Arx Fatalis

aka: Arx Fatalis: Return to the Underground
Moby ID: 7189
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

Arx was a once a prosperous place. However, after one night the sun of the world of Exosta never rose again, and the blistering cold forced their inhabitants into the dwarf mines. There, a new city was built, and humans, trolls, goblins, dwarves, and other races lived along peacefully, until the scarce resources proved to be too few for everyone. The animosity started to build up, and conflict between races ensued. The protagonist starts the game dazed out, being dragged into a cell by a goblin. Where is he? Why did he end up there? Who is he? With only that in mind, the adventure starts...

Inspired by the Ultima Underworld series, Arx Fatalis is a first-person role-playing game taking place in a vast underground world. All the locations and interconnected by passages, tunnels, and stairs, with eight levels altogether. Despite their dungeon-like appearance, locations also include populated settlements such as the city of Arx, where the player character can buy and store supplies, as well as other non-hostile areas. The player, however, is free to attack and possibly kill any non-player character encountered. While several main quests must be completed in a specific order to unlock a new area, the player can access and explore certain locations freely at some points in the game. There are no dialogue options, but some missions can be completed in different ways, and there are also a few side quests.

The player generates and builds up the main character by customizing his main attributes (strength, intelligence, dexterity, and constitution) as well as various skills, which include close or ranged combat proficiencies, technical skill for lockpicking and disarming traps, and others. Vanquishing enemies and completing quests yields experience points, which are converted to attribute and skill points when the protagonists levels up and can be allocated manually. Much of the combat in the game can be avoided, and the player may opt to develop a stealthy character, a spellcaster, a ranged attacker, as well as the traditional physical type.

Combat in the game is action-based. The player can press down the attack key to build up force in order to strike more efficiently. It is also possible to execute several types of melee attacks by combining them with directional arrows. One of the unique aspects of the game is the spell-casting system, where the player uses the mouse (or the directional pad in the Xbox version) to draw the runes constituting a particular spell. The most complex spells can be performed by combining runes. Spells can also be readied and cast simply by pressing a corresponding key. Casting spells depletes the protagonist's magic points.

As some places lack light sources, players can take advantage of the darkness to stealthily move in the shadows, or use torches to lighten up a room to search for some object or find their way in a path. The game's world offers interactivity by allowing the player to pick up, drag, and place most objects. Food must be collected and eaten periodically to prevent the protagonist from dying of hunger. The player can combine various items to create new ones, as well as modify their properties. For example, it is possible to cook food, bake bread, use tools such as pickaxes and shovels, and brew potions.

Spellings

  • Arx Fatalis. Последний бастион - Russian spelling
  • アークス・ファタリス - Japanese spelling
  • 地城守护者 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

193 People (150 developers, 43 thanks) · View all

Lead Designer
Game Director
Lead Programmer
Lead Artist
Level Design/Level Programming
3D-Animators
Additional 3D-Animations
3D Artist
Additional Game Design
Programmers
Sound Programmer
Etranges Libellules SARL graphic coordinator
3D Artists
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 77% (based on 75 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 92 ratings with 7 reviews)

Was it good for you too?

The Good
Arx Fatalis is an obvious homage to the Ultima Underworld series, with a similar core concept and gameplay lifted right from the pages of the Underworld manuals.

The core idea of the game it that it's an RPG with freeform character dynamics but a linear plot. It succeeds in as far as making building your character an entertaining process and simulating freedom of gameplay.

What keeps the game so fresh is that despite being locked to the game's straightforward plot at all times, there are plenty of unique things to do along the way. All sorts of items can be combined to make more useful ones, and the world can be interacted with in unique ways. For example, fish can be cooked over a fire, bread can be baked and potions can be distilled.

Arx has an innovative magic system in which you collect runes and draw their shapes in the air to form combinations which cast spells. It's clumsy on a technical level, but there's an inherent coolness in drawing runes in the air that makes up for that.

Apart from these innovations, the game is pretty standard RPG fare: Talk to someone, get a quest, kill a creature, get better items, level up, increase your statistics, rinse & repeat. There's nothing to complain about as Arx succeeds in keeping this formula quite entertaining for the duration of its game.

Also of note are the game's sound, which is above average, and its visuals, which, while not particularly striking in terms of special effects, evoke the atmosphere of dank, oppressive underground catacombs quite well. (Whether this is a good thing or not is clearly a matter of opinion.)

The Bad
Unfortunately, Arx trips over its own feet on the way to RPG greatness. It's horrifically unbalanced. Any poor sod trying to play as an archer will soon find that all their points spent in ranged weapon skill are completely useless, as ranged weapons are barely useful against the very weakest of the game's sorted enemies. Similarly, some spells are useless while others are the miracle cure as soon as they're acquired.

Another major failing is the plot. For an entirely plot-driven game, Arx really doesn't have a lot of it. It clearly attempts to be a fantasy epic, but there's nothing here that one wouldn't expect to find in a paperback Forgotten Realms 'novel': Strange prophecy, ancient evil, foretold savior, Ring/Sword/Teddy Bear of World-Saving, et cetera.

Arx's voice acting is subpar, but since it's a translated game that is to be expected.

Finally, one of the biggest problems with Arx is that it's incredibly short. A veteran RPG player will probably be able to churn through it in under fifteen hours, possibly less. The only RPG I've ever played shorter than Arx is Fable.

The Bottom Line
I've learned to judge game's plots by much lower standards than books or movies, so I was able to forgive Arx's lack of originality and enjoy the unique, innovative RPG game dynamics and the rich environment. For RPG players who can forgive a terribly unbalanced game, I recommend Arx; it really is quite fun... for the short time it lasts.

Windows · by ShadowShrike (277) · 2005

Good unbalanced rpg

The Good
First of all the graphics are really good in this game, as is the atmosphere and feeling. In the beginning of the game you come to a castle which is some of the most impressive graphics I have seen in any game. The music also is atmospheric and moody. Similar to Thief: the dark project it has some very cool locations like underground crypts and cathedrals with zombies and mummies. Some quests also reminded me alot of those of Eye of the beholder.

The Bad
It is very unbalanced. The Ylsidies especially are very though to beat without using magic, which is boring if you want to play a warrior and not rely on magic. The other big thing is that it is often quite vague what your next mission is or how to begin it. You feel that the designers have missed something. Also in some scenes the framerate falls very low on my computer which is a 2400+, albeit with a geforce fx5200 graphics card.

The Bottom Line
The flaws in this game hinders it from being a masterpiece although it is a very fun game nevertheless.

Windows · by Vashna (17) · 2005

Arx Fatalis Pays Off For Patient Gamers

The Good
Arx Fatalis is one of the more ambitious roleplaying games that I have seen for the PC. This is no doubt in part because it is a clear homage to another very ambitious, though better executed, game - Ultima Underworld. But I want to make it clear that "homage" does not by any means indicate a lack of creativity from the developers of Arx. It is very much its own game.

Much like Underworld, Arx Fatalis takes place almost entirely underground. There are glimpses of the world above available for the curious, but since the story involves an entire civilization hidden below the earth to survive the difficult conditions above, this is rare.

This dark environment is both an asset and a shortcoming. It certainly becomes atmospheric and, in some place, tense. And some of the places you end up visiting have an otherwordly beauty to them.

Arx Fatalis is an extremely free-form game. You generally have the ability to roam where you wish while following the primary storyline. The world is populated with various useful items which may be combined at times to make better items. No doubt the best of these are ingredients for alchemical use and food which may be cooked at various fires. There is something satisfying about taking ingredients and making an apple pie yourself.

Exploration can be enjoyable and yield some nice treasure. And the fact that you can definitely run into places that are deeper than you can deal with at your level is a nice touch.

Of course, the real claim to fame for Arx is its spell system. Spells in this game are made up of runic combinations. In order to cast, the player must actually draw these combinations on the screen with the mouse. In a hurried situation, this can be almost painfully difficult - a problem somewhat remedied by the ability to "store" a few spells up for later use. But overall it really adds to the enjoyment and memorability of the game. I would love to see this idea used again with a more forgiving system.

The story of Arx is very standard fantasy fare for the most part. It is serviceable, though. I enjoyed the plot as it unfolded and the ending was satisfying.

The Bad
Graphics looked a bit dated in Arx, even at the time of release. Sound was decent but did not leave a big impression on me. Thankfully, in an RPG, the gameplay takes an even higher place than usual.

The rune casting system was definitely clumsy when it was most important. Some runes I was almost never able to cast properly. This could have been fixed with a more forgiving system.

While I praised it above, the darkness of the game can also get a bit grating. If you play it for too long, you may find yourself longing for brighter colors and daylight.

Finally, the NPC's in the game were largely uninspiring.

The Bottom Line
If you have the patience to deal with the flaws, Arx Fatalis is definitely worth playing. Fans of Ultima Underworld should be especially interested.

Windows · by Steelysama (82) · 2008

[ View all 7 player reviews ]

Trivia

European and German version

In the German PC and the European Xbox version all blood effects and the possibility to cut off limbs (along with limbs used as level decoration) were removed.

Awards

  • Computer Gaming World
    • April 2003 (Issue #225) – Sleeper of the Year

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by POMAH.

Xbox added by rstevenson. Windows Apps added by Koterminus.

Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, Jeanne, Apogee IV, jaXen, Stratege, Patrick Bregger, Abhisit Chanmana.

Game added September 4, 2002. Last modified March 14, 2024.