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A great, absorbing, and FUN game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 18 / 22
Date: November 06, 2006
Author: Amazon User

If this were a game forum, I'd note these short reviews and pass on by. But on an open SALES forum like this, I feel compelled to give my impressions of Dark Messiah--impressions which are quite different than the others posted here.

I too have played every single Might & Magic game that was released over the years (all the way back to the original M&M) and every Heroes of Might & Magic (including the recent HOMM 5). That Dark Messiah doesn't live up to Jon Van Caneghem's original vision strikes me as an over simplistic and erroneous judgment. I will agree that if you're looking for a continuation of New World Computing's M&M flavor (no pun intended), in my opinion that hasn't been around since Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven was released in 1998, and some would argue since 3DO acquired New World Computing in 1996.

I think Dark Messiah dovetails well enough with the M&M world and lore--which is plenty big enough to draw from--but far more importantly that it holds up very well as an exceptional game in its own right. In other words, that it is FUN. Graphically, Dark Messiah is gorgeous, it sounds marvelous (despite some occasionally less than spectacular voice acting), and the story and immersion-factor are superb. Dark Messiah is certainly an action game first and an RPG second (a distant second), but if you enjoyed such FPS/RPG hybrids as System Shock and System Shock 2, the Thief series, Deus Ex, etc., I can't imagine your being unsatisfied with Dark Messiah. It's got loads of action, personality, style, and fun.

As for bugs: I've seen the large number of problems that some people have had with Dark Messiah not running or not running well on their machines. I have certainly had that experience over the years with many other games too, but not with Dark Messiah. For me it has played flawless for about 15 hours now. The graphics are smooth, the sound is excellent and without stuttering, and I haven't encountered one crash or even a slowdown yet. If you're concerned about Dark Messiah working on your PC, you may want to wait for the patches to arrive. But as for myself and a good many others, I can tell you with confidence that from where I sit Dark Messiah is a smashing success.

Great game, bugs are easily overcome.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 9
Date: October 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have a number of reasons for being incredibly excited about Dark Messiah:

1) I've always been a fan of first-person shooters, ever since Doom and Wolfenstein 3D. I love the tension and drama I associate with playing through something really tough/scary, defeating the enemy with raw skill or through the creative use of my resources. I've also really gotten into innovative FPSs like Deus Ex (I'm a sucker for a good RPG or anything resembling an RPG). Not to mention I'm a huge fantasy nut. Thus, a fantasy-based first-person shooter with RPG elements: it's like manna (mana? as in Secret/Legend/Sword of...) from heaven!

2) As I mentioned previously, I love RPGs. Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG; action RPGs like Diablo and Dungeon Siege (third person) or Morrowind/Oblivion (first person); and even games like Deus Ex that aren't RPGs in the traditional sense but have elements of an RPG. Knights of the Old Republic? Golden. I love playing a game where I actually get to make decisions that have a noticeable effect on the path I take and how NPCs react to me. Even if there's not too much non-linear interest in DM, I'm already digging on the skill system and the fact that I have an arsenal of weapons/fighting styles to choose from.

3) I like graphics. I like physics. They aren't the most important component of a game (I still play a lot of my old favorites on SNES and such), but if they are there I will definitely appreciate them. Doom 3? Very nice (although the formula was a bit disappointing after awhile). Flatout? Most excellent! I really like the Source engine; it delivers great graphics and physics while maintaining a smooth framerate and experience that really gets me excited. I love interactive environments as well, even if it's just certain objects. Kicking enemies into traps, spikes, fires and off of ledges and cliffs is just amazing.

There are so many different things that I love about DM that I can't describe them all in one review. I'll just have to keep ranting and ranting about them until I get sick of the game, maybe in like 10 years or so. Even then I may still be playing it; I still play Diablo, and it's 12 years old. Final Fantasy too. This is definitely a game that will inspire nostalgia in most anyone who plays it, I think.

A final note about the bugs and crashes some have experienced: I downloaded the game on Steam as soon as it came out (I had preloaded it as much as was released before the game became available for download). When I first played it I experienced a number of glitches, NPC dialogue missing/playing as static, etc. I did as one user on the M&M forums suggested and verified Dark Messiah's cache; after that I had very few problems. I also defragged my cache (in Steam) and the drive the game was on and experienced a noticeable performance increase. So I'd say don't let the bugginess worry you too much, as it can be fixed easily enough.

Dark Messiah: A Step Into the Fantasy FPS

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: October 31, 2006
Author: Amazon User

To be honest, I always took a much greater interest in the multiplayer portion of Dark Messiah rather than its single player brethren. Developed by Kuju Entertainment, the company responsible for helping develop the EyeToy games for the PS2, the multiplayer mode for Call of Duty: Finest Hour, and Battalion Wars for the Nintendo Gamecube, the multiplayer mode of Dark Messiah encompasses a unique style of gameplay in a fantasy setting. The game splits between 2 factions, the Humans and the Undead. Each faction allows 5 playable classes, the Assassin, the Priestess, the Mage, the Archer, and the Warrior. The only difference between the Humans and the Undead is their physical appearance; otherwise, they are essentially the same.

Now the question is, how does the multiplayer stack up?

Pretty nicely, and I won't stop there.

Despite some slight conflicts of class balance, the multiplayer portion of the game leads as an excellent and worthy contender of popular multiplayer first person shooters. To begin with, the Assassin is a very fast paced and fun-to-play class. In fact, all classes are extremely fun to play, and it will only get better as Kuju decides what should be done to help make the game even better. (And they do, their commitment to the Open Beta was extraordinary, as far as updates and forum responses go). The Warrior is a tanker lover's dream, being able to negate any spells and absorbing the most damage with its Reinforced Armor. Surprisingly, the Warrior's attacks are powerful as well. The Priestess is most likely the main concern of many balance critics. With her instant self-heal ability and an armor buff that lowers any kind of damage, the Priestess can take on any class and win. I haven't even mentioned the insane range of her Corrupt ability and the Bramble spell that slows ALL players to a crawl. Kuju Entertainment obviously decided that Priestesses should do more than just supporting other classes. The Mage is insanely powerful as well, but only in late levels. Finally, the Archer is a class that rewards those with practice; arrows not only take time to reach the target, but they also arc as well. However, 1 fully charged shot deals 56 damage; 2 shots will kill the player.

In conclusion, the multiplayer portion of Dark Messiah is anything but the norm. It features a retrospective view of the modern first person shooter with 5 totally different playable classes. The game delivers tons of different tactical strategies, and will only get better as Kuju Entertainment continues to please its fans with updates and additions to the game.

Be Yourself!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 6
Date: November 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

In short words be the assassin, be the warrior, be the magician and yet be the three of them, chose your path and change your fate, all in a fantastic and epic environment. suspense, action, full package quest.

Superb, one of a kind!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: January 11, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Good by Elder Scrolls, Might n' Magic is back! Once I installed and started playing this game, I couldn't stop. Its one of those games that you just can't wait to get off work or school to go home and play some more. It has the most advanced and best midevil action combat I have ever seen in a game to date. The realism and brutality of this first person action game was defenitely top notch. The graphics, sound, story, and overall gameplay was one of the funest games I have ever played!

Loved it.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: April 09, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Take the Half Life 2 Source engine add some amazing gameplay and physics, throw in a little Oblivion-type RPG and you have Dark Messiah. Despite the RPG element, this game is a linear, first-person shooter. And I loved every moment of it.

Surprisingly, this game actually allows you to manipulate your environment more than Half Life 2. Not only can you follow any path you wish for development: magic, fighting or stealth.. you can use any combination of these you wish.

For example, on one level, you need to climb up a mountain - dealing with many Orcs on the way. You can set magical fire traps next to bottles of oil then slowly pick off the Orcs you wish. Or you can run at them, sword drawn, and face them like a fighter. Kick a few of the edge of the cliff and then hack down the others. Or you can wait patiently and sneak up on each of them, dispatching them silently with your daggers. Or you can use any combination of the options available.

Because of this, replay-ability is huge. I think I replayed the game about 3 times and it was never boring.

All in all, the Source engine and physics lend itself well to this environment.

I do, however, have a few criticisms:

1. There should be many more fighting/killing moves. After the first few levels you've pretty much seen all of them.

2. More skills/spells/items and the ability to develop your character further.

3. Longer game. The game can easily be finished in a weekend.

A great game, otherwise. I do hope that they plan on releasing a sequel.

looks good

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 31
Date: October 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game looks good, I really hope its not a rip off of oblivion though.

Dark Messiah - RPG/FPS combined.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: October 31, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Dark Messiah attemtps to merge semi RPG with FPS-style gameplay and successfully creates an new type of game.

You may think that games like Oblivion and Battlefield 2 (and games of it's ilk) have nothing in common, and until now that may have been true. Let me introduce you to Dark Messiah - part of the Might and Magic series.

The game is in First Person perspective, it's not really a first person shooter, more of a first person melee or combat game. It's set in a fantasy world, where their advertising blurb tells you don't play as a warrior, or a wizard or an assassin - play as them all! As you follow the exploits of Sareth in the single player storyline you will learn new skills and get new items/weapons which will enable you to become proficient in a specific area or jack-of-all-trades. It's a skill 'tree' if you like, where if you choose one particular branch, you may be weaker on another.

The storyline itself gives you the role playing aspect, and what holds this up apart from other similar games is that it uses Valve's Source engine. For those of you who have played Halflife 2 will know how good that is - infact it's even better because it's an 'enhanced' version to boot. What this means is that the whole 'world' you play in will be very interactive, pick up barrels and throw them at enemies, move boxes around to get at hidden items and so on.

The online multiplayer aspect for up to 32 players is where it becomes more like an FPS game similar to BF2. There are 5 classes to choose from: Warrior which is your basic soldier, fastest on the field and most powerful when it comes to dealing direct damage as well as taking it; Priestess can be considered the medic of the group with her healing and protective skills; Assassin with his ability to cloak (looks like the Predator!) and stealth attributes can be considered your covert ops specialist; Ranger can also use stealth and ranged attacks (sniper maybe?); and the wizard has been compared to artillery with area of effect attacks etc.

Apart from deathmatch and team deathmatch, DM introduces the Crusader mode, where you start off in the middle map of five and depending on whether you win or lose, you will go either forwards or backwards onto the next map until you hopefully reach the enemies stronghold and conquer it to win. Another aspect of gameplay that is similar to BF2 is the use of various spawnpoints and the map on which to select them as well as change you class.

During the campaigns you will earn new skills and become more powerful with better weapons etc, and these will be saved over all the maps until the campaign has finished, when it will be reset - sort of an xp save type of thing. Should you switch to another class mid-battle, you will start that class from scratch but will keep any skills learnt on subsequent changes. Skills that can be gained vary depending on the class but include things like better stealth, zoom attack when using a bow, shield blocking and so on.

So, if you fancy a bit of swordplay (and be honest, which of you guys didn't have a sword and shield when they were kids!?) in an FPS setting, then this may be right up your street.

Best combat system ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 31, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Number one combat system in a game, too bad game is only playable in storyline mode without having to go online. Well worth playing over and over though.

A lot of fun, easy to get into, but fairly linear

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: April 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I approached this game with hesitation, I have fond memories of the Might & Magic name that I didn't want to tarnish, from the old games of the 1990s. I shouldn't have worried!

This is the one of the few First-Person games I've played where I relished being ambushed randomly or running into that surprise group of enemies. The mutable environment and the ability to have some real world effects makes game-play very enjoyable. You can knock your opponents down, they will be stunned if you land a blow. Sneak up on them or surprise them by rushing in. Use a very powerful blow or a flurry of small attacks. Better still -- shove them off a cliff, kick them down, push them onto impaling spikes, set them on fire... it's fun!!

So say you're on a bridge and a horde of goblins comes rushing across at you. You pull out your trusty staff (moves realistically like a long-staff in martial-arts) and whack them around, keeping them off-balance and knocked down. You could keep on and kill them this way but it's taking a while since the staff doesn't do much damage. So you start kicking and shoving them off the bridge! It's disturbingly fun.

You won't want to kill the baddies the old-fashioned way considering all the options.

I was most concerned I would hate the sections with jumping puzzles -- I still get irritated thinking about the idiotic puzzles inspired by the early Tomb Raider games. They were hard to solve, you'd get half-way, then you fall. Start the jumping over or reload... Ugh.

Turns out that these folks must not like that experience either. Jumping / climbing is a big part of the game, but not difficult and not super-ultra-precise like Tomb Raider. yay!

Some of the combat scenes are hard, but nothing that requires many retrys, though you may end up reloading just to see if you can kill the baddies in different ways. There's some autosaving also.

The game isn't perfect. It's a little too linear, with only a few plot branches, and only a modest number of areas for unstructured exploration. Cut-scenes and loads disrupt game-flow. Like most games of this genre, you occasionally get stuck on an in-game corner, or see minor clipping (can see through a wall or other "solid" object). There are times when you know you can go through that passage but have to spend a few moments lining up JUST right, as if your character couldn't figure out he just needs to pull in his knees or whatever. And it's pretty, but not gorgeous like Oblivion.

The biggest problem is in the first areas of the game (practice and the area after that), where I noticed what others complained about: the game dropping out to Windows occasionally, especially during combat. You could resume by selecting the suspended game from the taskbar, but you'd lose a couple of often-fatal seconds in the meantime. I'm not sure if this was somehow related to other Windows software (such as for my Logitech keyboard/mouse), but the problem stopped on its own with no changes on my part, after the end of those first areas.

I will disagree with other reviewers who state this needs a high-end system to play. I played this on a current entry level PC (mid 2007, lowest-end dual core Intel) but with a moderate, recent video card (Nvidia 8600GT, this model: XFX PVT84JUDD3 GeForce 8600GT XXX 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Ready Video Card (Dual DVI/S-Video)). Unfortunately, the on-board graphics of PCs are inadequate for most modern Windows games so plan to have an add-in card; that's just the way it is. With that 8600GT, I was able to run at a reasonable resolution with most effects turned up to high or maximum, no problems other than the clipping I mention above.

For the current bargain price, and this level of entertainment, highly recommended!

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