Buy Arx Fatalis

Arx Fatalis is a good solid RPG. If you dont mind the slightly dated graphics I highly recommend you try it out.

If you go find Arx Libertatis, its a 'mod' for the game, it'll use the game files that you download through Steam, but optimize the game for use on newer machines. Unfortunately it didnt count me as playing on Steam so my game time counter didnt go up.

Initally I was a lil skeptical of the onscreen gestural magic stuff, I've never been good at drawing symbols with a mouse but the game lets you precast three spells to hotkeys so you can instant cast later which is awesome. Melee is basic but effective: hold mouse button, gem glows, more it glows the more damage you do, release mouse to strike.

Anyways sound is decent, graphics are dated but not ugly, theres a combine/crafting system so you can make things like a fishing pole from a piece of wood and rope, and theres potion brewing. You might need a paper and pen to keep track of everything, the journal isn't very helpful.

In closing definitely worth getting, especially at $5.

PC; Win XP 32-bit; Arx Fatalis v1.21
completed; playing time: 74 hrs


Pros:
+ An interesting storyline, NPCs, and quests
+ A wide choice of spells and weapons
+ The locations are varied enough, each with a distinctive atmosphere and decor
+ Immersive sounds and voices in the background, especially in dungeons and catacombs
+ You can use a shovel to dig stuff out of the ground or a pickaxe to get stuff out of rocks and graves, and knock down walls*
+ You can use some weapons to carve wooden stakes to finish off some undead monsters
+ You can steal, break into houses**
+ Over time, you get hungry and need food
+ You can cook your own food, catch fish, pick mushrooms, and prepare potions on your own (of course, you can also buy them)

* not everywhere, only in some locations
** the success depends on how you develop your skills when you level; if you don't develop the right skills, you won't be able to do it successfully


Cons:
- The spell casting mechanism is extremely annoying. Each spell consists of several rune letters. In order to cast a spell, you need to literally draw the runes on the screen with your mouse. In theory, it seems innovative and sounds like a lot of fun. However, it's not practical. You really need to be very accurate in drawing the runes; otherwise, you'll fail to cast your spells. It's extremely hard to do it in combat, as being under pressure (and battered by monsters), you often feel unable to focus on drawing, and usually fail to draw the runes accurately enough to be able to cast successfully. Luckily, you can pre-cast a few spells, but even pre-casting can sometimes be quite laborious. I would sometimes spend literally minutes trying to cast some spells consisting of the more difficult runes. For me, this was the most irritating part of the game.
- Some aspects of the game seem to be a little unbalanced, e.g. Ylsides are extremely fast and strong, and they kill you within seconds - you can meet them early in the game, but you won't really be able to deal with them successfully until very late in the game; also, towards the end of the game, you may run out of life potions - you won't be able to buy them or find any plants to make them on your own
- There are a few bugs and glitches here and there...
- NPCs and monsters have a tendency to get caught in between various objects, like parts of walls, doors, etc. They simply get stuck and can't move. Well, that's how I killed a few Ylsides...
- When saving, once I gave a name to a save file, I couldn't change it later
- It's a 2002 game, so don't expect visuals like in Skyrim...


All things considered, I experienced a lot more fun than irritation with this game. Therefore, in my opinion, the game is worth playing.

Highly recommended for those that have played and liked games like Ultima Underworld or Dungeon Master (Legend of Grimrock).

The developers wanted to created Ultima Underworld 3 but were unable to get the license from you know who, which is a shame. With stronger resources this game could have been very special indeed. For an old game (2002), the graphics are pretty good and sound in some instances quite amazing, the game engine has aged well. I played the game of Steam and in Windows 7 and it was more or less playable apart from some memory crashes - I learned to save often using all the save slots - you need to do this too, especially when you move between levels. It is best to play the game without any background noise such as the TV/ music or radio - believe that. Not only will you get immersed in the game world, beautifully crafted by the designers, you won't miss key information said aloud by your character and then never repeated!

It's a first person RPG/adventure set in a world where the sun has died so all races of the world live in a huge underground complex - the city is called Arx.

Arx Fatalis = fatal fortress (Latin)

The game does involve combat, magic and sneaking options. But most of the game requires exploring, adventuring, some puzzles (simple and fiendish) to solve, a lot of traversing to and fro.

You begin the game in a prison cell and yep, you guessed right, no memory of who you are! Wow, not seen that in a video game before. There follows an escape from prison and a gradual understanding of where you are and of your destiny. You escape the prison and then move onwards to different levels of the underground world, such as mining caves, spooky crypts, ice cavern (dragon) and a strange snake level! It takes a while to learn the mechanics of the game but you give it a chance as the rewards will be many! Above all read and print off the manual so you have it with you. Yes ladies and gentlemen, this game was produced in the days where manuals actually were required reading and gave hints on how to traverse the game. Believe me it will answer about 75% of your questions.

Your character has the normal ST,INT,DEX etc stats as well as skills to develop such as magic, technical skill, intuition. Every time you level up these can be increased. Combat is similar to that found in Morrowind where I often found myself moving in and out of combat and swinging whatever weapon I was using at the time. Not great but ok. The magic system is something else, it is rune based and you need to draw patterns on screen with your mouse. This is pretty amazing and at the beginning you learn a new PC gaming skill - let's face it - that is pretty unique. Runes can be found or purchased and your journal will update to show the new spells you can cast. Oh - you reckon it would be pretty damn impossible to cast a fireball as a giant evil looking spider is looking to bite your head off? READ IMPORTANT - you can pre-save three magic spells! Read the manual properly for goodness sake - just do it.

Your journal shows your character stats, armour, inventory, magic book of spells and runes, map and some key information about the game interface and quests you need to complete. I stress "some". As an assistant in following the game story - the journal is next to useless. Exploration is encouraged and the game engine allows you to do some innovative stuff. The map is pretty useless too. Use a fishing rod to catch raw fish and then cook them next to a flame. Combine water with flour to create dough and then bake to create bread. I think you can combine it with apple to make apple pie. Oh - you need to eat and your character will moan when he is hungry. Apparently hunger was pretty common in earlier versions of this game but I think the latter patches made this less acute. Saying that, I did go through a stage where I was baking and cooking stuff a lot! Later in the game I stopped hoarding food and just munched down anything I found.

Your inventory is grid based and cannot be sorted, despite what some have said. You can stack some items and expand the size later in the game. This could be better as you spend too much time on inventory management. On the first play through you end up hoarding. As you learn all the tricks and want to do another play through, it will be less problematic.

The storyline is quite interesting, you have no say on what needs to be done and there are no dialogue options. At certain points in the story a cut scene will update you. There a lot of hidden items and locations in the game and exploration is encouraged. The world is beautifully put together and there are some real unique places and characters to interact with. It is quite complex and therefore some things are not explained properly and you will need to do some internet research to help you progress. Some tips:

Buy the key ring and combine all found keys with it.
Learn how to pre cast spells - especially fireball.
Read the manual and print it off.
Learn how to make potions - especially heal. Learn it. The castle in the human city has an alchemist which allows you to distil potions.
Don't worry about cash - I ended up with about £35k.
Some magic rings will disappear from your inventory after a while, these have a 12/20 or something. Ring of Regeneration.
Read the 'Races of Arx' book before going to find the dragon.
Find the activate portal spell in game or online and write it down in the manual - for some reason this spell does not show in your spell book.
Your character needs decent magic to progress end game due to very difficult melee warriors that will polish you off in two whacks.
Don't worry about hoarding food - just eat stuff as and when you find it.
Save often.
Shops are not always open, progress the story line and come back.
Check the keyboard control options to ensure you don't waste all your healing potions when trying to crawl or sneak!

There are some negatives. If you don't READ THE MANUAL, expect some frustrations with the game engine. The great magic system is limited as not all the spells are equally useful and I tended to play the whole game with fireball. However, you need to have decent magic to complete the game, do not go all out as a fighter or thief. Not everything is spoon fed to you, ultimately you can get where you need to go just by adventuring but sometimes a specific "go there" would be appreciated. There are only about 10 levels which you seem to traverse back and forward a lot, learn how to use the portals or this can be frustrating. The game world is complex and many things can be interacted with - this is also a downfall as often you need to make assumptions about how things work together.

Summary - really is a great and unique game if you like RPG or first person dungeon adventure. World is quite amazing. Some difficulty with the game engine which most can be sorted by READING THE MANUAL. 40 hours+ on first play through and a few side quests not completed. Repetitive towards the end as it suffers from lack of additional quests and locations which would allow greater use of spells and your character.

Highly recommended to those looking for Ultima Underworld 3

best $5 I ever spent for a old game

Exceptional game

Pretty cool for its age. I remember I played this one after Morrowind but I liked Arx Fatalis better, even though it's not an open world and exploring is limited. The crafting and cooking were pretty awesome too. I actually haven't seen a cooking system in today's games like the one in Arx Fatalis. The casting system was hard to master but was also different from the ones in other games. If only this game was more mod friendly, though.

Apart from that, it's one of my favorites games and I still play it from time to time.

Just an unforgettable childhood game for me, Really enjoyed this and to this today haven't completed it ahaha.

Immersive and unique. A plus

http://arx-libertatis.org/

Bought this game upon release in 2002.Could never complete it because of so many game breaking bugs.So given that there was a mod release which squashed the bugs and updated the gfx i thought i would buy this on steam.So the game works very well with arx liberatis or whatever its called(the mod).Game is brilliant and works flawlessly on windows 7.Cant say how much i,m enjoying the game and well worth the pittance the game costs you.If you have any sense you will buy this.Oh also for some reason using the mod shortcut does'nt show the time i spent playing the game so dont be confused if you see i have only played minutes.Been playing for hours.

fun and challenging game

Great game play with a good story

This is definitely a title I'd say is "underrated". It's a relatively obscure RPG title that gives a fairly interesting setting and good mechanics.

The game is good overall, but it's definitely rough around the edges.

PROS:

The game is pretty immersive, with full first person and complete view of limbs and equipment. There are plenty of things to loot, plenty of things to kill. The game is also very atmospheric: lots of dank caves with dark ambience playing. The RPG elements are mostly good, but there's not much character interaction, no real dialogue trees. I have a lot of fun exploring dungeons in the game, they can go pretty deep and pretty wide. There are lots of immersive touches, like having to drag things manually into the inventory, to manually drawing runes to cast spells, to even staking zombies to make sure they stay dead. It helps make the game feel alive.
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CONS:

The game barely conveys any information to the player; I've had to rely on walkthroughs extensively. The journal is worthless, it tells nothing about current tasks or reminders of where to go. If important details from dialogue are missed, they can't be found again. Navigation is nightmarish as there are no clear paths to get to locations, everything is located on separate underground levels. The game also is unbalanced in terms of combat and specialization. Playing as a thief or as just a warrior is suicidal, as a certain kind of enemy late-game cannot be easily killed with brute force. I had to restart my game to play as a sort of battlemage build, and now everything is easier.

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It's a pretty mixed bag overall. If one likes RPGs with somewhat original settings, compelling mechanics, plenty of immersion, and plenty of loot, then this game is good if one can look past the glaring flaws.

Arx Fatalis awesome awesomeness

one of my favorite rpg´s, innovative gameplay as a sample how you can interact:

" Bottle of Water + Flour = Bread Dough + Rolling Pin = Uncooked Pie + Apple = Uncooked Apple Pie + Bottle of Wine = Uncooked Apple Pie with Wine + Source of Heat = Apple Pie with Wine " one of many things you can combine in the game world.

The game world is authentic and its very exciting to explore.

Atmosphere is great and often creepier than Stalker.

Story is Epic and better than gothic 1 (gothic1 is my *1) sidequest´s are very nice too.

This was a serious sleeper game.

I bought it on sale and found it to be a true gem.

From the unprecedented magic enactment system to just the feel of the entire world to the flow of gameplay...

There is a reason Bethesda bought the studio behind this. They are truly talented.

Highly recommended.

Arx Fatalis is an amazing role playing game from the former half of the last decade. It features a very original world premise, it eternally snows so everyone lives underground in massive tunnel systems. it has a traditional rpg plot, but it feels immersive. Characters are seen as listless and antisocial, dreading their exile from the snowy abyss above.

The game has a very intriguing magic system that allows you to draw glyphs to cast spells. It feels very intuiative and as such if you play a mage character you get used to certain glyph formations.

Very recently Arkane released the source code for Arx and a source port named "Arx Libertatis" has been created, which finally allows players to play the game at a consistant framerate the way it was meant to be played when it first released.

Forget about todays standards - Arx Fatalis is a great blast from the past. The gameplay and context is solid and could easily be brought forward to todays tech levels to form awesome new games.

If I were to ask what PC dungeon crawler First Person RPG you played way back in the mid 2000s you'd probably say to me Morrowind. And with good reason, it's one of the best.
But at the same time, another game came out by Arcane Studios that was shadowed by the success of Morrowind, a cult gem if you will of classic 3D PC gaming now all but virtuall forgotten save for a few souls who sought this title. What is Arx Fatalis? Is it good? Pros and Cons? Here's the run down.
Arx Fatalis is a first person semi-linear dungeon crawler where you play the role of Am Shaegar, a fantasy John Doe who wakes to find himself naked in a goblin prison in a world where the sun has died and the surviving peoples habitate in underground fortress cities and mines. The story follows Am Shaegar as he seeks to reclaim his memory, but along the way gets tossed into a series of events that could mean the end of the peoples of Arx and even the world.
While the story is strong in the beginning, by the middle act the it becomes predictable and there aren't any big plot twists or holy hell I didn't see that coming moments, but many of the characters and races of creatures of encounter and/or fight make that journey from start to finish interesting.
Because this game is well over 10 years old, it hasn't aged well in terms of graphics. Even Morrowind, however, suffers the same issue, so don't take this as a con persay. However, I've found that the Steam version is a tad glitchy with its sounds or even graphics, whether that is an error on my end or not I can't be sure.
Combat in this game is fun but takes a bit of time to get used to since depth in this world is a bit strange feeling when compared to modern first person games. There are dozens of weapons to find, enchant and utilize to bring death to the menagerie of baddies laid before you.
Puzzles in this game are much like classic D&D puzzles or even old PC adventure games, which means they range from no ♥♥♥♥ easy to what the ♥♥♥♥ hard on the first playthrough. The magic system is also unique and I wished that Arcane had taken the time to re-explore that in later titles because the concept of drawing magic spells to cast them on the screen is quite fun, though a nightmare in the heat of combat.
Difficulty can be...well, all over the board. Some enemies are unfairly overpowered even when you are higher level and certain spells and items that make fighting them easier aren't made clear in the game itself and are discovered through trial and error or game FAQs.
Pros: There are some horror elements and classic RPG elements that make this game feel like a classic. It's not difficult to pick up and get into, the characters and world is quite interesting, and the sound design is haunting (I seriously made a recording years ago of just background sounds in this game to use for Table Top role playing). The magic system takes getting used to along with combat, but once is mastered can make it hard to go back to other games of that time.
Cons: The game is sadly glitchy, the graphics did not age well and can lead to some headaches and eye strain during the first few minutes of play. Combat ranges from easy to unbeatable, puzzles aren't really spelled out, the map system needs work, and the story gets weak by the middle of the game.
All in all I rank this a 3 out of 5, its a game from my youth that I loved that nostalgia draws me back to for fond memories and aggrivating flashbacks of unkillable bosses. Its well worth the price here on steam and there are patches and mods all over the internet that fix some of these complaints. I'd like to see an HD revamp or even remake of this game, so fingers crossed.

Are you familiar with Ultima Underworld? Because this is the closest we're ever going to get to an Ultima Underworld 3. It was originally designed to be a sequel, but the dev's couldn't get hold of the official license from EA, so they just filed off all the serial numbers and called it Arx Fatalis. Make no mistake, though - this is Ultima Underworld in all but name.

The story of Arx Fatalis sets you in a dungeon world where no one lives on the surface since the Sun was snuffed out some years ago. From there you begin as the classic prisoner arc type with no memory, set to escape from your goblin captors, for game-play It has physics similar to Morrowind but superior combat and graphics and an interesting spellcasting system.

Overall, this game is worth buying if you like games like Morrowind and Gothic. However. If you played Morrowind and want more of that, play Arx Fatalis. After that, you may want to look at Deus Ex.

IMO Arx Fatalis is up there with Deus Ex and System Shock 2 as one of the best FPS-RPG hybrids ever made.

If you can get your hands on this RPG you have just got one of the best underestimated RPG's. It is one of the first games I bought on Steam, but still one of the best RPG's i've played. The Graphics are not as good as you get it in today’s RPG's, but the storyplay really works with the adventure you are entering when you start this game. This game is enjoyable for hundreds of hours of playing. PS: take your time to learn to use the spell-system (runes) – it makes your gameplay even more fun. So enjoy :-)