who else thinks arkane did a really awesome job with the puzzles and atmosphere of the temple? i remember beating the temple for the first time early in the morning on my 16th birthday. the XP and feeling of accomplishment was like another present! i have never really been big on puzzles but i think arx converted me since they are expertly integrated with the magnitude of other gameplay elements in the game. this game is UNBELIEVABLY underrated.....its better than elder scrolls!

Yes.

I think they did on awesome job on all levels with atmosphere and puzzles. That "walking backwards" bit had me pulling my hair out for a minute!



It is underrated and a good bit of the fault is on Arkane. They had a very successful IP in concept and let it slip away.

yeah true. and the rest, especially the gameplay & level design. ha ha yeah me too, but it was good training for the crypt! compare the puzzles to the mentally handicapped friendly ones in skyrim! what do you mean cos they did not make a sequal (yet)? i would have thought the fault mainly lies with the publisher, gaming press(reviews were like 7 or 8/10 which is bad judgement imo) and consumer hype/word of mouth.

True, the reviews didn't help much (many of the points by critics were blatant comparisons to Morrowind which I felt was extremely unprofessional... But that seems to be the general nature of game reviews), nor the fact that the release coincided in Europe (Germany anyways) with Gothic II, and on the heels in the U.S. with Morrowind. Both developers already well known by critics, but this fact is mostly happenstance. Where Arkane faltered was in developing an intellectual "niche" title that many failed to understand outside of the UUW world (which for some reason they failed to obtain the rights); They were just not savvy and aggressive enough in marketing. It's not like Jowood or Dreamcatcher were strong publishing choices either as both managed to administer themselves into financial ruin.

IMHO success and failure always fall on those that lead the endeavor.

I think there was many reasons why it did not sell well, most reasons were out of the devs & publishers hands.
Word of mouth/hype, gaming press, competing with morrowind & mainstream mentality. Deus ex has an intellectual title and it sold well enough.
I blame the audience mostly. I had never heard of any of my now favourite games whilst growing up, I bought deus ex only because it was cheap and after that I had to hunt the rest down on the net. And i tell you now they only get better with age, especially when you compare them with the mostly mindless crap that is on the market today...but i suppose that makes them even more special.

I can't decide what's my favorite level up results and effects the most in all the video games in the world I've played so far from these kind of customizable(non MMO) RPGs.-Fallout 3, KOTOR STAR WARS 1 and 2, or this beast of a game...ARX FATALIS! Just wanted to put that out there. Um...kay, you can go back on subject.