What’s Dark Messiah of Might & Magic? It’s the return to the successful Might & Magic series that filled the CD-rom drives of many households back in the 90’s, and sits besides Ultima as being one of the most defining examples of early PC RPGs. Dark Messiah holds very little resemblance to previous titles in the Might & Magic series, but does however opt a much more approachable gameplay structure that has similarities with PC classics such as Hexen & Heretic. Sure, thousands of Might & Magic fans are probably crying with disgust, but Dark Messiah isn’t entirely a bad direction for the series, and in fact, takes it in a direction that makes much more sense in the Might & Magic universe.
Gamers will assume the role of a young man named Sareth, an apprentice for a wizard named Phenrig, who is faced with the task of retrieving a rare artefact, where you’ll eventually understand its power and potential harm to the universe. A busty lady named Xana, who resides inside your mind, also offers occasional assistance throughout the game – although she is typically quite manipulative and complains at any possible situations (women, what an invention!) and causes more harm than good. The captivating story has several unexpected changes and offers a nice deal of flexibility in how you decide your fate – whether you want to be good or evil, with both having an affect on the ending. While it may not sound that exciting in words, Dark Messiah offers enough to entrance you in the entire experience, holding on to you until the very end.
Leanna is just one of the motivations to continue playing.
In fact, the action-packed adventure of Dark Messiah never ceases to amaze you with the amount of variety, depth and freedom allowed. You are allowed to choose exactly how you want to approach each situation, and ultimately what kind of character you wish to be. Being part RPG, Dark Messiah allows you to customise your character in a number of ways. You will be rewarded skill points throughout the course of the game that can be then allocated to skill trees that ultimately distinguishes your character throughout the game - you can decide to be: a cunning rogue who is dependant on stealth, a heavy-busting warrior, a watchful archer or someone who is reliant on explosive magic. The variety between each of these ‘classes’ forces you to approach each situation differently. Warriors can typically run in and smash a few heads with relative ease, but a magic user isn’t going to have the freedom of being able to absorb enemy attacks, meaning you’ll likely need to open up with a few devastating magic blasts.
The environment of the game normally allows you to look at each situation differently too, with a lot of it being fully destructible or having benefits during combat. You can cut ropes that release chandeliers, smash floorboards, kick enemies into pits or onto protruding spikes or set them alight in a fiery blaze – it’s all quite cool, actually. Overall, combat is by far this game’s major attraction. Battles are always diverse, and offer unexpected twists all the time. The AI of enemies is superb, and the variety between the baddies in the game provides enough interest whilst combating. You’ll notice that different enemies will have different fighting patterns; goblins are frantic and are quick on their feet, Orcs are tough and can take a beating, undead creatures are slow and humans are typically the ‘all-rounder’ enemy. What isn’t different between enemies is their aggressive and intelligent AI structure – they’ll fight in packs and utilise their surroundings often. The only real downside to combat is that boss battles are a tad under whelming, despite their epic presentation. The game will pump you up for a massive boss battle, only to let you down shortly after realising that you only had to break a pillar and then you’re done – not that exciting after all.
Then you have the game’s subtle inclusions that makes the game that more enjoyable. To add to the game’s unexpectedness, and action-packed nature, certain surprises will frequently pop-up that’ll scare the bajebus out of you. Floorboards will break as you move over them and houses will even collapse as you’re in them, making you much more cautious. You’ll be able to craft your own weapons, there will be rare artefacts to find, hidden areas to explore, and the game includes a lively cast of NPCs that creates a nice illusion of playing within a living world. All of these features, while nothing groundbreaking, certainly add to the game’s appeal.
Stunning locations are a given.
The presentation of Dark Messiah is stunning, to say the least. Arkane Studios has used a reworked Source engine that is clearly noticeable, but still looks sensational. Character models and animation are drop-dead gorgeous, the environment stretches long and far, and the detail within the engine is superb. If you cut your enemy it’ll show the slice on their body, and enemies will even hold their wounds as they attack (or flee).
Commence issues. Dark Messiah is a tad power hungry, and if you don’t have an up-to-date computer then you’ll likely run into a few problems such as game stutters, which ultimately ruins the game since there’s a huge focus on quickly running in and using attacks fast. It's power hunger, and if you have other applications open while playing then stutters will occur frequently, which we quickly discovered. There are a number of graphical holes where we could leap on areas and run through walls, jump on surfaces that would suddenly disappear and many more unfinished areas that could’ve easily been fixed prior to its release. Even with a few recent patches to address these problems, certain issues still occur and bring down the performance of the game, unfortunately.
Dark Messiah also features a multiplayer mode that borrows similar gameplay ideas from Battlefield. You’ll have multiple class choices to choose from – assassin, warrior, priestess, mage and archer – and can choose to play as either the undead or human. There are several modes to play such as: deathmatch, team deathmatch, warfare and crusade. Warfare is similar to Battlefield’s conquest mode, where there is two teams of 16 players each battling it out for control over the map. Crusade is another cool mode to dive into. You’re pitted in multiple battles where your team fights for control over key points on the map. If your team wins, it’ll advance deeper into the opposing team’s territory. Ultimately, it’s a tug-o-war battle until one team reaches their enemy’s headquarters.
Silly goblin.
Multiplayer is a tad iffy in areas though, making the experience a little less rewarding than expected. The multiplayer mode is designed by a completely different developer (Kuju Entertainment), meaning that a lot of features from the main game don’t make it into multiplayer. Disappointingly, the mode is a tad unstable too, with absurdly long load times and performance issues frequently ruining the experience.
Dark Messiah is a superb game, but not without its problems. There are a few unfinished graphical holes, the length of the game is a tad disappointing and the multiplayer isn’t quite attractive – especially with those dreadful load times. However, if you’re a fan of Hexen or Heretic then it’s beyond us why you are still here reading this review, instead of actually running out to buy this game, especially if you can tolerate some of the game’s minor annoyances.
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