Review Arx review at Khabal

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Arx Fatalis

<A href="http://www.khabal.com/">Khabal Gaming</a> has posted their <A href="http://www.khabal.com/articles/showarticle.php?id=378">review</A> of <A href="http://www.arxfatalis-online.com">Arx Fatalis</a>, giving it a <b>7/10</b>. Here's a snippet:
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<blockquote><b>Forever in a funny box</b>
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As always, perfection is an impossible task. To make things worse, this game imparts a feeling of claustrophobia, such that you constantly feel trapped in a box that varies in distance and height.
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Also, since everything is underground, and all paths are linear, there is not much lateral exploration. But then, that is actually a good thing, because the game has a tricky and clumsy jump mechanism: It?s hard to be a sword-wielding do-gooder Mario. There are also some path finding and collision detection glitches that enable you to get stuck when climbing a slope or some steps and this is prevalent even with the 1.15 patch.</blockquote>
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Jump puzzles should stay in platform games, where they're actually fun.
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Spotted this at <A href="http://www.bluesnews.com">Blue's News</a>.

 

[Flarnet]

Jumping puzzles combined with dodgy player movement and atrocious collision are punishable by death in most countries where capital punishment has been officially banned years ago.
Not so in France though it would seem.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Jumping puzzles combined with dodgy player movement and atrocious collision are punishable by death in most countries where capital punishment has been officially banned years ago.
Not so in France though it would seem.

They really don't belong in the CRPG genre at all, simply because they're a device that relies on the player's manual dexterity as opposed to the dexterity attribute of the character.

 

[Spazmo]

They don't belong in any game that takes itself seriously at all.

"I, the great wizard Zangdar, am Master of Evil! I must defend my Tower of Evil with some truly Evil obstacles! Let's see... a few Minions of Evil here, a nice Trap of Evil here, and in this room, ho-ho, in this room, I will put... a bunch of boxes stacked in such a manner that they can only be crossed with some careful jumping and crouching! Mua ha ha ha ha! I am truly a most excellent Master of Evil! All is ready for the foolish adventurers now--wait, no, I am forgetting something. Ah, yes! I must put a very Eeeevil potion of full healing inside one of those boxes! Now my Tower of Evil is perfect! Mua ha ha ha ha!"

I should do dialog and design for an RPG. It would be the best thing ever.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Hahahaha.. Yeah, no kidding. The same thing applies to Fallout 2's electric floor door maze. The question is, why do CRPG developers feel the need to add stuff like that in their games?

Why not just actually plan an area by... And I know this is a novel concept here.. actually role playing the guy who built those areas!

If you're making an area that's a deep dungeon built by a powerful, evil wizard to keep people out... Then damnit, put yourself in that wizard's shoes. Start with the background of that wizard, and figure out what he's capable of doing. Determine what means this wizard has at his disposal. If he's rich, he could afford to get some dwarves to dig it out and build it for him. If he's not, he could move in to a dwarven mine, find some old ruins and clear them, infest some caves, the sewers at some town, and so on.

Depending on his level of magic, and his expertise, populate the dungeon accordingly. If he's a necromancer, then fill it with undead. If he's a conjurer, go with constructs. If he's an elementalist, go with elemental beings. If he's an illusionist, make it distort reality. Make all that based on how skilled he is at magic, per his level.

In a nutshell, design it as if you were him, had access to what he had, and work from there, doing what you would do if you had all that and the motivations he or she has. If you do that, you shouldn't run in to the silliness a lot of CRPG areas have.

 

[Flarnet]

Which is a good start!

But if I were evil yet lacked the means (magical or economical) to conjour/buy enough mischief, I would try to McGyver my way to a better dungeon.

So an Illusionist will of course have the usual mirrored hallways and telportals. But if I were he I would do everything in my might to thwart those no good heroes. If creating a garlic-free environment and setting up a few caskets can attract vampires, why shouldn't I? Even if I am an illusionist. If stealing the corpses of those who died violent deaths can get me some ghosts, why is that so wrong?

Which reminds me. When I first heard of the game Dungeon Keeper, I thought it would be a turn-based game of evil master tactics. Not a RTS. Too bad for me.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Hahahaha.. Yeah, no kidding. The same thing applies to Fallout 2's electric floor door maze. The question is, why do CRPG developers feel the need to add stuff like that in their games?

Why not just actually plan an area by... And I know this is a novel concept here.. actually role playing the guy who built those areas!

By the look of it, it's a novelty concept for most developers. As for the maze, it was ridiculous, having a maze with electric floor inside a military base. :shock: I wander what 'genius' has thougt of that.

In a nutshell, design it as if you were him, had access to what he had, and work from there, doing what you would do if you had all that and the motivations he or she has. If you do that, you shouldn't run in to the silliness a lot of CRPG areas have.

Right on. I agree with every word. Design from a character point of view applying all skills and resources available to him/her using character's motivation as a guideline. It sounds so good, so right, so promising....

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

So an Illusionist will of course have the usual mirrored hallways and telportals. But if I were he I would do everything in my might to thwart those no good heroes. If creating a garlic-free environment and setting up a few caskets can attract vampires, why shouldn't I? Even if I am an illusionist. If stealing the corpses of those who died violent deaths can get me some ghosts, why is that so wrong?

Well, an illusionist of decent high level should be able to move in to a mine or some other area that's already populated and get the people/dwarves that live there to off themselves in nasty ways, thus producing spirits. That'd be easier, at least.

An illusionist is probably the one guy that's going to have the most trouble making a new cave/mine/sewer/dungeon, though. He's pretty much going to have to move in somewhere. A necromancer can summon up undead diggers to work for him, or even a puny demon or two. The elementalist guys can summon up earth elementals and transmute rock to make it easier to dig. Conjurers are the contruct makers, I think, and a golem work force would be a pretty good team for dungeon making.

You know what gets me? Why is it that Wizards are always the ones that build these large dungeons? Why not clerics or druids?

Which reminds me. When I first heard of the game Dungeon Keeper, I thought it would be a turn-based game of evil master tactics. Not a RTS. Too bad for me.

It's more of a god-sim, actually. I really enjoyed that series.

 

[Spazmo]

Underground druids are rare, Saint. As for clerics, I've seen underground temples of Eeeevil before.