William The Taffer on 21/12/2002 at 00:29

---

Is Arx worth it???
I'm a Thief fan myself, and I was wondering if Arx is as good as Thief?? Storyline, gameplay, atmosphere??

~Will

Brodieman on 21/12/2002 at 02:03

---

Definitely is worth it, particularly if you have been craving an "old skool" type of Dungheon hack/crawl/adventure. The game has given me as much enjoyment as the Thief (and System Shock) series' have. The graphics are good, not awesome but nice to look at, for the most parts voices are well done, when you get it just upgrade to version 1.15 and save yourself a whole lot of problems you definitely do not want. The only real gripe you can have with this game (besides the aforementioned bugs!) is that sometimes you really have to crawl and hunt to find the slightest of clues to help you progress to a new part of the quest, this is definitely not Neverwinter Nights, no one will hold your hand in this game you will have to work for it - which is bad if you hate that sort of thing, but great if you like it!

Ziusudra on 8/1/2003 at 07:05

---

For what it's worth, I'm a Thief fan and am greatly enjoying Arx...

vesuvius on 12/1/2003 at 21:33

---

sadly no, at least not at 40+ dollars
I wanted it to be good. I've played SS 1 and 2, thief 1 and 2, deus ex, and underworld 1.
sadly the developers of arx fell into a lot of errors common to first time game makers.

a) guiding the player
while in some instances, having very little guidance can be good because it makes it more challenging and realistic to have to figure out where to go on your own, Arx provides far too little guidance. in some places the solutions to puzzles are far too obscure with no hints provided and in other places the guidance probs. involve locations not puzzles. the entire game world is pretty much open to you from the start, and while I restrained myself from searching too far ahead too early, it is far too easy for people to either skip straight to the end (ruining the game) or for them to spoil plot suprises early on.

b.) difficulty.
while trying to make a game that can be played through many different styles is admirable, and can pay off if done correctly, if done incorrectly as in Arx it can just make it frustrating and can make the player have to replay 10 or more hours of gameplay due to design that really accounted for only 1 solution despite the ability to make your character unable provide that solution. example: the Ylsides ( I won't spoil anything, suffice it to say they are very hard to beat and there's really only 1 tactic that seems to work reliably)

c.) world size / lack of world substance.
the game world of Arx is dissapointingly very small (8 relatively small dungeon levels, each with 2 or 3 areas in them) and has very few areas w/ npc interaction (1 'city' (very small) and 2 camp/towns that are even smaller) within each of these areas most people (all but around 2 or 3 usually)will not speak to you except to say 'do you wish to make a purchase'(or the equivalent). although the world is interesting in that the 'state' of areas change each time you visit (day to night, shops close and open, people go home, other people may wander away from where you expect them), it is still very frustratingly small, and the people are very hollow. this is compounded by the inability to really interact, instead there is really only 1 speech option ever.

the plot, while somewhat interesting, rarely draws you in as either urgent or interesting, and the villain/plot are both very vague in purpose and details. The stiff acting (both voice acting and character animation in cut scenes) also hinders in immersion and prevents the plot from coming alive.

it's an interesting game, and has a lot of promise, but honestly I didn't feel it was 'worth it' and don't feel it has much replay value (there are probably less than 10 things I could have done differently, except for playing as a different character type).