GameSpy: Dark Messiah of Might & Magic (original) (raw)
Reviews
By Miguel Lopez | Oct 27, 2006
Though it has its moments, the signal-to-noise ratio isn't very favorable in Dark Messiah.
Average
Pros:
Satisfying, brutal combat; looks great on high-end systems.
Cons:
Sloppy level design, disappointing multiplayer implementation.
Had Dark Messiah of Might and Magic focused on what it so clearly does best, it could have been one of the most memorable games of the year. During its shining moments, the game transforms the typically bumbling exercise that is first-person melee combat into a sublime experience. Rare indeed is a game that gives you such a diverse tool set with which to wreak havoc that produces results so satisfying. Unfortunately, things like shaky enemy AI, meandering and unintuitive level designs and a paper-thin plot whose pivotal twist is evident 10 minutes into the tutorial make these brilliant moments seem way too infrequent. Plainly speaking, Dark Messiah is a 12-hour game that should have been shaved down to six because the truly worthwhile game sequences are buried by all the fluff in-between.
You play as Sareth, a young warrior with a mysterious past whose mentor happens to be a learned and tenacious wizard. He sends you on a mission to retrieve a couple of ancient artifacts, and from the first cutscene onward, you start to learn that you have something of a grand destiny. To help you in your mission, your master has you host the spirit of a being called Xana, who effectively plays the role that Navi serves in Ocarina of Time or Cortana does in Halo. She provides gameplay tips and color commentary (though she's roughly 10,000 times more libidinous). Along the way, you'll have a couple of opportunities to alter the story and ultimately change your destiny, but the results are largely cosmetic. Apart from slightly differing endings and a couple of in-game cutscenes that change based on your decisions, the game plays out identically regardless of what you do.
True choice comes into play when you decide what sort of fighter Sareth will become. As you fulfill objectives in the game's linear missions, you'll acquire skill points that you can use to advance in a series of ability trees. You can choose to specialize in melee combat, archery, or various types of magic. There are also auxiliary abilities that you can select, including passive ones that increase your health and mana reserves, or active ones that, for example, allow you to pick locks. Regardless of which way you choose to go in the end, you'll have points left over to dabble in other areas.
It does bear mentioning, however, that Dark Messiah is at its best during nitty-gritty melee combat and had the game embraced truly embraced this core competency, it would have been a whole lot better for it. The designers made great use of the Source engine; most sequences designed around melee are veritable playgrounds of carnage. You can kick enemies into various types of hazards or off ledges entirely, drop heavy objects on their heads, telekinetically hurl them into pits of fire and much more. All the typical FPS conventions apply: headshots with your bow are instant kills and stealth melee attacks (while using daggers) are an instagib.
Straightforward melee combat becomes much more effective as you start to invest in it. Late in the game you can wade into a room full of enemies and utterly brutalize them with relative ease. The game's adrenaline system (essentially a "super" meter that grants a single instant kill when filled) is a bit of a letdown, since you can't control it -- once it's full, you automatically blow it. The enemy AI also leaves a lot to be desired. All too often, enemies will stand around with glazed expressions as you dispatch their comrades with ranged attacks. Obstruction and cover may account for some of this, but in many situations it couldn't be more obvious where the arrows are coming from.