Customer Reviews

Dark Messiah of Might & Magic

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

So far I love this game. I played the single-player demo over and over, constantly finding new ways to dispatch the orcs. Do I snipe them with my bow? Do I kick them off the ledge? Do I stealth-kill them? Do I throw oil near them and light them on fire with a flaming arrow? Do I kick them into spikes? Do I cut the rope holding the pile of logs and let them get bashed? Do I bash their heads with barrels and boxes? Do I melee them with my sword? Do I freeze and shatter them? And honestly, there are still more ways just in that one area.

And now I'm playing through the full version.

Arkane has finally broken through the "FPSes can't have good melee combat" barrier. The way they integrate the combat, the physics, and the environment makes this game a lot of fun. The RPG elements add to this as well, giving your character a lot of customizability.

So far only two things have annoyed me: the bald wizard dude's voice acting, and the slow-down experienced on my pretty decent computer. I never expereinced slow-down like this in any area of Half-Life 2. The first real level, with the cyclops attacking, made my computer slow into a slideshow several times. I have all their "recommended" requirements other than a 256mb video card. I have a 3.2gHz processor, I have a gig of DDR2 RAM, and I have a 6600GT 128mb video card. It's the Source engine. I think it should run better than that. I guess I'll have to lower my settings.

I didn't experience any of the problems that the 0 star guy below did. I have no idea why he had such problems.

If this were a game forum, I'd note these short reviews and pass on by. But on an open SALES forum like this, I feel compelled to give my impressions of Dark Messiah--impressions which are quite different than the others posted here.

I too have played every single Might & Magic game that was released over the years (all the way back to the original M&M) and every Heroes of Might & Magic (including the recent HOMM 5). That Dark Messiah doesn't live up to Jon Van Caneghem's original vision strikes me as an over simplistic and erroneous judgment. I will agree that if you're looking for a continuation of New World Computing's M&M flavor (no pun intended), in my opinion that hasn't been around since Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven was released in 1998, and some would argue since 3DO acquired New World Computing in 1996.

I think Dark Messiah dovetails well enough with the M&M world and lore--which is plenty big enough to draw from--but far more importantly that it holds up very well as an exceptional game in its own right. In other words, that it is FUN. Graphically, Dark Messiah is gorgeous, it sounds marvelous (despite some occasionally less than spectacular voice acting), and the story and immersion-factor are superb. Dark Messiah is certainly an action game first and an RPG second (a distant second), but if you enjoyed such FPS/RPG hybrids as System Shock and System Shock 2, the Thief series, Deus Ex, etc., I can't imagine your being unsatisfied with Dark Messiah. It's got loads of action, personality, style, and fun.

As for bugs: I've seen the large number of problems that some people have had with Dark Messiah not running or not running well on their machines. I have certainly had that experience over the years with many other games too, but not with Dark Messiah. For me it has played flawless for about 15 hours now. The graphics are smooth, the sound is excellent and without stuttering, and I haven't encountered one crash or even a slowdown yet. If you're concerned about Dark Messiah working on your PC, you may want to wait for the patches to arrive. But as for myself and a good many others, I can tell you with confidence that from where I sit Dark Messiah is a smashing success.

If this were a game forum, I'd note these short reviews and pass on by. But on an open SALES forum like this, I feel compelled to give my impressions of Dark Messiah--impressions which are quite different than the others posted here.

I too have played every single Might & Magic game that was released over the years (all the way back to the original M&M) and every Heroes of Might & Magic (including the recent HOMM 5). That Dark Messiah doesn't live up to Jon Van Caneghem's original vision strikes me as an over simplistic and erroneous judgment. I will agree that if you're looking for a continuation of New World Computing's M&M flavor (no pun intended), in my opinion that hasn't been around since Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven was released in 1998, and some would argue since 3DO acquired New World Computing in 1996.

I think Dark Messiah dovetails well enough with the M&M world and lore--which is plenty big enough to draw from--but far more importantly that it holds up very well as an exceptional game in its own right. In other words, that it is FUN. Graphically, Dark Messiah is gorgeous, it sounds marvelous (despite some occasionally less than spectacular voice acting), and the story and immersion-factor are superb. Dark Messiah is certainly an action game first and an RPG second (a distant second), but if you enjoyed such FPS/RPG hybrids as System Shock and System Shock 2, the Thief series, Deus Ex, etc., I can't imagine your being unsatisfied with Dark Messiah. It's got loads of action, personality, style, and fun.

As for bugs: I've seen the large number of problems that some people have had with Dark Messiah not running or not running well on their machines. I have certainly had that experience over the years with many other games too, but not with Dark Messiah. For me it has played flawless for about 15 hours now. The graphics are smooth, the sound is excellent and without stuttering, and I haven't encountered one crash or even a slowdown yet. If you're concerned about Dark Messiah working on your PC, you may want to wait for the patches to arrive. But as for myself and a good many others, I can tell you with confidence that from where I sit Dark Messiah is a smashing success.

Dark Messiah is a fun hack and slash fantasy "shooter". You play a young wizards apprentice going on his first real dungeon quest. This gives the game a chance to lead you through the mechanics while still doing something important to the plot. Following the tutorial, you are sent off to a distant city to deliver a magical item. The fun begins when you get there only to find the city besieged by evil. Following the adventures in the city, you are off to distant lands where you will plunder tombs while discovering your destiny and selecting your own fate.

Graphically the game is gorgeous, not only in what the engine itself delivers but in the innovative environments. Looking down at the goblins catwalk-ridden sky-tower or the necropolis gives a real appreciation for the hardworking level designers. Unfortunately there were not as many locations as I would have liked (only 5 major ones).

Although there were a lot of enemies, there was not much variety. Excluding the set-piece boss monsters, only two non-humanoids were in the game, spiders and floating thingies that only appeared 3 times. Otherwise you got orks, skeletons and a gollum-like goblin and occasionally (perhaps 6 times in the campaign) a undead wizard who can turn himself invisible. Humans were the generic fighter, archer and magic user who fired the weakest fireball. There were no variations, no differences. The lack of variety in opponents was a major weakness.

When you fight the baddies, there are lots of options. You can use a bow, although the reload speed is so slow its really only useful for far away unsuspecting victims. You can use a variety of weapons: daggers, sword, staff, etc. Each one gets two moves: the "flurry of blows" and the "forceful blow", combining that with the ability to kick your opponent or you can use magic. You get a small assortment of magical spells (fireball, ice shards, etc.) and can cast them at will. Health and mana potions are plentiful so you never run out of either. Weapons and armor can have magical properties ala "flaming sword", though many of the objects are pretty useless (rings that give a 2 percent chance of critical hit for instance)

The magical system is nice but pretty weak. I did not get even half-way through the stat tree on any of the branches by the end of the game and could not afford to wear any of the "good stuff" I picked up during the game as I never had powerful enough stats. The spells themselves are pretty mundane, a basic fireball, etc. None of the big WOW effects you might expect. Their power is pretty weak also, taking several fireballs just to kill a spider for instance.

One of the big features of the game is the ability to use the environment against your enemies. You can charge in slashing away, or fire an arrow at a strategically-placed support post and let a ceiling crash down on your opponents. You can kick your opponent off a wall or into walls of spikes strewn around all fighting areas.

There are few puzzles throughout the campaign, mostly involving the rope-bow. I think this was a very fun addition to the game, the ability to fire a bow with an rope attached makes finding secret areas fun and challenging.

The campaign was shorter than I expected, I ran somewhere around 20 hours of gameplay, including all optional-quests and finding a significant number of secret areas. In fact I thought the game was about halfway through when it suddenly popped up with a load-screen that said "epilogue". The ending of the quest was pretty unsatisfying, being a generic 30 seconds of text and a quick shot of an unexplained explosion. You are given the choice of multiple endings and although I tried them all, there was almost no difference between them, using the same video in most cases. During the game Xana says "What I want, you are going to love giving me" but its never realized.

I don't know what multiplayer is like but for the single-player game I recommend Dark Messiah for those looking for fun and not a gigantic immersive role playing experience. It moves along at a pretty good clip, its fun to whack at enemies and see what the levels look like. The plot is interesting, though sadly unrealized at the end. Here is hoping a sequel is in the works that builds on the strengths. They have a good foundation.

I preordered the limited edition played it and beat it all in a span of eight hours. That eight hours includes all of the singleplayer endings and finding all of the hidden items. While I obviously didn't replay from the very beginning each time because personally... I found it would be a waste of my time.

The skill system is about as unrealistic as they come, then again, I don't think an RPG game is going to come close to Elder Scrolls 3 & 4. After all, using a skill constantly WOULD make you better, not completing some stupid quest that involved walking from point a to b, where I NEVER lifted a finger. Not too mention in combat the skills don't seem to do anything.

Some GOOD things about Dark Messiah!
I was extremely pleased I finally got to actually be a BAD guy. While the game is scripted so tightly you can't deviate at all you do get to make 2 choices, help person a or person b. Another good thing was the combat, being able to kick your enemy into spikes or off a ledge was a great bonus, not to mention shrink an ork then step on them making a splatter of blood. The traps! While they are some of the least creative traps I have ever seen and I can count them on one hand through the entire game they come with solutions so you don't get run over by a boulder or crushed by closing walls, major points with the creativity of the escapes of traps.

Some BAD things about Dark Messiah!
The movement mechanics in the game are horrible, I would try to walk carefully on a cliff only to have the game mechanics take my 'momentum' take another two steps and off the cliff I go, or when jumping on ropes/chains I wouldn't grab on to them and fall to my death or back to the ground, last but not least trying to climb on the stones or boxes to get to higher areas, 90% of the time I would get halfway up only to have the game push me back down.
The skills and items in the game are not that varied, I found ONE axe... I'm no Ork that loves axes, but I like variety, which this game lacks unless you like daggers, swords, bows, and staves. The skills are not that great either, I couldn't tell the difference with increasing my strength skill my magic still seemed to run dry after 4 spells and I can shoot a goblin 5 times in the head with the Bow of the Disciple to have it laugh at me and attack me very much still alive.

Other things about this game,
Graphics - 5 Excellent graphics but they only run on a top of the line computer.
Sound - 4 They do a good job of bringing the sound to you to add some much needed creepiness, although the sound of me walking in water in the middle of a city was probably a glitch.
Control - 2 The layout is similar to first person shooters and the Elder Scrolls games, but the movement mechanics make the game hard to control without accidentally running of a cliff.
Replayability - 0 Sadly this game seems to have NO variation in story line, options, or environment.
Storyline - 3 I actually give the story a 5 but the fact its set in stone more or less makes me take points away along with the replayability.
Customization/Items/Spells - 2 While I like the spells, being able to throw rocks with telekinesis or throw a fireball, using a bow & arrow with rope, or doing a creative impale on sword and kick off make the game nice with some item/spell variants there is really no customization of looks, not very many items, not very many spells. That is a real problem in an RPG game in my opinion.

Overall opinion!
Wait for a couple months for the price to come down, go to a friends house that has it, just save yourself $50 and wait. This game for me is going on the back shelf and I'm going back to playing Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion and Neverwinter Nights 2.

This game is some nice eye candy. The game engine and Combat system are very interesting and fun, Great voice acting.

However it quickly grows dull, because there is no "World" to explore. It is basicly Halflife-esque. A series of small linear quests, makes you feel led around by the nose (wich you are).

Just no staying power. I have logged maybe 10 hours into this game, the first 6 were real fun, Now i would just as soon play an old game.

Its worth Seeing , but not worth $50 by a longshot.

Take the Half Life 2 Source engine add some amazing gameplay and physics, throw in a little Oblivion-type RPG and you have Dark Messiah. Despite the RPG element, this game is a linear, first-person shooter. And I loved every moment of it.

Surprisingly, this game actually allows you to manipulate your environment more than Half Life 2. Not only can you follow any path you wish for development: magic, fighting or stealth.. you can use any combination of these you wish.

For example, on one level, you need to climb up a mountain - dealing with many Orcs on the way. You can set magical fire traps next to bottles of oil then slowly pick off the Orcs you wish. Or you can run at them, sword drawn, and face them like a fighter. Kick a few of the edge of the cliff and then hack down the others. Or you can wait patiently and sneak up on each of them, dispatching them silently with your daggers. Or you can use any combination of the options available.

Because of this, replay-ability is huge. I think I replayed the game about 3 times and it was never boring.

All in all, the Source engine and physics lend itself well to this environment.

I do, however, have a few criticisms:

1. There should be many more fighting/killing moves. After the first few levels you've pretty much seen all of them.

2. More skills/spells/items and the ability to develop your character further.

3. Longer game. The game can easily be finished in a weekend.

A great game, otherwise. I do hope that they plan on releasing a sequel.

I saw it on sale for 15.00--I could not refuse.

Beautiful maps, interesting interactive environment and fight options with a "whats going to happen next" kept me going. It was fun throwing a crate at an Orc, knocking him off a steep ledge, to join his just tossed victim in the vast chasm below. or set fire to a narrow path and all the ornery guards who come running through are suddenly aflame. Or just kick the ghoul into the spiky wall rack the inhabitants are so fond of decorating this world with and it adds up to what could have been a lot of fun.

However, restarting the computer due to freezes or stutter locks every 15 to 20 minutes is very UNFUN. And so are the boss monsters which take at least three computer restarts to defeat.

After pouring arrows into one of the boss monsters, using up all my mana potions ( I horded 17) blasting fireballs at it, I used the cheat mode, turned GOD on and waded it with staves and swords for another computer restart or two. It still did not die.

I quit.

I probably could keep at it for another hour, but my ferret needs feeding.

And it is looking like such a nice day outside.

I might have finished this game, as parts are indeed fun--spells to have an enemy join you and watch them fight until the mob is only one guy and then finish him; or plant a few fire mines and watch the spiders burn.

It could have been a contender--lets have less crashes and more ways to kill boss monsters!

----------------------------
Update

Dark Messiah--improved since Steam now has it. I updated it off of Steam and crashes and lockups I earlier experienced are minimal.

I did find out at last how to get rid of that boss at the end, if all else fails SCOUR the INTERNET

I've not ever played a M&M game, so my mediocre rating is not because it is unlike others of a similar name.

That being said, this is the 2nd game is as many weeks that I bought on a whim & would've been better off flushing my $$. Apparently, doing a lot of research & weighing whether potential problems vs. actually playing is a prerequisite.

My system is fine, there's no doubt it can handle the game, & once I actually got into the short tutorial, I was amazed at the physics & the way the game went. I enjoyed the realism of the engine, the way the controls handled, etc. The view angle is a little narrow, but that is debatable. In the short tutorial, the game garnered its stars.

However, getting into said tutorial was where I ran into problems. Getting the dreaded errors upon just starting the game (which, if you peek about other sites & forums - you'll see what I mean). Crashes, looped music/sounds, etc.

After troubleshooting for 2 hours & (finally) getting into the tutorial, I really thought the game could hold potential, as noted. The next evening, I wanted to show my husband...I began a new game, all was well - & then mid-fight of the 2nd or 3rd baddie, the sword-clang sound started looping...& (surprise face!) crashed.

I feel I'm pretty patient. I have been able to work thru the buggiest of games at times, & I realise that every game has them. But more & more this 'buggy on shelf, patch later' trend gets to me. I'm grateful for patches that fix minor or major bugs, but I also recall being younger, when internet was a rarity, & actually purchasing a game that did what it said - provided an -action-roleplaying-flying simulator-etc. experience. Perhaps developers should pretend that the internet doesn't exist when creating their game?

Okay, what is it with games for guys who have voices of a woman in their heads? The demon succubus chick, Xana, whose voice you hear all throughout the game, is more than a little annoying. Xana nags at you so much that you want to smack your own character upside the head to shut her up.

Speaking of annoying, so is babysitting. There's another chick in the game (this one is human), LeAnna, although she can usually take care of herself rather well. Another knockoff from another game, if you ask me. *cough* Alyx *cough*

The game's hud reminds me of Arx Fatalis, and climbing up the chains feels like I'm playing Rune again. The magical rope arrows are always fun, even if they've been featured in other, older games before.

Although the length of the game is quite short (there are even a couple of "recycled" levels in the game - levels where you've been to already but, are there again for a different purpose), I do personally find DMMAM to be a very enjoyable game. The game is very immersive, but alas, it's no Oblivion. Oblivion has spoiled me for all other first person games. Unlike Oblivion, in DMMAM, you cannot decide which mission to undertake right now, and which mission(s) to postpone for a rainy day. DMMAM demands that you complete the task now, unless you want to be trapped in a level with no other objective to complete. For just about every game I've played, including all of the Doom games, the Half-Life series, Area 51 (2006), Starship Troopers (2005), Unreal 1 & 2, etc., they all share one thing in common: The player cannot advance to level 2 unless he/she has finished all assigned primary objectives on level 1. This is where Oblivion (and Morrowind) have completely broken away from the mold. Games like "Boiling Point: Road To Hell", the "Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic" games, and even the main hub levels of "Thief: Deadly Shadows" all allowed the player to come and go as he/she pleased and undertake certain levels/missions at their lesiure. DMMAM has followed the same formula that first person action games have used since "Wolfenstein 3-D"; stock up on equipment and advance to the next level while blasting every bad guy that gets in your way. I've played these types of games for so many years that I go through a troubleshooting checklist in my mind....

"Did I kill all the bad guys? Okay, so why isn't the gate opening? Did I make sure to haul my butt all the way over to the invisible X where I'm supposed to stand on something hidden in the floor to trigger the next objective? No difference? OK, how about if I walk up to the person I'm assigned to babysit? Maybe I didn't get close enough to them before, and that's why the 'Use' function didn't work. Nothing? Well, this is a pickle. Too bad I can't just drop what I'm doing and tackle that other objective I've been itching to take on. I guess I'm stuck here until I figure this annoying little puzzle out. Hey, did I finally buy the house in Skingrad I'd been saving up for?"

All in all, I'm giving DMMAM a 3, because even though it is just as "A to B to C" as HL2 was, it's still a fun game nonetheless, and it's just as immersive to me as Half-Life 2 was, but I've already finished the game and I do feel like I've been somewhat ripped off. Wait until it's in the $20 price range before you buy it.