[Computer Roleplaying] Arx Fatalis is looking good.

[Tsyr]

I just finished playing throught the demo of Arx Fatalis, a game I've been keeping my eye on for a while now.

Basicly, it's an attempt to recreate the feel of the old Ultima Underworld games... but I think it's gone far beyond that. It's a first-person roleplaying game which combines roleplaying, puzzle solving, action, and a dose of "other" at times.

It's very good. The amount of "little touches" is amazing at times... cooking food over a campfire and watching it cook, making loaves of bread and watching them raise... just really minor touches sometimes, but... *shrug*.

The graphics are very good... much better than any MMORPG graphics, and at least on par with the Unreal Tournament engine (And in some ways beyond).

The combat is a little clunky, regretably... it's a lot like combat in the old Daggerfall games... It works well enough, it just feels clunky to use. Spellcasting is kinda unique too.

Not going to spout off too much, there are a number of sites that can do that better than I... but I just wanted to pass along the word that there is a pretty cool looking RPG in the works right now. If you're interested and can manage the file size, there is a demo... go here:

http://www.arxfatalis-online.com/eng/files/files.html

and check it out.

 

[Droogie]

I tried it. I thought the interface was a nightmare. Basically, you have to right click, move the cursor, and double-click on the object to interact with anything in the environment. Not very intuitive. If I'm running for my life from some giant spiders and I need to get that door open, I'd like to get it open NOW. Maybe it was because it was late, or I was tired, or maybe I'm just getting old, but I just couldn't seem to get the hang of it. Also, the writing is a bit poor, the voice acting terrible, and the models talk by clapping their mouths open and closed like a wind-up chopping jaws toy, which looked pretty silly.

I did like the story tho, and the magic system is interesting. Unfortunately, the wonky interface is what will keep me from buying this game. There are other RPG/first-person-action combo games that do the interface so much better: System Shock 2(great game!) and Deus Ex come to mind.

 

[Tsyr]

I used to hate the interface, but after I played through the demo a second time, I stopped. It actualy started to become quite intuitive. My only remaining gripe about the interface is trying to manage your inventory... you have to drag single items around, you cant drag stacks. Oh well. This is a demo remember, maybe the final is a bit improved.