Arx Fatalis

[Munin the Raven]

I've finally played this one after two years of meaning to. :p It's a real gem, and it's a shame that it came out in a year dominated by other RPGs (Morrowind, Neverwinter Nights). Much like Thief TDP, it was overshadowed by more mainstream titles.

Arx Fatalis isn't Thief, but there are a lot of similarities to older Looking Glass titles. The game is very dark and atmospheric, and some sections resemble classic Thief environments, like the Bonehorde. The human guards sound, look, and act very familiar and the sword fighting is very similar. I also immediately recognized a certain voice actor. :D

I recommend this one to Thief fans, and I suggest getting a copy before it disappears from inventories.

[Huntress]

HI Munin..I saw this game being released a long time ago and from what I read, seemed to be fairly difficult. Therefore, I passed it by...however for the more gifted of players, it sounded like a good game to try. :)

Actually, for me as well, I've got so many games to play now I can't keep up, LOL I have not even installed yet, Warcraft III or Sacred which I bought a couple of months ago or so yet! I'm also still working my way through HL2 :D Then I have other T2 mods stacking up as well...so many games, so little time, etc. ha ha ha. Such a life!

Ta and Good Hunting!

[SlyFoxx]

I started Arx ...oh I don't know....about 14-16 months ago. I guess I got about 20% through and gave up. The character kept dying from hunger! It seems he has to eat deer legs faster than a master thief to stay alive! After 4 years of pinching everything not nailed down playing Thief it seemed awfually wierd that I couldn't find enough food. :(

But as M.T.R. says...the game did/does have a very thiefy feel and has some very good voice acting and seems to have a pretty good plot. It also had some amazing puzzle type aspects and you could combine items (you can frob about everythinig IIRC) in different ways to create new items. (Eg...water + flour = dough...dough+apples+fire = apple pie....stuff like that)

[Munin the Raven]

Yes Huntress, it is a very difficult game. Much like the earlier Thief titles, it has a fairly steep learning curve. You have to retrain yourself not to pickup everything in site and that it's rarely possible to completely explore an area on your first visit. :p The game also had several bugs when it was first released, which scared off a lot of potential players.

SlyFoxx, from what I've read one of the patches reduced the amount of eating required. In the latest version it's almost never an issue. The item combination system and environmental intreraction are amazing.

[yubetcha]

I have played most of this game about a year and a half ago. I didn't have a problem with food, though. I quit playing, because it had gotten to be ridiculous. I accomplished one objective to end the game (I thought that it would be the final objective), just to be given a curve ball, and then have another objective to accomplish. And then another. One of the objectives was tough enough. I decided that I had enough. Not only that, but while exploring, I came upon something that looked like an alien ship (the home of the snake women, if I remember correctly). I found it before I was supposed to in the scheme of things, and it screwed up the game. I had to go back to a previous save, wasting all of that time.
BTW, it reminded me of the Stygian Abyss game, which I loved, and played over and over again.

[BrokenArts]

I played this game for a fair bit Munin. Got about half way and quit. I tried to go back later, my loads are screwed, ( for whatever reason)

I have read various threads, on a few forums, people start off really liking it, then it goes down hill for them. They end up quitting the game. And then some really liked it.

I did have fun with it, I may try it again, some other time.

[CatSuit&Ponytail]

*sneaks in*

I also liked the game, for a time, but I was lousy at killing the big dudes with my pinched crappy weapons, and had to put it down. So starvation was never a problem for me, :D and I liked baking pies. Yum. ;)

*tummy rumbles, sneaks back out*

[Munin the Raven]

Wow, this is very interesting. Here are five other people who've played the game, and none of you finished it. I'm surprised because it isn't a very long game considering its complexity (25-30 hours). I admit that the game has many issues, but hopefully the sequel (if it's still in the works) will address them. I've played through it three times, but the last run was incredibly short and uneventful. The replayability isn't as great as one would expect from an RPG.

Yubetcha, one neat thing about this game is that it's designed so that you can complete it even if you kill plot-critical characters. You can fail every quest, indiscriminately butchering NPCs as you blunder your way through the game. I don't think that's a very enjoyable route though. It's rather easy to mess up something critical, and often it isn't obvious until later in the game that you've "broken" a quest. The main quest was stretched out at least one portion too many though.

[yubetcha]

I am glad that you liked it. But I got tired of thinking that after surviving by the skin of my teeth, I was sure that the end was at hand, only to be told, "Sorry, here's another thing you have to do". WTF? Or constantly spending a lot of time running from one end of the game to the other collecting things for quests. My memory is very fuzzy, but I remember doing many quests, and then killing the main enemy... I want to say that he looked like some kind of demon or dragon, or something. Can't quite remember. But I died many times, and killed him only after trying many different tactics till I found the one that worked. I was sooo tired of fighting and dying. Then when I thought that the game would finally end or at least get easier, I was given something else to do. There are too many things that have to be accomplished in that game as far as I am concerned. :)
With the Snake womens' home, I was exploring, and found my way in through the back. You probably know the area. I followed ledges that were on walls, which eventually led me in through the back. I can't remember very well now. Something about them attacking me. I killed them all only because I was defending myself. And I can't remember how I found out that it screwed up the game. But I found out after advancing in the game a great distance from that point. I was not happy that I had to go back to a previous save, losing all of that time and advancement. I was very perturbed. After replaying and getting up to that area when I was supposed to, I remembered that they gave me quests to do, so maybe that had something to do with the screwup. I can't remember now. It must've been something critical to the game, or I probably wouldn't have gone back to the previous save. At any rate, by the time I killed the main character (the demon or whatever it was), I was ready for a change.
But ya know what? Even though it reminded me of Stygian Abyss, I remember Stygian fondly, and sometimes think I would like to play it again. When I think of Arx, I don't get that feeling. People remember for a very long time how someone makes them feel. Games can do that too.

[Random]

I played and finished it. I think it was designed as a kind of spiritual successor to Ultima Underworld. It's a cool game, but I agree with most of the criticisms in this thread. In particular, it's very easy to break the game by doing something you're not supposed to. I'm looking forward to Arx Fatalis 2, though, which is using the Half-Life 2 engine.