Posted on: May 17, 2024
pzogel
Verified ownerGames: 444 Reviews: 63
Mediocre as an RPG
Arx Fatalis is often referred to as an "immersive sim," and for good reason: Much like in System Shock (1994), you can interact directly with your surroundings through a cursor, drag objects around, roast meat, and so on. The controls are rather simple, but some actions are more cumbersome than they'd need to be. As an RPG, on the other hand, Arx Fatalis is a very basic game. For 95% of the time, you'll be pursuing the main quest, conveyed solely through voice-acted cutscenes, and without the ability to insert player agency through dialogue options or similar. The plot is far from interesting, and story progression can be sloppy: For instance, there is a scene where a city gets invaded, and the cutscene tells me that the outpost before the city got ravaged first—the same outpost I entered the city through a minute earlier, and which was completely intact. There are maybe five side quests in total, and doing those can be safely skipped, as the maximum character level is capped at 10, and you'll be just fine at a lower level. This is due to the fact that Arx Fatalis clearly favors a specific build: Melee for fodder-type enemies such as rats, which you'll still be encountering in the penultimate dungeon, and magic to deal with the tougher foes, which are close to unbeatable otherwise. As long as one sticks to this build, combat in Arx Fatalis won't be difficult at any point. The challenge mostly comes from the puzzles, which often are obtuse, as the game typically provides no hints whatsoever, and due to the immersive sim-type of design, it's not always clear what can and cannot be done. I ended up resorting to a walkthrough, which of course is a very boring way to play, but necessary more often than not. Thankfully, the game isn't too long, but looking back, I wish I had quit instead of finishing it. If you're curious regardless, at least make sure you're using the Arx Libertatis source port, which enhances the game on just about every level.
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