Rock, Paper, Shotgun! decided to take another look at Arx Fatalis recently, focusing both on how the game excels in the dungeon crawler genre almost in spite of itself, and on how it serves as a bridge between older dungeon crawlers (notably Ultima Underworld) and the modern, more action-oriented exemplars of the genre.

Arx is clearly a tribute to Ultima Underworld, powered by then-modern hardware and design standards. Arkane dared use the unholy concept of streamlining, and the results speak for themselves. They were more concerned with the player’s actions than on creating a perpetual murder machine, giving it a plot-driven, fairly sedate pace. There’s less focus on loot and redundant items, as most swords and armour are either better than what you have or not worth carrying back. This means your equipment will likely remain static throughout much of the game, and progress is defined more by events and your stats, and you spend less time comparing your Stick of Greater Snailpoke to every Egg Of Anonymous Screeching you find.

So far so underwhelming. But where Arx Fatalis comes together is in its sense of place. While the setting limits its size and palette, the caverns and tunnels that make up its world feel right. Human areas are open, stubbornly timber-heavy miniatures of a typical fantasy town, while the friendly-but-dim trolls live simple, cramped lives hewn directly from the rock, and more mysterious races build curious, threateningly alien structures.

And, of course, the combat and magic systems get singled out for particular praise:

Preparation is even more important for magic users, as Arx has one of the most interesting magic systems I’ve ever seen. Magic consists of runes, and casting spells means drawing the proper runes in the air. Get the shapes and combinations right and your spell will work. It’s genuinely difficult, and frustrating at first, but then it should be, right? We’re talking about exploding people with a touch, conjuring fire from your hands. Casting spells demands the proper points on your character’s sheet, sure, but that just makes it possible. The act of performing is dependent on your skill as a player, just as your fighting character needs you to guide his swings, and a sneaky type will be hopeless if you don’t direct him through the proper paths.

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Combat, too, feels lively and involving. It’s simple by modern standards, and mostly means charging up power strikes (holding the attack button) and trying to catch enemies with them while dodging their own swings. An embryonic form of the combat from Arkane’s later Dark Messiah, it feels more natural than the combat of its contemporaries because you have direct control in a way that’s frankly still too scarce. You swing an axe, and if you see your weapon hit them, your weapon has hit them. No dice, no tricks, no fault but your own. Hey, you could have run away, dead boy.

Arx Fatalis really was, in every imaginable respect, a spiritual sequel to the Ultima Underworld games; rumour has it that it was actually pitched as a third game in that series, for a time. If you’ve never played it, you really should: it’s available from GOG for $5.99 USD, and it’s just about the perfect thing to play while you wait for the start of the Underworld Ascendant Kickstarter campaign next week.

Besides one of the actual Underworld games, of course.