I really can't agree at all with your review.
It's a very different kind of game, it has nothing to do with Morrowind.
And honestly I think it's far better. Much more smart and challenging.
Morrowind, like most of Bethesda games, it's just an empty box.

Whoever said Arx Fatalis is like Morrowind, either didn't play Arx Fatalis or didn't play Morrowind. At all. There's very little in common with AF and Morrowind, other than they are both fantasy cRPGs with first person view (yes, I know Morrowind can be played with 3rd person view as well). I cannot fathom how anyone who's actually played both games would call them similar.
As to your comment to go play Morrowind instead, I just say, to each his own, but I don't agree with you. I much preferred Arx Fatalis to Morrowind myself.

Odd you should say that, it was Morrowind that felt dry and boring to me, in comparison Arx felt much more vibrant and alive. In short, it is almost everything that Morrowind failed at, or never attempted to do. Next you'll be telling me Ultima Underworld was just Morrowind with bad acting and bad graphics.

They have everything in common.
They're both excellent games.

Ignoring setting, graphics, story and all the rest are the controls between arx fatalis and morrowind similar? I've only played morrowind and its fairly easy to control the movement and how you attack and cast spells, is this the same with arx fatalis or does the controls more resemble older dungeon crawler games?

Mostly, yeah, insofar as you move around with the WASD keys and fight mostly using the Mouse. There are some significant differences, such as how the different hotkeys are placed and how you need to draw runes on the screen with your mouse to cast spells, but the controls are the same(ish) otherwise.
@The original poster; you're right, Arx Fatalis bears little resemblance to Morrowind. There's a lot less to explore and do, the voice acting is terrible, the story isn't as deep, and the combat is generally more interesting. I wouldn't compare the two games, either.

It's more like Morrowind than Wizardry, the controls are very similar, except for the magic system.

you ppl are talking about elder scrolls 3 right? Cause if you are, Arx Fatalis in my eyes will never size up to Morriwind or any of the Bethesda Softworks games ever. The mass open-world and game content that the elder scrolls 3 & 4, plus Fallout 3 contain, are probably some of the best games i have ever played, as far as RPG's go :). But don't get me wrong... I like Arx Fatalis it's just not as great as Morriwind.

Morrowind I can understand, but I don't see where you see the RPG content in "Fallout" 3 and Oblivion.

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Sorry but Morrowind has the Worst Voice acting I've ever heard, the NPC's all walk around like they've got a broom up their asses, some of them are almost leaning backwards they look so stiff.
The game can be finished at level 1 or 2 just by running straight to the end of it,
the potion system can be exploited by making Intelligence potions, drinking it then making another one, (which increases the power of the potion) keep doing that and you can raise your Intelligence into the Thousands, so you can make a potion that will last a Year before wearing off.
You can also abuse the potions so much that you'll be able to cast a fireball that can engulf Balmora in its entirety
I don't know why Bethesda even bothers creating Character Classes, as your character can master absolutely Everything
As far as Oblivion goes, it's just a First Person Sworder, it too can be finished at a very low level, and Fallout 3 can be completed in under 20 minutes, if you only follow the plot.
Yes, Bethesda has huge open Worlds, but their Plots and Story lines are HORRIBLY short.
What I completely HATE about Bethesda games, is that they use the Same 2 to 4 voice actors for Every Single NPC in their games, and only have certain small parts for a single person such as the Emperor played by Patrick Stewart
Bethesda also uses a crappy/buggy/crashy game engine, they rarely patch their games, and when they do it takes them forever and they won't even tell people whether they are working on one or not, the only thing going for them is that their games are moddable which lets the Players actually fix or add things to the game that Bethesda didn't.
That's lazy game making to me, release a game and let the fans fix it.
I do play Morrowind, Oblivion and Fallout 3, but I also have to use a ton of mods to turn them into playable, enjoyable games.
Like Martigen's Mod that adds Geckos and Wanamingos from the original games, and it can double triple or quadruple the spawns so it's not an empty World you're walking around in, so yea Bethesda releases a basic skeleton of the game and leaves it to the fans to add content for them

+1 just for the rant....;o)

They are both different games, well the Elder Scrolls have always been different. Anyway I will always take one Arx Fatalis against ten Bethesda's open worlds.

Bethesda's open worlds do need your imagination. And Oblivion do need mods, but they offer you worlds that no other game can give you.
Bethesda's open worlds do need your imagination. And Oblivion do need mods, but they offer you worlds that no other game can give you.

Arx Fatalis is a hidden gem. I discovered it by accident after having no games to play on Xbox 360 or Xbox. I found it while searching on the internet for RPGs to play and I soon came across it. After playing the boring and over-hyped Fable and the ridiculous Morrowind with combat that could bore a nagging wife to death and finishing with the brain washing Oblivion with even more annoying combat than its' predecessor and finishing with the few true RPGs I had: Two Worlds and Kingdom Under Fire: Circle Of Doom . I came across Arx which allowed you to do completely what you wanted and allowed you to progress through the story in your own way.
I killed all the trolls in the beginning only to find that I needed their help. No problem! One who was in a cell as a prisoner would still help me - problem solved.
NPC's also didn't walk into walls like they would in Morrowind. There were great surprises in Arx. When I killed the two brothers at that camp in the lower levels; I discovered Goblins had looted the chests and taken over the area - whereas in another play through I didn't kill the brothers and found that no Goblins attacked them. Elsewhere someone broke into my room in the royal castle and sacrificed a chicken in there (such surprises aren't common in Oblivion or Morrowind) and please don't get me started about Arx's combat! Unlike Morrowind's, at least your weapon hits everything it touches!
If one wanted to - he could kill everyone and still go on a quest to forge the ultimate weapon to defeat the boss. In another quest where you must retrieve a magical ring: you are given many choices on how to get it from the rebels. Either help them so they give it to you. Steal from them via stealth. Or kill them all. If you keep the leader of the rebels alive you can even influence a certain part of the story since she is the king's daughter. You can give her location to the snake woman so they go and forcefully make her their new queen, or you can tell her father. Or you can ignore that whole subject!
Arx didn't hold your hand either. One quest required that you complete a puzzle to get through a gate: being a sandbox game, you could just jump onto an above platform if you know how to and get past the gate and open it from the other side. Arx allowed you to do what you want and you weren't required to follow the story and you could play or follow it the way you wanted. Arx was small and armor and weapons were low - but the upgrades for them and what you could do were many unlike Morrowind. Arx also had a better story than anything Bethesda could cook up. Why do you think Bethesda copied some of the story for Oblivion? In Arx you must stop a cult and in Oblivion you must stop a cult and shut a bunch of Oblivion gates (That are from Diablo II) to stop a demon called Dagon (A pagan God from The Bible). At least Arx had its own story.
Hopefully there is an Arx Fatalis II. Anyway from I have seen Arx generally did more better than Morrowind than on both PC and Xbox thus Arx proves that any any game Bethesda makes can be beaten even by companies such as Arkane Studios which only have a few people working for it! For consoles: people think that The Elder Scrolls have no other games like them. However xbox had Arx which beat Morrowind and Morrowind received some 7 and 6s anyway: Apart from Oblivion, Bethesda has a history for crap games believe it or not: some Elder Scrolls spin offs for the first games where so bad that they received 4s!.Whereas with Oblivion: no first person RPG has came out yet for 360, so people still think Oblivion is one of a kind, but believed me. All one need to do it created a first person RPG with a big world with good graphics and you will see how it will do well. People are so easily brain washed by graphics and music in a game.
Anyway:
Arx Fatalis = One of the most memorable RPGs of all time.
The Elder Scrolls = Failed wannabe RPGs that wishes that they were true RPGs, with combat as stressing as Hell - it is a wonder how the players of these games still live and haven't committed suicide.
Annoying TES fan: "Oblvion with MOds makes da game batter!"
Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods (Said to be one of the most unfinished game expansions ever) with mods makes the game better. In fact one can create anything for that game with mods - does that make it good? No it makes what the fan has made good - it has become their game; the original game still sucks.
So if you have to mod a game to improve it: doesn't that show how rubbish it is? At least with Arx you don't have to mod it to enjoy it because it is a great game straight away.