designers wisely, people!

Such a disappointing level demands a repeat list all the pluses of this game. For one, the incessant realism, right down to fishing for and cooking your own food. Not only can you distill your own healing potions; you can even bake a pie (!), feeding you even longer than the mere apple would alone. There's also the thrills of robbing a bank for the thief, the machismo of beating up the goblins "the easy way" for the fighter, and the amusing variety of spells (40 in all!) for the mage. This is an impressive RPG, and was one single demon rat away from being a Techtite.com RPG Of The Year candidate in 2002. In this light, even a solid-thumbs-up is a shame. However, it's still a good game. Try it.

---Techtite