Originally Posted by JDR13
Those 2 games are nothing alike at all. Dark Messiah is a first-person action RPG, although I use the term "RPG" lightly in this case. Arx Fatalis is more of an old fashioned dungeon romp, and offers a lot more in terms of actual role-playing.

If that's the case then I guess any similarities might have been overblown due to them having the same developer.

Gothic 1 is extremely similar to Risen and I'd suggest trying the latter first as G1's controls were never inviting to new players.