Arx Fatalis is a first-person RPG, which plunges the player into an amazingly complex fantasy world. Arx Fatalis combines intelligent storyline with impressive medieval surroundings. The user-friendly interface allows the highest interactivity possible. Arx Fatalis creates a state of intense immersion that allows the player to feel that all his actions have a direct consequence in the Arx game world.

The goal of the game is to destroy the secret cult of Akbaa: the god of devastation and chaos, and thereby prevent his return to the physical world. Should the player fail, the demon is bound to impose his reign of terror upon Arx. The player, assuming the role of the potential hero, fights inside an underground fortress using wooden clubs, swords and magical items to defend himself against creatures including goblins, trolls, ratmen and other vicious opponents. But, brute force is not always the best way to succeed and the player has at his disposal the innovative new "onscreen gesture based magic system" to assist him in his progress through the game. Using the mouse, burning runes can be drawn in mid-air. A series of these gestures combine to create powerful magic spells that will protect the player or empower him to defeat his enemies and pursue his quest.

In addition to the struggles against demons and monsters there are numerous opportunities for interaction with the creatures and objects inside the fortress helping the player to rediscover his memory, solve puzzles and fulfill quests. Collecting experience points enables the player to appropriately craft his hero's skills and abilities and to develop his overall persona. Dare to enter the world of Arx Fatalis. Explore underground cities, secret temples, lost civilizations, dwarf mines and discover the magic of Arx Fatalis...

Features:

• 50 different spells based on 20 different runes
• Numerous opponents and monsters
• Different weapons and armour
• Huge story with more than 60 hours game play

GCM:	Please introduce yourself and tell us about your involvement with Arx Fatalis for the Xbox.
Julien:	Hi. I’m Julien Roby, Associate Producer on Arx X-Box at ARKANE STUDIOS.

GCM:	Why was it decided to bring Arx Fatalis to the Xbox?
Julien:	Bringing Arx Fatalis to X-Box is an opportunity to provide X-Box players the best Arx Fatalis experience they can imagine. We’ve listened carefully to PC players’ feedback and according to them; we've redesigned and adapted a lot of quests and game mechanics.

GCM:	Please briefly describe for us world in which Arx Fatalis is set, and the role gamers will be assuming.
Julien:	The world of Arx Fatalis is a fantasy world where the sun died. People have moved underground to escape the eternal winter that has started with the sun disappearance. As you progress through the game, you will discover that a dark cult is growing deep inside the Arx kingdom.

GCM:	Where would you say Arx Fatalis falls on the scale between action-driven gameplay and story-driven gameplay?
Julien:	We’ve done our best to make players experience a great variety of gameplay and I’d say Arx Fatalis features as much action gameplay as adventure/story-driven gameplay.

GCM:

What options will the gamer have when creating his or her character and how will skill advancement be handled throughout the game?

Julien:

When you will create you character you’ll have to distribute points in 4 attributes (Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity & Constitution) and then you’ll have to distribute skills points. There are 9 skills as Object Knowledge, Stealth, Magic, Combat etc. An important thing is that there is no character class in Arx Fatalis. You can start with a ”warrior skills oriented” character and then during your quest you will still be able to learn thief or wizard skills.

GCM:

What sort of species will the player encounter, both hostile and friendly?

Julien:

Many species can be encountered in the Arx kingdom: goblins, trolls, humans, ratmen and snake women for instance. Each of this people have their own city. They will be friendly or hostile depending on your actions. Each of this people have their own AI and behaviors and there are different archetypes for each races: spellcasters, guards, villagers etc. The cities are also the places where you will find some animals wandering around, like dogs, chickens, pigs or even some frogs near the underground rivers. Arx underground wilderness is the place where live rats, bats & spiders and more hostile creatures can be encountered in other dark places: liches, mummies, undeads.

GCM:

As for combat, how are non-magical battles carried out in Arx Fatalis?

Julien:

The combat system is a 1st person real time combat system. Thanks to the directional pad you choose the kind of hit you’d like to do, then you hold the attack button to load your attack and you release it when near your enemy. I can also tell you that we've added a difficulty level option to make the combat easier if the player wants to. So everybody will be able to enjoy the adventure even if you are not confident with real time 1st person combat.

GCM:

On the PC, Arx Fatalis used an interesting method of magic casting that had the player “draw” spells. Please describe this system and explain how it will be adapted to work on an Xbox controller

Julien:

Arx Fatalis magic system is based on a unique rune stones system. In the game you will find many rune stones. Each rune stone means something. For instance “AAM” means “Create” and “YOK” means “Fire”. So if you combine the power of these two runes you will get the spell “AAM YOK”>”Create Fire”. As each spell is done by a sequence that means something, you will be able to find new and secret spells if you find a rune sequence that means something. For instance, if you find the rune “TAAR” which means “Projectile” you can add it to the sequence “AAM TAAR” to get “AAM YOK TAAR”>”Create Fire Projectile”. When you know a spell sequence, then you have to cast the spell by “drawing” each rune. To do so, you will use the x-box directional pad to draw the shape of each rune. There is one combo for each rune, corresponding to the rune drawing. For instance the rune YOK which looks like a U is drawn by the combo Down, Right, Up.

GCM:	And for combat, inventory and so forth? How do you plan to adjust Arx’s controls to work on the Xbox?
Julien:	The Interface and controls have been redone from scratch to make them more user-friendly and adapted to the Xbox joypad. We’re very happy with the result and we're sure you will enjoy it too :-)

GCM:

About how long do you feel it will take the average gamer to complete the game from beginning to end and what will give Arx Fatalis replay value?

Julien:

The average time to complete the game is about 50 hours and much more if the player would like to see everything. Indeed, depending on your character skills, you won’t see the same things and you won’t solve your problems doing the same thing. One problem always have different ways to be solved. Also the player can try to play the game doing his quest following a different order. The game features 4 different endings depending on the way you have deal with people during your quest. There are also some sub-quests the player can do and many secrets to be found while exploring the different locations.

GCM:	On graphics end, what has been changed to better suit the Xbox's hardware and how will Arx Fatalis on the Xbox compare to its counter part running on a high-end PC?
Julien:	There will me some graphic enhancements making use of Xbox specific hardware; we'll make use of Pixel Shaders and shadow buffer. The 3D Engine will also be specifically optimized for the Xbox hardware and the game will run really smoothly.