Arx Fatalis

Very good RPG with a lot of Looking Glass Studios energy.

The whole map is a big underground dungeon, and it's very interesting to explore, full of secrets and intriguing worldbuilding details. It's incredibly atmospheric with great sound design, graphics, map details, etc and is made with a lot of care to really pull you into the unique setting. You're given a lot of freedom to explore the world at your own pace and even affect it in significant ways, like being able to kill anybody and get unique reactions and alternate quest endings. There's no handholding in Arx. You're given little quest updates, but beyond that, it's up to you to remember things and figure out where you want to go and how to progress.

Alongside that, the mechanics are really fun. Melee combat is good but isn't anything to write home about, but the magic is amazing. Having to draw spells out is a little cumbersome but adds a layer of strategy with the real time and memorization elements. Spells can be crazy powerful and only get more powerful as you level up. I also really loved the inventory system and how you're able to combine things and freely place and move around objects in the world. What really shines about the mechanics is the discovery element. Just like how you've gotta explore the world to find secrets, you frequently have to experiment with the mechanics to figure out what works, like what item combinations do or how they can help you or what secret spells there are through memorizing symbol meanings and experimenting with them. Even after you already know most of this stuff, it's just really engaging how intertwined it all feels.

It's hard to fully describe the appeal of everything, but Arx Fatalis is a really satisfying RPG to make your way through with a fantastic setting that only helps to draw you in. Highly recommended, just remember to grab Arx Libertatis so it runs fine on modern computers.

It's one of those games that you always want to replay, but never find the time. Well, you should find it, or play it for the first time. This is still one of the greatest immersive sims out there, and with Arx Libertatis the game works perfectly on modern PCs in 4k.

Of course, Arx Fatalis has its flaws: the combat is clunky, the UI isn't the most convenient, and some of the quests are really obscure. However, the world building, exploration, and the story are really good. In fact, I think the only Arcane Studios game with a better storytelling is Prey.

Really good game! Allows for and sometimes requires inventive use of the tools provided for you. I definitely would have gotten stuck several times towards the end without the use of a guide. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Get the mod Arx Liberatis and just play it... you won't regret it.

Thief and Morrowind had a weird-looking baby and it's awesome!

Exploration feels meaningful, the world is full of secrets. They really don't make games like this anymore.

The review contains minor spoilers!

I trapped myself in the room beside the Water Wheel by throwing a brick on to the floor switch!...

Arkane have always given freedom in their games!

Game runs like straight ass

Please give this game your attention! This game deserves a remake. Such a hidden gem in the action/adventure rpg genre

An old classic from Arkane studio. gigantic map, old school RPG, very fun to explore, total freedom. controls are old school too though.

Arx Fatalis is an amazing experience and does not have to hide behind any of the other big name Im-Sims out there.
A fantastic and well crafted world, that never feels too big or too small.
Clever puzzle design that is seldom overwhelming or mind breaking.
Little to no handholding, very few quest markers, important items can be missplaced and hinder your progress if you are not careful. (Buy the keychain at the female trader in the town of Arx asap!!!!)
The magic spell casting can be clunky and frustrating at times but it makes up for it by making spells extremly powerful.
The controls take some getting used to, but once you got the hang of it they feel so natural and perfect for a game like this. Think System Shock, but better.
The tech (graphics, sound, speech,...) still holds up fine and has not lost any of it's charme. The load times between areas are usually only two seconds.
Using Arx Libertatis I had no issues with graphics, crashes or spell casting not working. It is a must have to enjoy Arx Fatalis to the fullest!


If you enjoy any game by Looking Glas, Arkane or the Deus Ex games, treat yourself to another fine entry in this "genre".

Ignore my 61 minutes, the Arx Libertalis patch makes the game not show up on steam. This game is fantastic, oozing in atmosphere and has one of the few truly unique worlds in a fantasy setting. The post apocalyptic setting makes it feel like a first person fallout 1 with fantasy elements. The world is really fun to explore and you'll occasionally come upon things that make you think, "Hmm I wonder how I can get there" leading you to experiment with different things. Its controls hold up fairly well for how much it tries to do and it strikes a perfect balance between classic DOS RPGs that let you manipulate the environment and a more modern action RPG with hacking and slashing. The magic system is a little rough, but it's uniqueness makes it a treat to interact with and expands magic into a skill based class instead of just relying on mashing a "cast spell" button over and over again. The story is told well and broken up by wonderfully illustrated scenes instead of relying on in-engine graphics for cut scenes and boy it just works. Everything about this game just works.

I cannot recommend it enough to those looking to dip their toes into older RPGs or Immersive Sims, and I think this entry is far more approachable than a game like Deus Ex.

Arcane's best game.

I'm looking through the spring sale and seeing reviews for triple A games, about microtransactions and sh!t optimization, and I'm so glad I bought this!

Very fun game :) gives old morrowind vibes but with simpler mechanics and being less infuriating. the story and atmosphere has a dark, serious tone to it that i think is missing in a lot of modern first person fantasy games :)

The best game Arkane ever made.

this is a freak game for freaks like me. I LIKE living in a cave as a cave person with cave magic and having to crucially shape a spell with my mouse cursor and hope it registers just barely. I really love this, it's an immersive sim and you need to literally write the magic you cast as you're a worthless pile of garbage, that's the game I love.

This is what SKYRIM could have been if TODD wasn't a COWARD.

Yes

DISCLAIMER: I did receive the game for free for pre-ordering Dishonored, but if you enjoyed Dark Messiah of Might & Magic or enjoy old-school RPGs in general, Arx is a unique gem that is 100% worth the $5.

The predecessor of Arkane's next greatest hit, Dark Messiah of Might & Magic. This is regarded by many to be a "hypergem" or "supergem" by many fans because the exact genre it embodies is just so rare, and has been made even rarer because the RPG formula has been streamlined so much that many of the systems that are implemented are now considered vestigial and archaic. This unique blend of Old-School RPG, immersive sim, runic magic system, puzzles, dark atmosphere, kicking and object physics systems come together in such a way that's extremely difficult to nail down. On top of all this, it even has its own cooking, crafting and stealth system and is fully voice-acted. This all may seem a bit overwhelming at first, but most of these systems (besides magic) are fairly intuitive and should be fairly digestible. While many players may struggle with progression through the story if they don't pay attention to every detail, the world itself is extremely rich, responsive, and varied, despite having such a dark atmosphere.

My Recommendation:
Play through as much as you can without a guide, and finally read a guide when you get frustrated to wit's end. I guarantee that most players will probably spend hours in the interesting world of Arx, and quite possibly play it more than once after they learn the most optimal route in completing the game's objectives.

Also, make sure to use Arx Libertatis, as it is the modern open-source port of Arx Fatalis, aimed at fixing bugs, compatibility, and QoL issues.

tl;dr Unique Old-School RPG immersive sim game, that not only stood the test of time, but remains a true classic gem that has yet to meet its match in modern times.

the most atmospheric dungeon crawler

I get so in aw of old video games. I'm not joking. You deserve to play this game and at the same time this game deserves your time (and maybe a quick youtube search when your stuck once in awhile). One of the most interesting rpg sandboxes ive ever played. Made in 2002. How we dont have more like this ill never understand. 9.5/10. One of the greatest first person rpgs of all time. Playing this 23 years late feels like a crime.

The only half-decent game Arcane Studios ever made. Everything since has been politically correct d0gshit with deliberately ugly characters. They were one of the fist studios to go woke, & they were one of the first studios to go broke. Rest in pi55.

This is an *extremely* good game for its time period and genre. I really enjoyed it, and put in a lot of hours just messing around. I got it during the Chinese New Year festival sales, and I feel like I got every last dime of my money's worth from it.

I give it 9/10 stars and would highly recommend.

Pros: If you like a story-based quest progression game in a swords&sorcery genre, then this fits the bill. It's not mind-numbingly expansive like Skyrim or Witcher3, and it's not truly open-world (areas are restricted until you progress the main quest), but it's loads of fun and decent exploration. I searched through every last nook and cranny of the game world, finding hidden treasures or the occasional easter egg.

The game is relatively easy to learn, and the combat is pretty simple if you're into combat. It's nowhere near Dark Souls difficulty, and you could probably run this game on a well rigged potato. Having said that, you WILL want to download the community "patch" (Arx Liberatis) to make the game playable on modern systems (it was almost entirely unplayable until I did so because modern mouse sensitivity kinda destroys the magic system and you *must* have *some* magic on your character to make the game work...ish).

In 136 hours, I had no lag or stutter, and not a single crash or "have to reload" bug....not one. I only dropped through the world geometry requiring a reload (I never enabled the console) *once*, and I was really trying very hard to get somewhere players were clearly not meant to go at the time. ;)

The economy is great (I never struggled for cash, but you have to manage some resources like torches mid-to-end game), and most of the loot makes sense (you get a couple pieces a wee tad too late for my tastes, but I'm greedy). I only did a very minimum amount of savescum grinding out of a personal desire to max out my character for kicks and theft.

You're not buying this for sandboxing or jaw dropping graphics, you're buying this to tell/reveal/experience a single main story and save the world. Again...this isn't Skyrim and you can't "live" in this world long-term. Think of it more like decent-length digital one-shot solo D&D campaign.

My one complaint is that the absolute end scenes after *everything* was done and/or defeated felt a wee bit . . . underwhelming. I guess I wanted accolades of some sort. I'd love to see the company revisit and reboot this title someday...expand some side quests, add some content (I really wanna be able to talk to the king about a certain letter I found....). Still, I've loved everything I've ever played from Arkane, and this is another great title.

ultragem

I like having to repeat the first part of the game multiple times because my fat fingers can't trigger a lever.

11/10

Probably one of the most unique fantasy settings in existence.
Probably the most unique magic casting mechanic in videogaming.
If hand-crafted feel and experimental originality can beat out polished refinedness for you, this one is for you.
It's quite old, so it obviously won't blow anyone's socks off graphically, but the specifics of the setting ameliorate any technical limitations of the engine. As an upside it'll run on a potato.
Sadly, if you're gonna be playing this on anything other than a potato, you'll need a community port to run it at modern resolutions (beyond 1080p) - Arx Libertatis has your back there.

Regrettably, the maintainers of the port use some 3rd party launcher that pings antiviruses though. If you're afraid of the antivirus notification, and are running a modern system, you can just extract the x64 binaries (or the x86 ones if you're running a potato) from the port's folder structure and avoid the launcher - truly baffling decision by the port maintainers.

guid to arx fatalis magic system

1 install arx libertatis
2 get really fuckin high
3 draw pretty pictures :)

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A classic immersive RPG with phenomenal sound and ambience, decent melee combat, and an epic (albeit perhaps a little janky) magic and casting system. It would've been better if a few parts of the world were a little bit more fleshed out, such as the remains of the dwarven kingdom, and the world and its characters were more reactive to your actions in general, but still, what is there is quite good.

i lik it

Classic dungeon-crawl. Open world gameplay in a closed world.

Bake pies. Roast chickens. With a fireball spell. At the same time. While wearing bunny slippers. 10/10.

⠀

Poodle, Poodle, Poodle, Hamster.

Won't run on my PC. Shame cause I wanted to try it.

Great game, awesome atmosphere but you'll probably want to read a guide before building your character. I don't think I've seen a game outside of an old Sierra point-and-click adventure game let you screw yourself so hard early on but not realize it until many many hours later.

Save yourself the trouble and put points into magic. Don't bother with stealth or archery and unless you want to try exploiting the AI don't play a pure melee build. I didn't want to but I had to cheat to make progress later in the game because I fucked myself in character creation without knowing it.

Other than balancing issues Arx is great lol.

An utter darling favourite of mine. I will defend this game to the end of my days. Morrowind can go and die in a hole.

This is a slow and clunky but very entertaining experience so far. The creativity makes this game feel like a real adventure compared to most.

Awesome game. I would still recommend to download mods like Arx Insanity and Arx Libertatis.

I'm Amo Xingar

Despite its design flaws (laborious menu switching, poor rune tracing, messy journal), Arx Fatalis nails a few key elements which make it good for several playthroughs. The atmosphere is top notch, with level and sound design which are sure to immerse you into the claustrophobic nature of the game world as well as convey a sense of isolation. What little crafting the game has is simple and satisfying. Environment reactivity is very good and character building is fairly straightforward. The story is a bit simple but I enjoyed it nonetheless due to the protagonist's unique nature.

Yeah, this is Ultima Underworld 3. Not the setting, of course, but they've got a nice world of their own here surrounded by mystery with an excellent atmosphere.

The biggest flaw is the low number of precast spells you can have. The sign-based system means that you then have to navigate the environment without the mouse since that is used to draw signs, so you end up with what is comparable to sorting the inventory in System Shock 2 while being chased down by zombies through the crew quarters. Somehow, that is still mostly a problem early on.

Arx is pretty slow and some people will have a better time with Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Still as janky, but basically the action-version of this (and commonly known as THE kicking-people-off-ledges-simulator). That one might also interest Dishonored-fans, playing like some proto-Dishonored (medieval-edition).

But man, Arx - it's just cozy.

Very fun RPG. The story is fun, the exploration is fun, inventory is great.

While the magic system is interesting, it is an absolute pain in the a** to cast spells. You have to do so by drawing the runes with your mouse but 8/10 times the game doesn't want to recognise the rune you're drawing or just assumes you're drawing a different rune altogether which makes casting a single spell sometimes take a whole damn minute.

But that's really my only gripe with the game, with the exception of your first encounter with the Ylsides. These are powerful enemies with very tough armour and melee resistance. However, when your first encounter them you might as well just focus on stealth and skip their combat as much as you can. When I met one, I fired 3 fireballs at him, and he didn't die (despite many guides telling me that Ylsides die to 2-3 fireballs) and absolutely demolished me. I tried various spell combinations including incinerate, fire field, paralyse, and so forth and nothing would kill the damn guy so I resorted to stealth.

Would I recommend the game? Yes, absolutely. But get yourself a mod to make the spell casting to be workable most of the time rather than not. And brace yourself for the Ylsides because they're the game's biggest pain and the difficulty spike once you encounter them is immense.

This game is awesome. Combat is a little janky to but you quickly get used to it. Very cool premise, very cool creatures, and a unique setting. Highly recommend!

Great game that has some really bad bugs even with the basically required Arx Libertatis fan fix. The game has an active but small modding scene so I have around twice to three times the play-time since the mods are separate exes not registered by steam.

The breadth of small things you can do make the game for me, the alchemy system while basic is fun to use, the magic is neat but a little buggy and arduous sometimes, the melee is simple but fun, lore is fascinating and story is really cool, and voice acting is a combination of funny and professional. I honestly just wish the areas were a little bigger and more intricately designed. Almost the perfect immersive dungeon crawler.

Lots of content was cut or unused (a little of which is re-implemented using mods but nothing major), it's very much a repurposed Ultima Underworld script retooled in a really really cool way.

If you like dungeon crawlers or immersive sims, it's worth a look, one of my favourite games ever so I'm definitely bias.

the way the player can interact with the enviroment is so fun, especially when you cook da bread :))

Amazing game. Lots of jank, save often. Classic dungeon crawler with some cool mechanics. Movement is clunky but combat is moderately rich. Good mix of melee and magic throughout the game. Radiant world adds a lot, but quest progression may be difficult without a guide. Guides are available online. Old school cool dungeon crawler with proper integrated puzzles and traps. And rats.

Cool lore, style, puzzles, magic system, secrets, and more. Surprisingly fun.

There's so much to discuss about this game - good and bad. I'll start with what I liked.

The atmosphere of Arx Fatalis is palpable. Similar to its contemporary, Thief, there's layers of ambient sound, NPC chatter, primative 3D environments, and an air of mystery that makes the world unforgettable. The story is decent and the gameplay, while not groundbreaking, serves to carry the player through some cool dungeons and situations. The magic system, specifically, is very immersive. I found myself slowly memorizing spell sigils as I progressed, sticking to a few basics and at times fumbling over them in the heat of the moment. Excellent!

Now for the bad. This game is obtuse - not a sole sin of Arx but generally of games at this time. There is no hand holding, which is great, but several things get in the way. For one, you walk pretty slowly with no real option to run except a speed spell I never found. This was such a problem that I relied on a weird glitch where if you press F5 to quick save while moving forward, the player zooms across the map. Helpful, but very odd.

Ultimately, I needed a walkthrough for several areas. There were puzzles and areas I never would have figured out on my own. I'm not the best at puzzles to begin with, but still, it was rough.

Did I like this game. Honestly, I loved it. The old-school 3D environments, the excellent ambiance. the odd bits of humor, the constant surprises as I realize the developers add lots of things to find (including cutscenes and hidden instances most probably will never see)... this was such a fun game to play through.

If you like older RPGs or even games like Tomb Raider or Thief which have this totally unique style of the late 90s/00s, check out Arx Fatalis. It's blemishes are far outweighed by its charm.

Reviewing every game I've played in my Steam Library. Game 6.

A classic, great atmosphere and story, very interesting magic system, some builds are harder than others to get through the game.

Also features cooking and crafting.

You need some mods and stuff to make it more playable. (this is why my play time is low)

Haven't finished it.

This game is in need of a remake.