Traditional console role-playing games, made in Japan and filled with random battles and melodramatic storylines, have yet to find a home on the Xbox. But the system boasts some of the best PC-style RPGs in years. Arx Fatalis is one of these, and it fully deserves a permanent place in any Xbox RPG fan's library alongside Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. With Arx Fatalis, French developer Arkane Studios intended to pay homage to the classic early-'90s first-person RPG Ultima Underworld, but it has done much more than just imitate that game. Originally released a year ago for the PC, Arx Fatalis has been ported over to the Xbox nicely, and it delivers the same entertaining, good-looking, and almost incomparably atmospheric gameplay. It's highly complex and filled with much more detail than you're probably accustomed to from other games, which means Arx Fatalis isn't suitable for casual gamers. But they've never heard of Arx Fatalis, anyway, and are merely missing out on a memorable, original role-playing experience.

Arx Fatalis is a subterranean dungeon crawl styled after the classic Ultima Underworld.

In Arx Fatalis, you play as a character who has lost his memory and awakens in a small cell. That's one of the most typical ways for a role-playing game to start out, but the actual setting of the game is quite a bit more interesting. Arx Fatalis takes place in a world where the sun has fizzled out and civilization has picked up and moved beneath the surface of the earth, since it's warmer down there. This means you won't be seeing much in the way of blue skies or colorful songbirds during your stay in Arx Fatalis but will instead be seeing plenty of caverns, dungeons, tunnels, and such. That might sound pretty bland, but actually it isn't. The world of Arx Fatalis may be lacking in traditional beauty or standard tourist attractions, but it's filled with detail and is highly interactive. You're able to pick up just about anything that isn't nailed down, you can use the local flora to brew various potions and such, you can move or throw things around, and if you look down, you can even see your feet. Arx Fatalis does its best to make you feel like you're actually in the world of the game, and for the most part it does an excellent job of it.

You create your character by applying ability points to four core attributes and skill points to a number of different abilities, from close combat and magic, to stealth, intuition, and object knowledge. Gaining experience levels, from vanquishing enemies and solving quests, lets you further improve these attributes and abilities. You're free to specialize as you see fit, though you'll likely want to play as a character with balanced fighting and magic abilities, since combat is inevitable and magic is essential.

Arx Fatalis is played entirely from a first-person perspective, though the game switches to an external view for its occasional in-engine cinematic cutscenes. The interface, reminiscent of that used for other first-person games such as Halo, takes a little while to get used to, but it actually works very well--Arx Fatalis ultimately is easy to control and won't be too difficult to get into. The early portions of the game also serve as a tutorial, letting you get your feet wet with the combat, magic, and puzzle-solving elements. The core gameplay and interface do have a few shortcomings. Inventory management is based on limited storage space rather than on encumbrance, and it can be clunky. Though you can toggle an onscreen automap feature, it's pretty rough and won't always help you find where you're going. The diary feature also isn't all that great, as it only vaguely serves as a quest log for what you're supposed to be doing--you'll have to pay careful attention during dialogue with the game's non-player characters to make sure you don't miss any vital clues, since they're not always likely to be noted in the diary and are not likely to be repeated.

But these are just a few relatively minor details in a game that's filled with many more interesting ones. The game lets you do such things as build fishing rods, catch fish, cook them over an open fire that you light using a magic spell, and then eat them to nourish yourself (you actually have to eat every now and then). You'll conduct fairly complex investigations, finding tiny clues such as notes hidden in drawers or keys hidden under cushions. More importantly, the game's core elements, like the combat and magic, work very well.

Sure enough, the main character of the game begins with no recollection of his identity.

Dealing with enemies in Arx Fatalis is handled much like in other real-time first-person RPGs, such as Morrowind. However, the combat has a much better feel to it than in that game. You'll be able to find and use some ranged weapons, but much of the combat takes place at close range, where you'll use things like swords, clubs, and axes to execute thrusting, slashing, and chopping moves against your assailants. Depressing the right trigger causes you to wind up to strike, and charging up your attack for a few moments causes it to deal more damage. Critical hits are possible, and it's also possible to sneak up behind unsuspecting foes and launch a surprise attack. In any event, the combat in Arx Fatalis looks great, since the game's enemies animate fluidly and will respond noticeably to your attacks with shrieks of pain or various taunts. Injured enemies may turn tail and flee, and various types of deathblows yield various grisly results, depending on where and how hard the killing strike connected. While not terribly complicated, the combat in Arx Fatalis is thoroughly satisfying.