A decade before Arkane Studios would create the silky-smooth stealth sandbox Dishonored, it released its debut – an altogether dirtier breed of first person action-RPG called Arx Fatalis. Unfortunately, the developer released it just a few months after something called Morrowind. Both games are stuffed with the sorts of things a particular breed of computer anorak gets sweaty over: pantheons of bickering deities, weapon durability, fiddly controls, obtuse levelling systems conceived by an absolute lunatic, mushrooms. Where the games differ is in just how little Arx Fatalis is interested in making the player feel powerful.
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