Fuinelen on 13/10/2002 at 14:28
I had Arx-Fatalis (french version) for a few days now, and I wanted to ramble a bit about it .. mostly because ... well ... I'm kind of overwhelmed :) Please note that I'm NOT finished yet with the game.
The things I didn't like first I guess :
* not enough faces to choose from (only 4 or 5 if i remember correctly)
* strange problems with the sound volume. Some effects are way too loud (taking money for example), while others really are fading in the background. This may be me though (Creative Audigy in there). Sometimes I really have to turn up the volume to understand a word of what an NPC tells me, and then get heart attacks by the clinking sound of coins. Changing the settings didn't seem to improve this much neither.
* the merchants only have limited stores. The way it works is like this : you open the merchants chest. If you take stuff out, you buy them. If you put stuff in, you sell. Putting your mouse over an item tells you the price. Sadly, once you have sold a few 4- or 6-slots armors to one merchant, you won't be able to sell anything big to him again. There isn't any way to reorganize the stuff in the merchants chest neither.
*it is sometimes tough to know where to go or whom to speak to next. There were times when I really was at a loss as to what to do next.
* The (french) speech bits, while quite good separately, sound slightly disjointed (as if the different character lagged ... oh ... tough to explain)
* I never seem to be able to win at the game in the inn ;)
That more or less covers it. As you can see, it's all rather minor stuff. The good stuff ... is well .. just to good to be true :)
* I loved the magic system in the demo, and I love it in the game. There is a list of spells along with the meaning of every rune in the manual. I was first a bit disappointed at having the spell list, as I think one of the funniest thing with such a runic system is to try to find stuff out. But it makes sense. Most spells can be derived from the standard spells, and it gives you a good hint on how the grammatic of spell-casting works. (for example : there is no reason why what works with fire shouldn't work with poison or frost ... and guess what!? It does work!)
* The story is interesting. Lots of ups and downs, Stupefying turns and funny dialogues. Oh yeah, and it is the first game I am aware of, which actually tells you to definitely use the Quicksave/Quickload buttons and explains why the dialogues are scripted ... while staying in tune with the story.
* The atmosphere is fantastic. What you have seen in the demo is definitely NOT the best this game has to offer. Some levels are just incredible. And here I have to send Kudos to whoever designed the Crypt. In terms of nervous breakdown and anxiety it is on par with one of the most haunting levels in any computer games ever, namely 'Return to the Hauted Cathedral' (if you don't know it, then you never played Thief ... and are therefore unworthy :P
I'll try not to give away anything, but the detail level of this level is so high, that one puzzle can be solved just by closely paying attention at what you see. (or I imagined things yesterday ... but at one point I was just wondering what to do to open a gate, and had tried all the usual stuff, when my attention was captured by a small but infitely important thing. I then just gave a short grunt and laughed at myself for not seeing it earlier. Felt a bit like Gandalf trying to open the doors to Moria)
* The puzzles so far are all logical and entertaining (funniest one was probably finding out how to speak with the goblin king), without seeming out of place.
* The sounds are ok. The french voice acting has its problems (see above), but I've heard way worse, and the general effects are quite well done.The ambient effects range from great to 'better than nothing'. They didn't annoy me yet.
* grafics are good to great. great textures (I *LOVE* the goblin king) and adequate modelling for the NPCs. The levels all look wonderfull (sometimes in slightly horrifying ways of course), as do the spell effects and the gore. I didn't remark any drops in frame rate on my system (Athlon 1700+, 512MB ram, GeForce3 Ti500. Running at 800x600 with Quinquenux Antialiasing, all settings on full and Bump Map on ... I find that the lower resolution with AA on normally runs smoother and looks more pleasing than higher resolutions without AA .. but that's just me)
Well ... that more or less wraps it up. If you like the UU or the Thief serie, then go uot and grab this game. (but if you are in this forum, I guess you've already set your mind anyway)
Got to go,
Sammy
