Arx Fatalis

This game combines elements of action games with regular rpgs, with a bigger emphasis on dungeon-crawling than something like Skyrim. With that said, the story is the most generic amnesiac protagonist fantasy world story you can think of. The story utterly failed to captivate me, and for the first half of the game, most of the quests are about walking around and talking to different people so that they can dump more exposition on you. This part of the game is a slog to get through, but it gets better in the second half. The second half of the game is essentially just a bunch of dungeons. You have to complete some dungeons to beat the game, and there are one or two optional dungeons for you to complete. You can do this in whichever order you like. At this point in the story, you have pretty much regained your memory, and you no longer have to go around and talk to every important person in Arx. This really changes up the pace of the game, and it turns into a first-person dungeon crawler with a focus on combat. I shan't go into detail on that, as I'm sure there are plenty of other reviews that do. Let's just say, the action dungeon crawler is not exactly worth more than a 4-star rating on its own even that is a stretch. Overall, the game seems confused with what it wants to be, with some pretty horrendous pacing and unfinished mechanics in regards to the combat. The magic is fleshed out well, but the spells take pretty much the entire game to get used to. The environments are not particularly imaginative, and the story is bland. Overall, it will occupy your time, but it is unlikely that the game will be very memorable or impactful.

dificult gameplay and full of bugs

With the innovation Arx Fatalis brought to the RPG table, its a damn shame it has not aged well. The reason being is, all the ideas Arkane Studios formed with Arx Fatalis have been overshadowed by their latest game Dark Messiah. It hard to go back to a studio's previous work when their newest offering is the same price and 10 times better. So for me Arx Fatalis was great when it came out, but Dark Messiah Brings a dark shadow to this old dungeon crawler and smashes the support beams.

No controller support makes the game unplayable on the current group of PC handhelds (ROG Ally, GPD Win series, etc). You are stuck playing with a keyboard, and no other option. The game was released on Xbox with controller support so it is possible.

This feels and plays like a parent of Oblivion. Which is a good thing if you have played Oblivion and Morrowind and are hankering for some more. Controls are a bit awkward, but thats ok as you can shoot a bows, bake bread and solve environmental puzzles.