Arx Fatalis

The debut game of Arkane Studios, who originally pitched it to Electronic Arts as a third entry in the Ultima Underworld franchise.  Electronic Arts was receptive to the idea, but demanded that provisions be made; provisions Arkane ultimately rejected, instead choosing to rebrand the game as a new IP inspired by the Underworld games.  But does it deserve to stand alongside its inspiration as a brilliantly-executed immersive sim, or is it one that got little attention for good reason?

Arkane Studios is a pretty well-known and beloved name today; responsible for games like the Dishonored trilogy, 2017's Prey and Deathloop, they're praised by fans for their creative gameplay concepts and the storytelling within them.  They've also made no secret of their inspirations, citing classics like Ultima Underworld and System Shock as major inspirations for their games.  Arx Fatalis - a game they'd originally intended as a third entry to the Ultima Underworld series -  was their debut game in 2002 and was well-received by critics and fans, but not successful commercially.  This probably wasn't helped by the fact that it was released not long after Morrowind and Neverwinter Nights (released by powerhouse studios Bethesda and Bioware respectively).  However, the advent of digital distribution and Arkane's later successes saw several people revisit it, and it's built up a considerable following over the years.

Of course, as a huge fan of Ultima and having played several of Arkane's later efforts, I was eager to see how Arx Fatalis stood up to its inspirations.  It makes a good impression right away with its more streamlined skill/stat system (split into four stats and nine skills that each cover a number of traits) and an overall intuitive interface that uses a combination of keyboard keys and mouse features.  Tab to switch in and out of combat mode, right-click to switch to inventory interactions, click-and-drag to move and throw objects, and a number of one-press keys to open one's journal, stat screen or character menu.  Spellcasting draws inspiration from Underworld as well, using a runeword system, though unlike that game you have to draw out the shapes using your mouse while holding down the Control key and the left mouse button.  This is naturally rather clunky to do mid-battle, so you're given the ability to 'precast' up to 3 spells (5 on the XBox version) - essentially storing them for later activation at the press of a single key.  Money is weightless (in fact, weight doesn't factor in to your inventory capacity at all), though that's a good thing as it's much more important here than it was in the Underworld games.  The game also puts emphasis on a cooking system, letting you cook meat and bake bread and pies to serve as less expensive alternatives to healing potions.  As in Underworld you can also often bypass some obstacles like locked doors by picking the lock simply smashing them down, though there are minimum strength/skill requirements to do this, and some can't be bypassed at all.

Some differences do quickly show themselves, however.  Arx Fatalis lacks a dialog system, so there's not nearly as much focus on interacting with NPCs to solve puzzles and figure out what you need to do next.  The design is considerably more linear as well, with level layouts generally pushing you in one direction and not letting you go down some paths until certain, later story requirements are fulfilled.  That said, many story roadblocks do have multiple ways to approach them, and your choices will frequently play into the overall narrative; for example, choosing to attack the goblins who stole a troll totem will result in the goblins becoming hostile to you for the rest of the game and bar the item in question from actually being found, leaving a passage blocked for the remainder of the game, while analyzing some clues about the goblins' internal politics can lead to a more peaceful (and beneficial) solution.  One nice thing is that the consequences of your choices aren't always apparent right away but can come back to bite you later, so it's important to consider your options in every scenario.

Another improvement over its inspiration is the skill system - most skills in Ultima Underworld were fairly useless on closer examination, as there was always a way to get by without them (the Lockpicking skill, for example, was basically worthless as you could just bash down doors with your fists).  Here, skills are compressed into nine tiers, which cover numerous aspects of the gameplay.  For example, Technical covers both picking locks and disabling traps, Intuition helps to detect hidden objects, switches and traps, and also affects bartering prices in shops, while Object Knowledge allows you to poison weapons, repair equipment and identify items.  Some shortcomings still remain, though - there are very few ranged weapons (and finite ammo) in the game, so the Ranged Combat skill is largely useless.  Ethereal Link isn't very good either, as it just lets you determine an enemy's status as you fight them and causes your mana to regenerate slightly faster.  Still, homogenizing some less-useful skills with some that make sense to have is a step up from its inspiration.

Arx Fatalis is a nicely atmospheric and often creepy game, though the hammy voiceover (particularly from the goblins and trolls) does make some parts unintentionally humorous when they shouldn't be.  However, I find it falls short in terms of design in some very crippling ways.  There is no dialog system in the game whatsoever, which leaves the whole thing feeling very disconnected and impersonal, and shops are handled via an awkward system of placing or removing items in chests (with money changing hands automatically). The dungeon is a very straightforward and linear one for the most part, with few side-areas to explore (and attempting to stray into them early will just get you killed more often than not).  This also uncomfortably restricts you in terms of level growth, and can get you stuck when you encounter an obstacle you can't overcome when adhering to a particular playstyle, like a boss battle you have no choice but to win.  This seems a bit sloppy in terms of design, especially as earlier games like Deus Ex would almost always afford you a way to avoid combat entirely rather than forcing you into it.  Similarly, required difficult battles in Ultima Underworld would often come near the end, so you'd be much better prepared for them.

So, having played Arkane's first game, I can see why it didn't have a ton of mainstream appeal; after all, immersive sim games have always been notoriously unreliable in terms of selling well even today despite often being acclaimed by critics.  Arx is certainly a good attempt in some respects, streamlining the skill system of its inspirations and offering multiple solutions to many puzzles and a narrative that changes depending on your actions; however, its overall linear design, general impersonal feel and restricting you into certain playstyles are all definite detriments to the experience.  Still, Arkane had to start somewhere, and this isn't a bad foot to get off on - it just needed a bit more fine-tuning to live up to the legacy it clearly wanted to live up to.  They have since gotten their bearings and made considerably better (and much more successful) games in the years since, though.

Developer: Arkane Studios
Publisher: JoWooD Productions, Arkane Studios
Platform: PC, XBox
Released: 2002, 2003
Recommended Version: The PC version has since been made open source, which allowed for a very nice fan patch called "Arx Liberatis" to be released, making it runnable on multiple platforms and in higher resolutions, as well as fixing several prominent bugs.  The Xbox version is a remarkably faithful port, though with a somewhat simplified interface for the controller layout.  One also has the option to activate "Arcade Magic" mode, which lets the player simply select spells from a list that they have the proper runes for and automatically precast them, rather than having to use the rune-drawing system.

Prey (2017)

Prey is another project of Arkane Studios, a studio whose games have always found considerable fan followings and been relatively ambitious in terms of design, though not always successful financially.  Prey struggled to sell big numbers when it launched, but was that due to it not matching up to their previous works, or simply due to the trappings of the genre it inhabits?

Immersive sims are a heavily lauded genre among fans; beginning with Ultima Underworld in the early '90s, they saw considerable acclaim for what they tried to accomplish, putting the player in a surprisingly realistic environment and having to be scrappy and resourceful to make it through, making the most of whatever you could find and using unorthodox thinking to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles.  But while Ultima Underworld was a highly influential and popular game, future games that followed in its footsteps would be plagued by a lack of consistency when it came to financial success.  Deus Ex and Half-Life were quite strong sellers, but games like Thief and System Shock 2 didn't fare nearly as well despite being well-received by critics, with the latter two even leading to Looking Glass Studios closing its doors amidst mounting financial problems.  Even some of Arkane's earliest games fell prey to this - Arx Fatalis was a well-received game that amassed a considerable following, but you'd never know that from its sales figures.  Still, that hasn't stopped them from keeping the dream alive with later efforts like Dishonored, Deathloop and 2017's Prey, which was expressly said to be an homage to the format and design of the System Shock games.

Before we talk about the game in-depth, though, I should address the controversy surrounding its name.  In 2006 Human Head Studios released a first-person shooter game called "Prey" based around an alien entity attacking the earth, being fought against by a Native American protagonist with some spiritual abilities that aided him.  While pretty well-received in its time, mounting financial problems with its publisher (3D Realms) led them to sell the IP to Bethesda, which in turn led a planned sequel to be canceled.  Arkane (now under the Bethesda banner as well) ended up using the name for their game instead, despite it having no connection to that game's story and only really using the same general concept of the protagonist facing hostile aliens.  In short, while it uses the same name as the 2006 Prey, it has no real connection to it (and actively discards all concepts and ideas for Human Head's planned Prey 2), which a lot of fans were none too happy about.

If you can look past that, though, you'll find a creative and surprisingly well-done take on the immersive sim genre.  The game takes place in a divergent timeline where John F. Kennedy was never assassinated and the space race accelerated to a fevered pace, leading to fully-fledged space stations packed with advanced technology in a surprisingly short period of time.  Among these are a new technology called "Neuromods", derived from the DNA of a hostile alien species called the "Typhon", that allow people to install new memories and skills in their minds.  This serves as both a major plot device and the game's primary upgrade system, which operates very similarly to the Cyber Modules in System Shock 2.  The developers also went all-out on fleshing out the cast of characters you encounter; even ones who are already dead by the time the game begins are made more real through audio logs, e-mails and other notes, which really helps to immerse you in the setting.

True to its inspiration, Prey puts you in the midst of a very dangerous and hostile place, and you often have to get pretty creative to reach your current goals.  Your choice of neuromods plays into this beautifully - you can purchase hacking to hack keypads/computers and get into areas you don't have the proper passcodes for, as well as reprogram hostile turrets and even enemy robots to fight for you instead.  If you prefer a more direct approach, you can purchase Gunsmith and upgrade your weapons with kits, getting more range, damage, et cetera with each shot.  Repair lets you fix broken panels, turrets and vending machines, and even the lowly-sounding Leverage skill is surprisingly handy, letting you pick up heavy objects, which you can then move out of the way to clear blocked paths, set up defensive barriers, create makeshift staircases or just fling at enemies to conserve ammunition.  At max level it even lets you pry open unpowered doors, letting you bypass some power-routing puzzles.  Even a seemingly useless weapon you find early on - a toy crossbow that fires foam darts - encourages some thinking outside the box.  Obviously it's useless in a fight, but it can activate touch-screens on computers, press buttons at a distance, trigger traps, knock things down from high ledges or even be used to get a foe's attention so you can lure them away (or into a trap) without giving away your position.  As in many immersive sims, making the most of every tool at your disposal is key to survival.

As is common for these sorts of games, resources also tend to be pretty scarce, so you of course will want to conserve them whenever possible.  The game itself has a pretty sly way of facilitating this with its Recyclers - basically, you feed junk items (or unused weapons, ammo, etc) into them and recycle them into basic Materials, which you can then feed into a Fabricator to craft into whatever you need - health kits, ammo boxes, medicine, or even more Neuromods.  You can only create a few basic things at first, but as the game progresses (and you do a fair bit of scavenging), you'll find blueprints which unlock more things to fabricate.  Of course, even mid-combat there are things you can do to save precious health kits and items - each enemy type has weaknesses to exploit.  Immobilizing them with the "Gloo gun" before hitting them with another weapon will inflict extra damage, while mechanical enemies are vulnerable to EMP-based attacks.  Being able to weaponize nearby turrets and physics objects against them is another option, but in other cases (like being low on ammo/health/spare parts), it's more prudent to sneak past them and avoid combat entirely.

Combat is best approached sparingly in general, honestly; enemies are often much more durable than you, and coming into a fight with a new type unprepared will get you killed in pretty short order more often than not as their capabilities and weaknesses vary wildly.  In order to even up the odds, you eventually get ahold of another useful gadget in the Psychoscope.  This works similarly to the Research function in System Shock 2, letting you analyze an enemy's weak points to prepare for strategies against them.  Unlike System Shock, this also serves as your means to unlock Psionic powers - scanning enemies will grant you new abilities that you can then unlock with Neuromods.  These grant you even more ways to deal with various hazards; from generating traps that detonate and burn approaching enemies to controlling machines to restoring health to even copying enemies' ability to shapeshift, letting you hide in plain sight.  One downside is that you're basically integrating the enemy's DNA into your own, so the station's defenses will identify you as hostile if you install more than one.  It's certainly possible to get by with none, but it's a risk you'll have to weigh if you want access to some of the more powerful abilities.

So, while Prey may have gotten the short end of the stick in terms of sales, I found myself quite impressed with its quality as an immersive sim.  True to its inspirations, one must carefully consider what type of strategy they want to employ in building their characters and handling various obstacles they come across.  Every goal you encounter has numerous ways to complete it, and especially resourceful players can even get into some areas well ahead of when they're expected to, getting ahold of better weapons, gear and Fabricator plans to ready themselves for future challenges.  Its setting is a creative and well-fleshed-out one, and it even utilizes some impressive engine technology with virtualized 3D spaces inside of the "looking glass" screens you frequently interact with (which can reveal even more secrets if you pay close attention).  It even has a few elements I haven't seen in any other game of this type, like the Recycler Grenades (a weaponized version of the crafting machines you find throughout the station - also quite handy for dealing with stubborn foes) and being able to track the whereabouts of any NPC in the game via security stations; most are already dead, but even in the process of tracking them down you'll often find new routes through the station or at least a few resources on their bodies.  Simply put, I haven't had this much of a sense of freedom and immersion since the genre's golden era with Ultima, System Shock, Thief, Deus Ex and Half-Life.  I don't think it's quite as finely-polished and brilliantly executed as any of those those games, but nonetheless, Prey is a standout example of the genre that I'd highly recommend playing.

Developer: Arkane Studios
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Platform: PC, Playstation 4, XBox One
Released: 2017
Recommended Version:  I have only played the PC version, but they all seem to be pretty comparable to one another.  Arkane's PC ports are somewhat notorious for having performance issues and general bugginess, but that has been largely averted this time as the game utilizes a well-established engine (Cryengine 4).

Dark Messiah of Might & Magic

 Arkane Studios is a name I associate with ambitious but not entirely successful concepts, and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic is one that actually came out surprisingly well.  Contrary to every prior Might and Magic game, it puts much less emphasis on character building, exploration and role playing and focuses much more on action, utilizing the Source engine's physics capabilities as a central element.  This makes combat a lot more interesting than most action-RPGs, as it's much more than simply hitting them with sword, arrow or magic until they fall down - you can knock down shelves to crush enemies, pick up and throw barrels, set up ice and oil slicks to send them flipping, kick them into spikes or fires (which are conspicuously placed in almost every combat zone), get them in the path of a swinging chandelier to kill them, and even smash up floors and walls as you fight, sending enemies (and possibly yourself) plummeting.  In fact, your character isn't particularly durable, so facing enemies head-on is usually a bad plan - you're much often better served knocking them down and then finishing them while they're helpless, or throwing objects from afar or setting traps instead.  This all sounds awesome on paper, but without some tweaking, you won't get the most out of it.  Your character's constant head-bobbing is extremely distracting and the touchy mouse sensitivity makes aiming attacks surprisingly difficult, and it crashes quite frequently on modern systems without some modification.  Things that look like they would be immediately fatal (knocking an enemy off a ledge and watching them drop over twenty feet) often aren't, while a well-placed hit with a barrel or small crate often are.  Even the cutscenes (both prerendered and in-engine) seem to poke fun at the focus on physics, with characters having wildly exaggerated motions and knocking things over constantly.  It doesn't entirely succeed at what it tries to do (any part that requires precise platforming or climbing up ropes is generally a nightmare to deal with), but the short runtime and surprisingly entertaining twist on generally-dull fantasy RPG combat makes it worth a look.  So if you want something that has the look of Oblivion but action more in line with a Tom and Jerry cartoon, give DMMM a try.

Developer: Arkane Studios

Publisher: Ubisoft

Released: 2006

Platforms: PC, XBox 360