The battles are of critical importance to the genre, another element where Arx Fatalis fails miserably. For starters, the two movement modes (mouse look and cursor mode) are not only tedious and difficult to use, they create much confusion for the player. Neither seems intuitive and the movement is choppy at best. The combat system is generally very slow, with a "step in and back away" style that lacks direction and focus on action. Enemy AI is extremely poor; on multiple occasions a spider would walk into a fire trying to follow the player and kill itself in the process. Considering the fireplaces are statically placed and do not move, one would think that the AI would be smart enough to walk around the fire, yet once again proven incorrect.​