The Arx Fatalis Thread

[doctor_kaz]

Arx Fatalis is fun as an exploration and puzzle-based adventure game, but it sucks horribly as an RPG. It almost has more in common with Thief than it does with a game like Gothic. The majority of the spells are totally worthless and the system of casting spells by tracing runes with the mouse is horrible in combat.

 

[Gragt]

On the subject of leaving Kultar in his cell, I do not even think that he opens the trap door but merely tells you to go this way. So you have to crouch and hit the trap to destroy it, and you can do that without the need to free him.

 

[Murk]

Arx Fatalis is fun as an exploration and puzzle-based adventure game, but it sucks horribly as an RPG. It almost has more in common with Thief than it does with a game like Gothic. The majority of the spells are totally worthless and the system of casting spells by tracing runes with the mouse is horrible in combat.

While difficult in combat, I don't mind it at all - magic is supernatural manipulation of the very essence of existence - it makes sense that it's difficult to pull off - and it keeps it from being just "another type of attack". Risen, for instance, turned magic into just another "click to hit" ranged attack - this at least requires you to treat magic differently. Some of the attacks are pretty shitty though and hard to aim - I'm not sure if a high casting skill would make this better or not but I'm assuming it would.

I've been able to heal while running from enemies or to blast a magic missile as a melee enemy closes in on me - I'd just like a better system of aiming other than "try to get the center of the screen on them"

 

[SCO]

Did you find the ice dragon? Getting there requires some ridiculous stalagmite humping + glide.

 

[Nukester]

I thought this was a fantastic but unbelievably hard game, until I got to the point where I couldnt really bash things anymore and needed to rely more on magic. I just could not get the hang of drawing those damn runes on the screen, especially during combat. Once it got to that point I quit playing the game. Awesome atmosphere in the game though

 

[SCO]

Unbelievably hard my ass.

(Though the lich gang-bang on the helm level was a little too much)

And the unkillable beast.

Gosh i want a sequel.

 

[Good Ol' Drog]

Enjoy your BSODs.

 

[Murk]

Only had 2 bugs so far - containers not opening when i double-click and the game occasionally going too fast when in smaller areas (like hallways)

got bored with getting raped by ylsides, started up a new one and trying out a magic based character, gonna see if I can actually magic missile my way through this shit

 

[coldcrow]

Easiest way to take out Ylsides with magic = 3 prepared Fireballs.

 

[Jasede]

Ah yes, what a wonderful game.
Do use the search function next time.

Its flaws are many, its atmosphere is dense and the dungeons dungeony. A fine game with many flaws that endear it all the more. It also looks incredibly good and eye-pleasing, barely having aged at all, at least to me.

Just do yourself a favor and be a mage. Or rather, do not be a mage, since every battle can be reduced to "cast fireball, repeat until dead".

I encountered, curiously enough, not a single bug.

I cannot write a review at this point, but in general, if you do not find my taste in RPGs awful you will like it, and if you do you will not.

 

[Nukester]

Unbelievably hard my ass.

Not hard combat wise, but there were some sections of the game I would never had gotten through without consulting the walkthrough a couple of times

 

[Gragt]

It also looks incredibly good and eye-pleasing, barely having aged at all, at least to me.

It has a nice and consistant art direction, which allowed it to age well.

 

[Murk]

Easiest way to take out Ylsides with magic = 3 prepared Fireballs.

As in scrolls or is there a way to prepare rune magic through some kind of metamagic?

made sure to buy rhae rune as soon as i could this time.

 

[doctor_kaz]

Arx Fatalis is fun as an exploration and puzzle-based adventure game, but it sucks horribly as an RPG. It almost has more in common with Thief than it does with a game like Gothic. The majority of the spells are totally worthless and the system of casting spells by tracing runes with the mouse is horrible in combat.

While difficult in combat, I don't mind it at all - magic is supernatural manipulation of the very essence of existence - it makes sense that it's difficult to pull off - and it keeps it from being just "another type of attack". Risen, for instance, turned magic into just another "click to hit" ranged attack - this at least requires you to treat magic differently. Some of the attacks are pretty shitty though and hard to aim - I'm not sure if a high casting skill would make this better or not but I'm assuming it would."

In theory, I agree with what you are saying, but in Arx Fatalis the rune recognition was horrible and you had to draw something sometimes three our four times to get it right. This made it worthless in combat against a tough enemy. In the end, I just repeatedly stored fireball in the saved spell slots and cast those over and over again. Okami is an example of a game that pulled this concept off beautifully. It has great shape recognition and it pauses the game while you draw something.

 

[Murk]

someone tell me this prepared spell thing, i apparently have been missing out on a HUGE trick

 

[Gragt]

Easiest way to take out Ylsides with magic = 3 prepared Fireballs.

As in scrolls or is there a way to prepare rune magic through some kind of metamagic?

made sure to buy rhae rune as soon as i could this time.

You can prepare up to three spells in advance instead of having to cast them by drawing runes whenever you need to. You just need to draw the runes and before you release the casting button, you have to press another button and it will go into memory. I do not remember the button you need to hold but it's probably explained in the manual.

Edit: yup, page 56 of the manual.

Remember spell
As before, trace the runes in the air, but before doing so, press the “Shift” key to activate stealth mode. Once the spell is cast, a small symbol will appear next to your life energy display. You can store up to three spells, and activate these “instant” spells by either clicking the symbol or by using the keyboard short-cuts, which by default are the numbers 1, 2 and 3.

 

[Murk]

GLORIOUS - skimmed the manual a time or thrice but since its .pdf format (bought it from GOG) I never got too into it.

Thank you very much good sir, this will make things muchhhhh easier.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Mikayel: I know you've started a new game, but I've found some answers to your questions. At least they'll come in handy on your next playthrough.

...cannot find the 6th carved stone with the plain Moon crescent on it.

It's supposed to be hidden on a corpse in the Tomb Of Nameless Heroes on the top floor of the crypt.

... and a room right next door (check the minimap) that is also locked and i can't pick/have key, nor does any combination of levers in the area i've tried work.

IIRC there's a door in the crypt that can only be opened by having a set of tools and a really high Technical skill. As for the combination to the levers, try finding the remains of Azrael Darkthorne.

other thing of note - in the room that the pic shows, with the chest, are two gargoyle statues that are interactable. you can even hit them an they bleed, and they register a different color with the vision spell - wtf are they for? at one point one was even turning its head to look at me as i moved around...

They do nothing. They're just there to creep people out.

 

[Murk]

I actually got through all those parts in my last play through as well - but thank you all the same. I ended up checking every corpse I had gone through, a hassle as that save game had a bug where double-clicking containers had like a 10% chance of actually opening them, and so sometimes I'd have to double-click it like 50 times to get it to open -- current save game is fine though, and found the corpse in that room obscured by the giant spider i had killed on top of it.

My lockpicking skill wasn't high enough on my melee character but this time around I had focused more on dex and technical skill, seeing as how handy that came in with disarming traps/opening doors. One thing I had completely missed that I'm glad I got this time was the hidden lever behind the Shield of the Ancients that unlocks the central tomb in the main mausoleum that houses the oh so awesome Mithril leggings.

Really enjoying actually using magic as a weapon this time around, I think my STR is like 8 and my close combat at 40, can't even use anything better than a hand axe and wooden shield.

 

[Murk]

beat the game about 3 hours ago. was fun, really short, and the dwarven kingdom was a pretty cool dungeon - ran out of torches, unfortunately, but eh.

Feels like the game should have been twice as long tho, especially with the realization of what the guardian really is and why you were dispatched to deal with Akbaa. Would like to see a better and larger sequel, particularly with some more non-linearity and a more balanced character system...

...actually i'd rather just see an updated windows conversion of Ultima Underworld.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

That's one of the issues I had with Arx Fatalis as well. Compared to its spiritual successor, Ultima Underworld, Arx pales in almost every regard. It wins on graphics and sound effects, but loses to UW on pretty much every other front, including voice acting!

Still, it is a fun and enjoyable game, especially for UW fans.

 

[Good Ol' Drog]

Ultima Underworld

Never played either of them, but I remember Tim Cain praising these games.

If I ever bother playing them, should I play them both or is one of them much superior than the other?

 

[ecliptic]

I found the atmosphere and believability of 1 far superior to 2. However, 2 was still quite a good game game and did many things right. It's probably personal preference, honestly. I'd recommend them both, starting with 1.

 

[SuicideBunny]

does uw feature as many ways to solve individual quests as arx does?

 

[Unkillable Cat]

If I ever bother playing them [UW games], should I play them both or is one of them much superior than the other?

At least start with UW1. As far as Ultima games go, it's one of the few that's pretty much stand-alone, you really don't need to know anything about Ultima prior to playing it. Just be aware that you're delving into the early days of 3D technology, it's gonna be ugly.

UW2, on the other hand, somewhat plays like a "fill-in" game between Ultima 7 Parts 1 and 2, as it features characters and plot elements related to both those games. If you feel like playing more Underworld after the first game, then give UW2 a go, but you'll only get the best enjoyment if you've played Ultima 7 first...and intend to play U7 Pt2 shortly thereafter.