For those of you who are unfamiliar, Dark Messiah of Might & Magic is somewhat of a new start for the classic PC series. After having a long period of absence from the gaming scene, Might & Magic is set to make a return with Ubisoft shifting its focus on rekindling the successful series for not only new fans, but also those of us who had treasured such games over the past decade. The upcoming game intertwines with the story from the recent release of Heroes of Might & Magic V, with gamers fighting the prophecy of the Dark Messiah eighteen years after the events of Heroes V.
In our recent play through, we were fortunate enough to play around with a few of the finer aspects of the title, those that make this title much more appealing than anything else coming up for the PC. Dark Messiah plays much like your typical first person game - you control your character in every aspect of how he moves, how he attacks and how he views the world. With a touch of a button gamers are able to sprint, jump or stealth – it’s all very versatile in what gamers can achieve. The interface is very accessible, which negates a common problem with many PC games, which demand gamers cumbersomely throw their fingers around constantly to do certain moves. In comparison, Dark Messiah just felt so easy.
Be vewwy, vewwy quiet. I'm hunting Goblins.
With a touch to the space bar, gamers will jump, hold down the alt key and you’ll be able to sneak around, and by simply pressing the left mouse button you’ll be able to attack. There’s a lot more to it than that though. Dark Messiah allows gamers to expand their horizon with the opportunity to use magic, bows and various other weapons to exploit their surroundings and enemies. There’s plenty of abilities to cycle through, which may become too much for some gamers at times during those more dire moments. You have the choice to map out your abilities to different buttons on the F panel, though if you’re in a tighter situation you can simply scroll through them by using the middle scroll button on your mouse - which just made combat so much more accessible and quicker rather than searching for the correct button to whip-up a certain ability.
We were able to play through a number of open spaces that allowed us to take full advantage of the stealth tactics included in the game – sneaking around enemies, slicing their throats, or kicking them off an edge into a bottomless pit - while on another occasion we were met with wave after wave of enemies. The great thing about Dark Messiah is that combat is open to a number of various opportunities in what gamers can achieve, which makes the game a lot more deeper than your ordinary first person title.
In certain situations we were able to take a long-range perspective and shoot at enemies, while in others we were forced to take a look at combat face-to-face with the enemy. Enemies don’t just die with a few hits from the blade either; gamers must use their environment if they are expected to survive. We were able to collapse a pillar onto enemies, cut loose ropes to set-off traps, throw enemies into fires and even kick them back into walls with spike protruding out of it – which is just so damn satisfying to do.
In addition to using your environment, weapons and magical abilities, gamers also have access to more powerful abilities after their power gauge is filled. You are rewarded throughout the game by going into combat and killing enemies, by force or otherwise. Once this gauge is full, you can unleash some devastating skills. We found that after fighting a few enemies more strategically our gauge filled up meaning that we were able to run into the next fight, hold down the attack button, let go and then it was only seconds later that we watched our character follow through with an awesome decapitating slice leaving the enemy’s head rolling across the floor. While these special skills seem to be an excuse for an easy kill, just watching them in motion and getting to the point to pull them off is ever so rewarding. Another satisfying feature of combat appears when an enemy has been knocked to the ground, and you're given the chance to hold down the attack button and pull off a nice finishing move, such as impaling two daggers into the chest and watching your enemies quiver in pain.
The greet before the decapitation.
We found when fighting enemies that their reaction to your movements would reflect on how they attacked you. If they had the numbers, they would often surround us and work together, leading us into traps or into a corner. Enemies would often fight differently depending on how you attack them too. Charge in and they’ll try to move most hastily on their feet, whilst just hacking mindlessly at them meant they'd eventually just block every move you dish out. It was pretty satisfying to face enemies that actually reacted to how we fought and understood how they could use their surroundings to their own advantage and not just ours.
The AI just seems so deep. Different enemies seem to have different approaches, which means combating certain enemies will prove more difficult. We found that the Orcs were normally a bit more savage in their combat style, whereas others seemed to be a bit lighter on their feet and moved around more often. It's much more appealing to play a game where the enemies seem to react to their injuries also. At one stage, we were just slicing away at an enemy where they eventually began to hold their sides where they had been hit, and even began to move slower and hobbled towards us despite being almost dead.
Words can’t describe how enjoyable this game is, and just how good it looks in the flesh. Part of the fun for us was just exploring the different ways of approaching battles and killing enemies – there’s so much at hand. While we only played one level, the potential for this game is definitely up there as being one of the most enjoyable games for the PC this year.
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