DESCRIPTION

God. Satan. Heaven. Hell. Salvation. For millennia mankind has pondered these concepts. Now, science has proven the very existence of God, Heaven and Hell. Unscrupulous dictators rule the world with the new knowledge as biological and optical computers feed information directly to their minds. Mankind has become so much chaff to be ignored as a regime of money, technology and myth has become the new religion and government.

On the far side of the moon, the Fathers have built a portal directly to Hell and Satan himself. In attempting to subjugate Satan, the perceived weaker of the two omniscient beings, the Fathers feel they can eventually conquer God as well by exploiting the very laws of the universe he created. Being omniscient, God knows of the Fathers plans — and has acted accordingly.

Bob, an angel and spirit with a human soul and body but little else, is put on Earth to carry out God's plan. But, he knows nothing of that plan and must make his own way, exerting freewill even while acting as a conduit for God. Through Bob's very mortal soul, God is seeking the truth about secrets the Fathers have learned to keep. Unbeknownst to God, however, the Fathers' advanced technology has allowed them to foresee God's planned destiny — in fact, they plan on controlling Bob's destiny to fulfill their own goals.

Can destiny be changed, averted or re-mapped? Only God knows, or does he? Into this maelstrom of plans, secrets and schemes, you, as Bob, are thrust into the tale with the very fate of the world revolving around your actions.

Messiah offers three difficulty levels, each bearing significantly on how the game plays in various areas. For example, the range at which Bob can possess another body changes based on the skill level. As Bob's controller, you take over or possess over 40 possible character types, each with unique abilities, weapons, defenses, skills, attributes or faults. Using these bodies, you go about the business of cleaning up this sinful future world for God and use any weapons or armor available to eliminate the sinners and track down Satan.

Beyond Bob's innate special abilities such as stealth, camouflage and flight, Messiah contains more than a dozen standard and secondary weapons, three class sub-structures (lower, middle and upper) from which to choose possession victims and unusual Dwellers of the city, rumored to be spawn of the Fathers secret experiments. The game also features a customizable keyboard interface (with some mouse control of movement) and original music by Fear Factory, Jesper Kyd and Side Effekt. ~ Michael L. House, All Game Guide