Anyone who has played Dishonored 2 will have trouble believing that the same company that made that game also made this one, a few decades ago, and I mean that in the best of ways (in the best of ways for Arx Fatalis, the comparison doesn't favor their later projects). And just to be clear, this was the first time I played Arx Fatalis, I had no nostalgia goggles to affect my judgment.

Arx Fatalis is a metroidvania First Person action-oriented RPG, that "can" be played entirely as a First Person Stealth game, similar to the Thief series, but equal focus has been put into its other playstyles. The medieval fantasy world of Arx is an underground network of caverns and tunnels, as the world goes through an apocalyptic winter above-ground. Goblins, Trolls, Humans, sexy Snake Ladies and recently genocided Dwarves call this place their home, and somewhat coexist.

The world is basically separated into 8 large levels, which you are encouraged to explore and return to as you unlock new abilities and the (super-basic) story progresses. Each level is filled to the brim with secrets that can be discovered through very specific means (for example with careful usage of the "Levitate" spell, or the "Reveal" spell), which is one of Arx Fatalis'es best features.

• It's a Metroidvania first-person stealth RPG, yaey!
  
  
• The game has graphic aesthetics down. It might not be detailed, but the world and the enemies look pleasing even by today's standards.
  
  
• Related to the above: Great level designs. There are always secrets to discover, illusions to dissolve, places to reach, etc. And on that note: Amazing environmental interactions, and I don't mean scripted stuff.
  
  
• The magic system of writing runes looks awesome. The more experience you have the more you start to recognise the patterns on how each spell is "written" (for example all fire spells have the same 2 initial runes).
  
  
• If you're observant enough, you can actually figure out what spell enemy casters are gonna cast based entirely on the runes they're writing.
  
  
• Just as you think you have the pattern down, the final of the 8 levels changes the formula and goes from the typical trash mobs that fill the rest of the game to a single large beast that chases you and which have to outsmart, a la modern horror game style.
  
  
• Snake lady boobies.
  
  
• Genuinely creepy atmosphere in many parts.
  
  
• Can be played entirely as a stealth game if you so choose, reminding more of Thief 1/2 than Dishonored. In general a lot of replayability.
  
  
• In an absurd bit of world-building, you can buy goblin mine shares at the start of the game, finish a certain quest and then resell them for 3 times the buying price. Touches like that are just great.
  
  
• Plenty of experimentation to be done with crafting, though it could have been even more.

• The story is not exactly Shakespearean.
  
  
• Laughable voice acting for many of the NPCs.
  
  
• Enemies, especially the larger ones, tend to get stuck, which is unfortunately mandatory to cheese them into defeat. The final boss and the optional pre-final boss are some of those enemies.
  
  
• While the magic system is awesome pre-fight, when you prewrite your spells so they can be instacast in battle, having to write runes and make the game recognise that you want to write a "C" and not a "G" while being turned into a shish kebab by an Ysild is not exactly fun. Casters basically use their 3 prepared spells, then climb out of reach to take their time rewriting spells. On that note, the limit of a mere 3 memorized spells is tedious.
  
  
• Fireballs are absurdly powerful for a low-level spell while higher level spells are largely a disappointment.
  
  
• The exp that can be gathered is limited, enemies do not respawn, so if by the time you reach the final boss you had not appointed your stats carefully, you're screwed.
  
  
• Almost every caster in the game has stupidly spammable and strong self-heals that make killing them impossible without excessive burst damage or stuns. Mid game, playing as a fighter is soul-crashing, until you finally unlock the enchant ability in the end-game.
  
  
• Money is almost pointless. By the end of the game I had 50000 Gold and nothing to spend them on.

• If you're gonna play this, play the Arx Libertatis version from the start. I played the OG one, and the mapping was a mess (at higher resolutions most of the minimap is faded for some reason). Link: https://wiki.arx-libertatis.org/Download
  
  
• Do not make a Jack-of-all-trades character. Pick ONE playstyle (warrior/mage/thief) and invest all your points in that. Most of the combat is geared towards mages, but everything works, as long as you don't spread your points evenly.
  
  
• A bit of tutorialing: To make items interact with the environment you usually double click them in your inventory, then click on the part of the screen where there is an interaction, but in some cases you must press "F" on your inventory directly instead, when there is no visible interaction spot. The game doesn't tell you any of this.
  
  
• Study the control keys. I'm embarassed to say it took me nearly 10 hours before I figured out F1, F2, F3, F4 open your journal tabs. Also remember that F5 (Quick Save) is your friend. The game never autosaves.
  
  
• Poison is much less of an issue than the game would have you believe. It goes away on its own within 10-15 seconds and barely does any damage. Do not bother investing character points or spells into combating it.
  
  
• Golem Hearts are the enchanting material that gives your weapons a stun, proportional to your casting skill (less than 50 casting: 0.5 seconds stun, above 50: 1 second stun, above 100: 3 seconds stun). If you want to kill enemy spellcasters as a warrior, using golem heart enchantments is the ONLY way to go, so you can interrupt their rune-writing. Otherwise their absurd self-heals make them invincible. Neither of these facts are mentioned anywhere in the game.
  
  
• Raise your item recognition skill to 70 if you play as a warrior or a thief. It is the only way to identify what items do AND to have them do anything (aka if you equip an unidentified item it does not even give you its bonuses, whatever sense that makes).
  
  
• Some rings have durability, others don't. Ring durability is reduced according to how long they're worn, NOT based on the damage you take, unlike the rest of your gear. On that note:If an item's durability reaches 0, that item is DESTROYED, not just becomign unusable.
  
  
• It is not mentioned anywhere, but the green mists lich cast do not only act as a poison to you, but as a heal to them, and the "negate magic" spell is largely unreliable.
  
  
• Scrolls have castable spells on them ready for use, regardless of your casting skill. In addition, even if you are able to cast a spell, if that spell has levels (like the levels mentioned for the golem heart enchantment above), then you might only be able to cast it at its lowest level, and not get the full effects. For that reason, if you're not a caster keep any "enchant item" scrolls you find.
  
  
• Do not be in a hurry to make money. Trader inventory does not refresh, and quite a few of the items they sell are useless. By the end of the game, I had 50000 coins with nothing worthwhile to spend them on.
  
  
• Farm as much exp as possible, it is finite. You will finish the game on Level 9 (starting from 0) on average.