Arx Fatalis…

Originally Posted by Jaz
You mean the temple Ylsides? Two fireballs/Ylside were enough to down them. I guess playing a battlemage might have been the best approach to Arx…

Yeah. Even when I played through Arx as a fighter (the first time), I used fireball scrolls to take down or weaken the Yslides. They were just too fast for me battle
toe-to-toe even though I was pretty much maxed out on fighting skill.

Truly fearsome opponents!

Originally Posted by elkston
Well it is quite obvious to me that what eventually became Dark Messiah of Might and Magic was originally intended to be Arx Fatalis 2.

I saw the guards and thought : ARX!

Ive only played the Demo of the game. It look REALY nice, but i cant get a hold of the complet game… Ive looked in every PC-game shop there is in my home town and the place I study. argh..!

For norwegians:
Er det noen som vet hvor jeg kan skaffe Arx Fatalis I nærheten av Lillesand eller Kristiansand?

Originally Posted by elkston
It is very clear to me that Arkane was working in earnest on Arx2 and then UbiSoft gave them an offer they couldn't refuse with Dark Messiah. Hopefully they have some resources and leverage now to actually complete Arx 2 like they were planning.

Am I the only one who hopes they ditch Source and reuse the original engine for Arx 2?

Originally Posted by Stanza
Am I the only one who hopes they ditch Source and reuse the original engine for Arx 2?

Why? The degree of interaction and capability that is possible is just amazing with Source - now that they got the 'tech demo' out of the way with Dark Messiah, they can get down to business with Arx 2!

BTW I managed to figure out the "DOG" on my own and I did the lava jumps with only 2 or 3 saves. That earns me 2 free PDF peeks!

I would say it earned you a few peeks. I must have tried at least 8 before I got it. And even with that I never got it the first time out on any of the replays I did.

[MonGoliat - Ive only played the Demo of the game. It look REALY nice, but i cant get a hold of the complet game… Ive looked in every PC-game shop there is in my home town and the place I study. argh..!]

Have you tried ebay?

That's how I got Arx!

Originally Posted by ToddMcF2002
BTW I managed to figure out the "DOG" on my own and I did the lava jumps with only 2 or 3 saves. That earns me 2 free PDF peeks!

You're a genius! I must have tried 1000 times . And I had to look into the walkthrough more than once or twice.

Well this 'genius' had to hit the PDF last night to find the 5th meteor rock. I figured it was in there but I had no freakin idea how to get it

Originally Posted by ToddMcF2002
Well this 'genius' had to hit the PDF last night to find the 5th meteor rock.

Arx has this way of humbling all of us

Thankfully I'm pretty much at endgame. If I had to rate it now I'd give it a 90% off the bat but have to deduct 10% for frustrating design decisions. Given the fact that the PDF exists I think it deserves an 80%. Without that companion I'd take an additional 10% off because I'm guessing at least half of the people who would play Arx would find it impossible without some assistance.

I'd also guess that the game has the same "stuck" points for most people and there are maybe ~6 of them. Someone adventuresome with the PDF could put a "Spoiler Hint FAQ" in that would guide people to the answer without spoiling a bunch of other stuff in the process. For example - I learned way to much from the PDF trying to find the reference to the missing Meteor rock. If there was a "Spoiler Hint FAQ" entry for 5th Meteor Rock that wouldnt have happened.

That's not a dig at the PDF by any stretch - just a nice to have addition. It would really help Arx and at the same time preserve the Arx mystery which is one of the chief features of the game.

I used the maps as a spoiler hint FAQ. I read the list of thinks listed under each map if I got stuck or couldn't find an object. I agree with you however that would have been great to have. However I think Garret did a great job with the file considering he volunteered his efforts.

Oh I agree, which is why I said it wasnt a dig at the PDF by any stretch. Heck I would have given up by now without it.

Originally Posted by txa1265
Why? The degree of interaction and capability that is possible is just amazing with Source - now that they got the 'tech demo' out of the way with Dark Messiah, they can get down to business with Arx 2!

Because I'm turning into a crotchety old fart with too much nostalgia.

And I'm afraid of ending up with an Arx 2 where pre-scripted physics gimicks trump story, dialog, exploration, and all of the other things I look forward to in a good RPG.

Originally Posted by Corwin
How can anyone say that Ultima Underworld had a better plot than Arx?? UU (a game I love) had no real plot; it was a dungeon crawl!! Arx had a much deeper and more complex plot!!

Sorry, but just think of how you came into the whole mess in Ultima Underworld. You were imprisoned to rescue a girl but had to discover that the bad wizard guy was in fact the good guy who wanted to prevent the real bad guy. That's what I call a cool plotwist.
Then consider the different races, their characters, etc. The backgroundstory that holds them together! The big wizardschool! The ghouls!

In Arx Fatalis, you wake up with no memories (yawn), discover that you're the chosen one (YAWN), and you have to prevent an evil sect (yawn) from calling a monster that's going to destroy the world (yawn).
And consider the different races here. They are boring and stupid, with the honorable exception of the goblins. Think of the ratmen - they didn't have anything what I would call a civilization. It was … broken.

Meh.

Well I finished Arx last night. I got stuck one last time on the "Lost Souls" (aka levers from hell) crypt level. Even with the PDF it took me almost an hour to get the sequence. The symbol floor puzzle was very cool, and I liked the pointing statue - but the levers in the "Lost Souls" area was just friggin obnoxious! Otherwise the crypts were great.

Apparently my rampage in the rebels camp cost me - I finished at level 8 and left a bunch of dangling quests because, well… everyone was dead!

Anyway… great finale and I liked the ending. My score is unchanged - 80%.

Arx Fatalis is no Ultima Underworld, it simply doesn't have the detail or scope to compete. However, despite its limitations the game dripped with atmosphere and had plenty to offer, IMHO. In the end I wanted more, just MORE!

Plus I think Arx had the best crypts of any 3D CRPG I have played. You truly felt alone in those cold, dark chambers.

…and ALICIA!!! That stuck-up little twit!

"…Work? Why should I work when I am going to be FABULOUSLY RICH!!!!"

I'm not comparing UU and Arx as games, that would be unfair to both. Perhaps 'story' is personal, but I enjoyed the 'story' in Arx more than the one in UU. I treated UU as a dungeon crawl more than anything else. UU2 on the otherhand had a fantastic story!!