Arx Fatalis

Every night I scream up into the sky "WHY HAS NOBODY CREATED A SPIRITUAL SUCCESSOR TO THE MAGIC SYSTEM OF ARX FATALIS", and proceed to cry

There's a lot to love here and there are some glaring flaws, but it's neither the things Arx Fatalis does well, nor those that it doesn't, that ate at me while playing and continued to eat at me once done. What I CANNOT stop thinking about are the things the game doesn't do at all. The reason it's so close to being an all-time masterpiece, and why I think it's beloved to this day, is the potential on display around every corner. There's SO MUCH here but none of it is ever quite enough. It all just feels a bit half-baked, like a tech demo the developers inexplicably abandoned. Arx Fatalis is fascinating in the way P.T. is fascinating, only much longer and in a completely different genre.

I could give numerous examples of the incompleteness of Arx Fatalis - everything from the story, to the factions, to the world's overarching lore feels incomplete, while its caves feel empty - but the thing that really gets my goat is how the developers created this intricate magical system and clearly intended for you to use it, yet failed to integrate it into the game.

Here's what I mean: there are TWENTY magical runes to 40 published spells. That's a bad ratio to begin with, made worse by most of those spells being utterly useless. For example:

• There's a spell for FEED despite food being everywhere.
  
• There's a spell for TELEKINESIS but only one optional opportunity to use it and you'll find a scroll long before the runes required to cast the spell.
  
• There are spells for LEVITATE, REVEAL, and DISPEL FIELD, but only one necessary opportunity to use any, and all can be accomplished by scroll or other means.
  
• There are spells to RAISE DEAD and SUMMON demons, but they only attack you--they ignore NPCs and NPCs ignore them and they provide 0XP to kill.
  
• You can DETECT and DISARM traps . . . or just tank every trap in the game and walk it off. Also, why are these distinct from REVEAL and DISPEL?
  
[*]There are spells to create fire fields and ice fields, and spells to project fire, ice, poison, and lightning, but enemies are agnostic to elemental type so it's all cosmetic in the end.

The point is, it's a magical system that's over-developed, under-utilized, and often circumvented by other means, rendering much of it superfluous. You WILL use magic, and in fact you should prioritize magic during your first play through or you'll have a very difficult (if not impossible) time, but only THREE spells are truly useful (literally. And one of those is purely a QoL upgrade) while 2-3 others could be considered handy but aren't necessary.

I want magic to be necessary. I want to use telekinesis to reach out-of-the-way loot. I want to use levitate to discover secret areas. I want a reason to reveal enchantments and dispel them, but I don't want separate spells to do the same thing for traps. I want reasons to cast poison instead of fire instead of lightning. I want a magical system deeply integrated into this fascinating world with countless opportunities to use it, but Arx, as it is, doesn't provide.

Arx Fatalis is the rough draft for a truly great game, if not a series of games. It's completely original IP, which is harder and harder to find these days, and the setting - a frozen world, a dead sun, survivors of varying races living in disconnected, labyrinthine underground cave systems filled with secrets and mysteries and terrors - is an untapped wellspring of story ideas and areas to explore. How is Arkane sitting on THIS goldmine while churning out garbage like Redfall and Deathloop? Arkane, what are you doing??

boomer gold

Enjoyable, very tight controls on magic.

Arx Fatalis dumps you in a dungeon with no map, no markers, and absolutely no hand-holding. It’s the kind of game where figuring things out is the game.

Early on, it’s a blast. I killed a spider by climbing on its back, posed as a gem trader to sneak past goblins, and slipped something extra into the Goblin King’s cookies so he’d run to the toilet — just so I could have a word with him. It’s immersive, strange, and oddly charming.

But after a few hours, the fun starts to fade into endless lever puzzles and wandering in circles. Combat takes a back seat to key hunts and cryptic quests.

It’s not a bad game — just a very specific kind of old-school. If you love Ultima Underworld-style dungeon crawls, you’ll probably dig it. Everyone else? Maybe bring a guide… or a strong tolerance for confusion.

Arx Insanity waiting room

Good

Truly a great RPG. A spiritual successor to Ultima Underworld. I have more than 100 hours in the game but for some reason Steam only recorded 4 hours of gameplay...

One of the more in-depth games I've ever played. Wonderful atmosphere and mechanics for a 23 year-old RPG. Sound design is scuffed and it's easy to get stuck on some of the world objects, plus, it's just a tad janky all around, but definitely a good experience overall. For $4.99, it's a no-brainer.

played the game all the way through and had a good time. i did use arx libertatis like everyone else, but i learned after a playthrough that the game has built in cheats which is super cool. they are quite fun to mess around with. in these times where games are either soulless cash grabs, incredibly long epic tales with gameplay to back it up, or just fun smaller experiences with high replayability, it is fun to beat this game all the way through, even with the jank, and then immediately learn that you can functionally crack the game to bits and pieces with built-in cheats. arx libertatis lets you go even further, enabling the player to do more stupid stuff.

i wish the game had a bit more breadth though. this game is a tree without branches pretty much in that many of the levels are not really rich in interactable characters. you kind of just go right through them, killing the enemies within them. this feels like a game where there would be a bunch of sidequests, but it turns out that there are much fewer quests in general. i also wish that there was a style of storyline akin to arcanum where you could join the bad guy. afaik, the only thing that happens if you do bad things is that the game becomes softlocked. i have only played through the game once, so this could be untrue.

Decent game, couldn't play much because I forgot how important "saving every 3 minutes" was for an old game with no autosave. Could do, if not with a remaster, with an update to fix a LOT of source engine jank of a kind that not even half life 2 had. If you wanna play as-is, at the VERY LEAST install Arx Libertatis and you STILL will need to deal with some old jank.

Eat bread, Get drunk on wine

Never got so excited over baking bread over a burning body before, but here we are. (Pls don't do this in real life)

I found this game randomly on sale and bought it because the magic system seemed interesting. I ended up fascinated with the world and everything the game has to offer. It’s a shame it never became as famous or relevant as other similar titles :/ Anyway, this game is great, and very few games have made me want to explore as much as Arx did.

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'm a huge Arkane Studios fan - EVERY one of their games that I've played was an absolute banger. I came into Arx Fatalis expecting really good and immersive experience, but nothing groundbreaking, and it absolutely exceeded all of my expectations. I got absolutely obsessed with the game for few days (i've beaten it in 40h over one week), wanting to discover every single detail, open every door, every chest, read every note and so on. It got to the point that when I was going to sleep I only thought about tomorrow's game session. I haven't felt like it for who knows how long. Arx Fatalis is an underrated masterpiece for me and possibly best Arkane Studios game out of all I've played so far (and I've only got Dark Messiah and Deathloop left).

Arx Fatalis kinda feels like a mix of Morrowind and Thief but in an insanely unique setting. Game's world and lore is one of the most unique I've seen in an rpg game. I loved every piece of it, every detail (it has a lot of small, immersive details and secrets) and had a blast while exploring the game's map and discovering all secrets I could. The story isn't anything groundbreaking, but doesn't feel bad at all. The game doesn't hold your hand, you HAVE to experiment, explore and often figure things out on your own. Puzzles are clever, often requiring thinking outside the box. There are many hidden activities you can do, like for example crafting a fishing rod, making bread, forging a sword out of seemingly useless blades. The game rewards you for experimenting with items. The map is pretty big, but not oversized. You have 8 different floors of the mine, each one with it's unique atmosphere, design, enemies, secrets and surprises. And the deeper you go, the more dark and eerie it gets. You have a feeling like one more step and you'll awaken some freaking Cthulhu or something. The last 2 floors and the crypt are ESPECIALLY atmospheric and overwhelming, especially with game's insanely immersive sound design.
Fight system is very old-school rpg like, but feels really satisfying in the end. You have melee, archery and magic and I'm gonna say that the magic system is probably BEST I've ever seen in ANY rpg game. You don't just click the button, you literally DRAW unique runes to cast spells. There are 20 runes and over 40 different, amazing spells, even hidden ones. It's next level immersion.

It has some issues of course, especially considering it's age. I'm easily getting used to old games since I'm huge enthusiast of them, but getting really used to Arx took me a few hours. It's really archaic, even for it's time. The game's UI isn't the best, controls are pretty clunky and voice acting sometimes gets a bit weak. The graphics are obviously very 00's like, but for me it's more of a pro than a con.
Most of those issues can be fixed or at least improved with an amazing Arx Libertatis mod that I'd even say is a must have. It improves optimization, controls, resolution and many other stuff without changing anything from the actual gameplay.

I can't recommend Arx Fatalis enough. It's an overlooked masterpiece and a MUST PLAY for all old game lovers or Arkane fans. I am obsessed with this game and I'm definitely going to replay it at some point, maybe even try some other mods. Just buy it.

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 :)

.

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.