Just incase you’ve been hiding in the shadows for the last year, Dark Messiah of Might & Magic is the long awaited revival of the classic Might & Magic PC series. The game intertwines with the story from the recent release of Heroes of Might & Magic V, where gamers will be fighting the prophecy of the Dark Messiah as a hero in training named Sareth.Ubisoft’s fascinating entry into the franchise has had a marvelous development phase, and with a combination of an upgraded Source engine and a gameplay structure that feels half Oblivion and half Hexen, Dark Messiah is riding on its high horse ready to pounce on the unexpected video game market. But, to avoid boring you and repeating details that we’ve already covered so well in our previous preview, we thought we’d give you an inside look into some of the game’s levels, it’s gameplay and its multiplayer.
The preview code kicked off with a tutorial level, where we were given a brief understanding of some of the game’s core gameplay features – combat, basic controls and using magic. The tutorial level had us running through a dark tomb, seeking out an ancient crystal for our master Phenrig. We came across a number of obstacles such as seeking out a key to open a locked door, kicking enemies off ledges, beheading enemies and triggering all-sorts of traps such as collapsing pillars.
Of course, the tutorial was merely an introduction for what we could expect in the later levels we exploded. The next stage was situated in a necromancer-invaded town where we had to find the mysteries behind the ancient crystal, which we first found in the tutorial level. In this level - and we’re guessing throughout the rest of the game - a guardian who talks to the main character through his head accompanied us. The guardian often offered a bit of advice as to what to do in certain situations, as well as proving to be a humourous inclusion to the game as the guardian often added some witty remarks.
Dark and scary corridors? Check.
This level was quite large as we exploded a number of areas within the town. After running through the town square, slashing, burning and throwing enemies into protruding spikes. We eventually found ourselves running through the deep halls of some of the town’s houses and cathedrals. The architect work is absolutely outstanding in all areas of the level, showcasing some marvelous work of detail on pillars, interior of the houses and gritty textures on the basement walls, of which that perfectly immerses you in the level. There was often a nice balance of approach combat too. In open areas, such as the town square, fights were often more direct and was a constant clash of swords and strength. Meanwhile, we often sneaked into houses having the element of surprise on unexpected enemies, setting off traps such as cutting a rope to release a chandelier onto enemies and breaking floorboards so enemies fell to the floor below. We eventually found our intended target, the leader of Stonehelm (the town we were in), but we unfortunately lost our crystal to a ghoul that prompts gamers to the next level.
The next level had us traveling to an island full of all sorts of nasty creatures such as spiders, orcs, goblins and a massive wyvern-like creature. This time we were teamed up with a lovely lady named Leanna, whom of which you must protect and assist throughout the level. Unlike the previous level, we were always met face-to-face with aggressive enemies in open spaces who often surrounded us, and used their surroundings to their advantage. For instance, we ran into a room with about five goblins who would often surround us or use all-sorts of dirty tactics. After killing a few of them, one of the buggers quickly ran behind a huge stone statue attempting to push it onto us. It was quite the opposite compared to the other creatures we fought in the level. The orcs were often more defensive, using their cover well, shielding often and parrying our attacks, while the goblins were always jumping around on their feet, fighting in packs and actually utilizing traps.
The great thing is that our fellow teammate wasn’t as useless as we originally expected, which is usually the case in some games. Leanna joins you in most of the fights, taking out a few enemies quite easily by herself. After taking a bit of damage, she also bothered to heal us. Not only does Dark Messiah offer some compelling and tough enemy AI, but friendly AI is very reactive to their surroundings and combat too.
Leanna isn't just beautiful, she's a damn good fighter too.
This level easily had the most exploration and puzzles than the previous two. We acquired a weapon called the rope bow. This, obviously, allows you to shoot an arrow at a wooden surface and lowers a rope that you can climb up. It was helpful in reaching certain areas, and extended on a certain puzzles. We had to climb up a room, jumping from one chain to the other. However, there were often gaps in-between these chains, which meant we had to use the rope bow to avoid falling to our death. The level extend quite far, having us infiltrating an orc fortress, jumping down a hole, crawling through a dark tunnel to release a door trigger, traveling further through the fortress and much more tunnel crawling – where we came across a number of traps and enemies along the way. Eventually, we met up with the wyvern that we saw earlier in the level. Acting as a boss-like creature, we had to hide under rocks to avoid getting eaten and utilise our surroundings to kill it. The creature was vulnerable to all of our attacks meaning that the only way to kill the creature was to trigger some sort of environment-based attack. After a long while of dashing between rocks and small rooms, we finally found a leaver that lowered a door crushing the wyvern’s head.
It’s often a matter of using your wits and acknowledging your surroundings to defeat a lot of your enemies throughout the game. Much like the aforementioned boss battle, there are often easier ways to kill enemies rather than running in mindlessly, risking your own health. You often have to take a much broader look at each situation, asking yourself whether it’s smarter to run in, kick an enemy into a fire, or to sneak up to them and perform a deadly slice to the neck. In one of the levels we found ourselves thinking whether we would bother risking the chances of going into combat or shooting an arrow at a wooden pillar holding up an entire wall, where four or so enemies stood right besides it. Wisely, we took the option to trigger the trap and came out unharmed. And this is often the key to winning many of the fights in Dark Messiah. There are times when you’ll be outnumbered and surrounded, leaving yourself open to a number of attacks at once. During these situations it’s a wise choice to pick up barrels and throw it at enemies, kick them into spikes, throw them onto fires or release traps like the one mentioned above. As the game gets further, it’s obvious that the enemies will be become much tougher and these sorts of approaches will often be important in succeeding during battles.
Damn annoying little buggers.
The nice thing about the preview code was that we were given the chance to look at the leveling system and combat a bit more too. One thing that we hadn’t actually come across before was that when fighting against tough enemies such as orcs, you’ll get into some nasty and competitive sword fighting. You, and the enemy, will be able to parry each other's attacks and there’ll often be clashes of swords where you must continuously press the mouse button in an attempt to release your sword from theirs. It’s a real deep combat system where almost every fight is completely different from the last. In addition to a deep combat system, Dark Messiah has a very diverse leveling and skill system. The further you progress through the game you’ll gain skill points that can be used towards acquiring certain skills in one of three classes. Rather than putting all your apples into one basket, you can have the choice of mixing them up a little. The three classes offer different abilities such as rogue skills that improves your sneaking and dagger abilities, warrior skills that improves your strength and allows for some great combat abilities, as well as mage skills that unlocks some great magical powers such as fireballs and shrinking. There are often vital abilities in each of these classes, meaning that you’ll have to become a hybrid to succeed later on. For instance, there are healing spells that eliminate the purpose of relying on healing pots, and there are skills to improve your health pool.
One of the most apparent things after playing through the game is that the levels are fairly huge in size and offer quite a bit of freedom and exploration. There isn’t a great deal of restrictions as to where you can go, and some of the levels just go on and on, offering a great deal on length - the last level especially felt like a few levels in one. As long as the final version includes a healthy amount of levels and variation between each of these levels, then Dark Messiah ensures to be a great single player experience.
Obviously, single player is only one of the aspects of the game. Dark Messiah also includes an interesting multiplayer mode that plays quite similar to Battlefield. You can play as five different classes between the two races (Undead and Human). Of the classes available, you can choose from an Archer, Assassin, Warrior, Priestess and Mage. Each is quite unique compared to the other, offering individual traits that help your team. The Priestess can heal team members, revive them and drain souls, meanwhile Assassins can stealth around and unleash poison attacks, the Mages fire huge explosive fireballs and the Warriors acting as a meat shield to absorb attacks, as well as dishing out some powerful attacks too.
Work as a team in the deep multiplayer section.
The great thing is that the multiplayer mode ensures that you’ll play for hours just so you can increase your level. You see, as you continue to kill enemies and use your abilities, you will gain levels. These levels allow you to purchase new abilities during matches, helping your team even more. The Priestess merely starts off with one healing spell, however, as you level, you can learn new spells such as revive and protecting spells.
We only got to play through one level where we had to acquire capture points in an old, abandoned town. The thing that was most obvious was that the multiplayer mode is very team orientated, relying on everyone to pull his or her weight. It’s good to have a few healers, a few warriors, as well as mages and archers to offer long-range support. It’s a great mode that offered a completely different perspective of the game, and admittedly one where we lost a few hours.
After having experienced this game in so many forms, and now actually getting some quality time with it. It’s safe to say that Ubisoft has one of the best games on their hands. We’ll say it now, Dark Messiah of Might & Magic should be on everyone’s wish list, as this game will be one of the must-have titles of the year.
Loading...
