Genre: First-Person Action RPG Number of Players: 1-2 Offline
We live in an age that when it comes to games, more is never enough. So like most gamers who enjoyed Oblivion’s life-leaching addictiveness, I was excited at the chance to throw on some shiny new chain mail and cast some crazy spells on ugly orcs. There’s a problem though; not only does Dark Messiah look dated, but it brings nothing new to the table. Oblivion did set the bar pretty high, but if anyone could challenge Bethesda’s masterpiece, you would think it would be a Might & Magic game. But instead of bringing a challenge, it brings a lot of “been there, done that”. In addition (or should I say subtraction) to feeling like “Oblivion Lite”, the latest Might & Magic lacks the depth offered by Oblivion’s free-roaming gameplay.
Recapping a game’s story is always the hardest part for me, (dorm life left me with a little short-term memory loss), and Dark Messiah doesn’t help by having an easily forgettable story. Don’t expect to be drawn into this game by the tale of Sareth. The most exciting parts of your character’s life apparently happened well before this game ever began when he was being taught the art of magic by the wizard Phenrig. I say this because everything that follows you pressing start is one cliché after another. Cortana does make a cameo. Well actually, it’s a sorceress named Xana. She does however reside inside your head, so that’s Cortana-esque. She also offers something for thirteen year old boys to look at. Apparently your typical sorceress dresses like a stripper. The only spell she’s ever cast must have been “brestus en largus”. Even the most hardcore fantasy fan will have a hard time liking anything about this drab story.
Gameplay-wise, things don’t start out too well with the first levels leaving you feeling like you’ve spent more time watching load screens than actually playing the game. What’s odd about this is the fact that the game doesn’t look all that impressive. There could be some level of forgiveness if the game looked great once the loading was complete. Instead the graphics look to have been directly ported from the now two year old pc version of the game. But at least all the bugs of the pc version have been addressed and are now absent. That is unless you count the fact that every time you open a door, it opens towards you, knocking you back. That’s not really a bug though, but more of an annoyance to add to the stack.
Once you get past the boring tutorials (and insane loading screens), things pick up a bit. You leave the confines of the castle where you began and hit the meat of the game. Dark Messiah begins to show some promise here as you unleash pain on your enemies using weapons that depend on your class. (More typical RPG fare, but an accepted standard) Because of the various classes, the game does offer a moderate level of replayability so you can tackle it with different weapons, thus getting a different experience each time. And if you actually want to use the various weapons available in the game, you’ll have to do just that. This is because your character can ONLY use the weapons assigned to his class. Simply put; don’t expect to be a fighter running around with a magical staff. While this is the norm, it feels frustratingly limiting when factored in with the rest of the game.
While the game’s focus is on action, the RPG elements are there. You’ll progressively level up, which gives you the ability to lay the smackdown harder and in a wider variety of ways. As you would expect, the wizards gain magic, the assassins gain stealth and the archers’ aim improves. Is your mind blown yet by all this innovation? Try to keep it together friend.
Killing enemies in a game is fun. That’s why we play them. But it’s not fun when you almost pity them. That’s because the enemy AI appears to be mentally handicapped. Now I think we can all agree that there’s nothing cool about beating up someone with special needs. Sadly, that’s exactly how I felt when facing enemies who were able to see me, but then had no idea what to do once we were face to face. Instead of attacking you, it’s more likely that your foe will dart to a walls ledge and wait for you to kick them to their death. Considering the amusement I got from this game, the AI may actually be smarter then I give them credit for. Perhaps the enemies did know what they were doing and just wanted out of the game as bad as I did.
Overall, it comes down to this; Dark Messiah is a bad port of a two year old game. The graphics, which are running on the old source engine, were beautiful two years ago when pushed by a maxed out 3.2GHz pc. But this is 2008. The games we’ve seen since 2006 put this game to shame in the looks category. But graphics don’t make a game. And I’m sure Ubisoft knew this. They just forgot to provide a compelling story and fun gameplay to compensate the cosmetic deficiencies. If you’ve run out of fun playing Oblivion, get Shivering Isles. If you’ve run out of fun playing Shivering Isles, then by all means, rent Dark Messiah. Buying the Might & Magic action title is another story. Don’t do it blindly as the game doesn’t offer the depth some may be expecting. Rent before you buy.
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