A decade before Arkane Studios created a silky-smooth stealth sandbox shamewhich released its debut – a totally filthy first-person action RPG called Aks Fatalis. Unfortunately, the developers MorrowindBoth games are full of things that a certain type of computer windbreaker makes them sweat: a pantheon of brawling gods, weapon durability, cumbersome controls, sluggish leveling systems conceived by absolute lunatics, mushrooms. The game is different in that Arx Fatalis has very little interest in making players feel powerful.
The Elder Scrolls is an absolute fantasy of power, built entirely around freedom, allowing players to fulfill their LARP-ing dreams without ever leaving the house. Sure, players usually start with chains, but within 10 minutes, they’re roaming the dreamy countryside, spewing fireballs from every orifice. In Arx Fatalis, the chains never really come off. There is no post-tutorial catharsis and no sense of wonder as you leave the starting area and gaze at the possibilities that stretch to the horizon.That important moment — That thrill of your eyes adapting to the light when you leave Vault 101 or Link wakes up from a nap he slept on for 100 years? In Arx Fatalis, it never appears. Because Arx Fatalis is set in a cave.
Everything in Arx Fatalis is set in a cave. You never leave the cave. When you escape one cave, you just reach another cave. The world of Arx has lost its sunlight, and each archetypal fantasy race is forced to share the dampness of the deep underground. You desperately swish at the mouse in the opening minutes with the bones you picked up from the pile. You tear the meat from the rat, heat it up with fire, and eat it while you bend over in your pants. When you finally manage to drag yourself into the human city, you’ll be shocked to discover that it’s just another cave. There are caves all the way down. But what caves are they.
It’s hard to imagine a braver pitch than an RPG set entirely in a cave. How do you feel when you say the words “RPG” and “cave”? Have you ever thought about the pain of identity for hours spent in a grey tunnel of oblivion? Are you thinking of visiting the exact same cave with slightly different wallpapers 10,000 times in Dragon Age 2? Caves are often the nadir of video games – where creativity dies. They are not conducive to a sense of freedom, to the expression of player power. They’re there to provide material, as a lot of content can be easily produced, and players can find better and better breeches within 500 hours. When was the last time you visited a cave with character? Each cave at Arx Fatalis is a small piece of art – conveying such a terrifying, humid atmosphere and presence that if you play for more than an hour, you’ll feel the need to heat up.
The physicality that really shines in Arkane’s next release – Might and Magic’s Dark Messiah – is also present in Arx. To cook something literally means to drag it out of your bag and put it on the dirty floor by the fire. The meat turns black and the dough puffs up. Stones can be picked up and thrown across the room to distract enemies. You can decorate a room with ferns and flowers, or make a bunch of skulls at someone’s front door. When a cult leaves a decapitated chicken on your bed, you can lift it arm’s length and throw it down the hallway to make it someone else’s problem.
This tactile interaction also extends to the magic system. Spellcasting involves absently spelling out combinations of arcane runes in front of you. In real time, usually when the Lich shocks you. From memory, ideally – though few spells have any mnemonic meaning, so you’ll often refer to your spellbook in combat.
You feel less like an almighty wizard and more like a kid’s party magician fighting for his life to sort through ancient knowledge completely beyond his grasp. If “Arx Fatalis” had been released in today’s market, a system that would allow you to pre-store three spells wouldn’t be the case, where there’s more mainstream interest in games that actively play against players; players. In The Elder Scrolls, magic is fun, often allowing players to break the world in incredible ways: clearing buildings in one go at 100 mph. In Arx Fatalis, the most exciting magical feat is being able to hover slowly half a meter above the ground.
Arx Fatalis sells for a whopping $4.99/£2.99 on Steam and can be easily retrofitted to look razor-sharp on modern monitors. We’ve done a lot of work to make spell input more reliable, and if you really want to get carried away, you can download the 4.5GB AI-scaled textures. I don’t know how it works. I think they force the robot to think very hard about rocks.The point is, Arx Fatalis is RPG set in a cave Trinity, backed by Avernum and Breath of Fire V Dragon Quarter. Tell me this doesn’t excite you.
I don’t know anything about The Elder Scrolls 6, but I think it will be safe huge. It will have the smoothest and most satisfying combat to date. Bethesda will continue to remove those lingering friction and discomfort, ensuring there are fewer barriers between players and their desire to feel like Billy Big Bowes.
But don’t you feel strong enough yet? Don’t you want to spend hours of misery in a big cave? It builds character. Skyrim is still available on every possible platform when you need it. So try Arx Fatalis, if you haven’t already, let it show you how good bad times are.