Dark Messiah: Might and Magic (PC)

“Lol, swords and magic fights.”

“Lol, swords and magic fights.”

“Dark Messiah is the kind of game that people seem to either love or hate, but I found it to be pretty middle-of-the-road as an FPS-RPG hybrid. My guess is that some people are in love with the Might & Magic universe, and were really happy to...”

“Dark Messiah is the kind of game that people seem to either love or hate, but I found it to be pretty middle-of-the-road as an FPS-RPG hybrid. My guess is that some people are in love with the Might & Magic universe, and were really happy to be able to explore it from a new perspective, and some people are in love with the (traditional) Might & Magic gameplay, and hated the absence of strategy elements in Dark Messiah. I've managed to pretty much avoid the Might & Magic series, so I went into this game expecting nothing more than a fantasy FPS-RPG. That's pretty much what I got, hence the three stars -- it did not disappoint me, but neither did it exceed my expectations.

Gameplay was a little bit weird at first. Dark Messiah uses the same Source engine that makes Half-Life 2 go, but as you may recall, there were no swords, arrows, or magic fireballs in HL2. The developers did a pretty good job of adding in the requisite fantasy weapons/spells, but they just aren't as seamless as the various guns of HL2, a fact which served as a minor annoyance at the beginning of the game. It stopped bothering me pretty quickly, especially once I figured out how to use the environment to my advantage.

The environment, incidentally, is one of the game's strongest points. Different sorts of rooms will have different sorts of hazards in them -- bonfires, spiked torture racks, bottomless pits -- and you can dispatch many of the game's monsters by kicking them into these hazards. (The kick, again, is a little awkward to use at first. Practice makes perfect.) I'm told kicking goblins into the fire got old for some players. I am not one of those players. In my opinion, that little innovation alone is worth the price of admission.

(Another parenthetical comment: the price of admission, in my case, was like $5 due to a sale on Steam. I was also in the local Half-Price Bookstore today and happened to see a bunch of brand new copies of Dark Messiah
for $6. What I'm trying to say here is that the aforementioned price of admission is very, very low. Cheaper than a movie ticket.)

So the game shines when it comes to killing things. What about the RPG elements? The leveling system isn't very complex, it's really just enough to justify calling the game an RPG at all. And unfortunately some of the abilities you can spend Talent -- or Character or whatever -- points to get are almost necessary to complete the game. The healing spell, for example, seems like something you'd have to be nuts to forgo taking, even if you aren't playing a mage-specced character. All in all, Dark Messiah is definitely more FPS than RPG, in spite of its fantasy-heavy setting. I should note that I am big into RPGs, however, and Dark Messiah's FPS leanings didn't bother me at all. The game makes killing things fun enough not to worry about how tacked on the RPG elements feel.

So far I've mostly had good things to say. Why three stars and not four or five? The story. Dark Messiah's plot is really painfully bad, and the characters are about as vapid as I've seen in a game like this. The random citizens wandering around Morrowind's Balmora had more depth. Also: Xana. It's not that Xana -- the evil female npc who accompanies you most of the way through the game -- is a sexist character, exactly. It's more that her constant sultry quips and double entendres felt like an insult to me, the player. She didn't bring anything new to gameplay, so these unsubtle appeals to my id were her entire raison. Cute for a level, not for most of the game.

Nonetheless, if you're into FPS-RPGs (or want to see what Half-Life 2 would look like as a fantasy game), it's worth checking out. The biggest cost to you will be your time, and we all know how much that's worth if you're reading this review.”

“I enjoyed this game, it was good for a single play through, I never messed with the multi player, but the single player was decent. It does not have the depth of Oblivion, but the graphics were nice, and I got it free with my video card.”

“I enjoyed this game, it was good for a single play through, I never messed with the multi player, but the single player was decent. It does not have the depth of Oblivion, but the graphics were nice, and I got it free with my video card.”

“Pros: Good voice acting (one exception). Excellent in-game cutscenes. Great first-person melee combat, kick or use environmental hazards for kills. Advances Heroes V storyline. Cons: Generic multi-ending kills Heroes V storyline. Buggy at min-spec”

“Pros: Good voice acting (one exception). Excellent in-game cutscenes. Great first-person melee combat, kick or use environmental hazards for kills. Advances Heroes V storyline.
Cons: Generic multi-ending kills Heroes V storyline. Buggy at min-spec”

“Very good FPS/RPG, nice graphic.”

“Very good FPS/RPG, nice graphic.”

“A bit of a let-down as an RPG and not too good as a FPS either. Try it for leisure, but don't expect the world to stop when your hitting away at keys trying to kill an enemy that's so powerful you fall with one shot. Good storyline but too linear.”

“A bit of a let-down as an RPG and not too good as a FPS either. Try it for leisure, but don't expect the world to stop when your hitting away at keys trying to kill an enemy that's so powerful you fall with one shot. Good storyline but too linear.”