Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
Ubisoft's Dark Messiah of Might and Magic looks like a fantastic game. When the demo was rolled out, I eagerly watched the bits fly to my hard drive.
"Finally", I thought, "a game to quench my evil desires. Or at the very least, tickle them.".
The demo provided that. Oh how fun it was to kick Orcs into a bottomless pit. Or you could use arrows to push them into it, or heck, magic!
I replayed that part of the demo over and over.
I should point out, in reality, I was after an RPG where being evil was encouraged, as well as 'shooter'. Dark Messiah seemed to be a good blend of the two.
A few months later, Dark Messiah launched, to some mediocre reviews, although I didn't read them, as I've found a lot of the 'big' review sites tend to have opinions different to mine.
I eventually bit the bullet, and played the game.
Its sad to say, but the demo was more enjoyable. Oh, yes, it had all the features of the demo…but uhh…that's it.
You're introduced to Master Phenrig right at the start of the game, and that's about the time you start noticing problems with it.
Phenrig has a deep, booming, B-Grade-evil-actor voice. Heck, he has the B-Grade-evil-actor quality about every aspect of him.
Needless to say, the story is not going to keep many entertained, especially not those who have played Bioware RPG's such as Baldur's Gate, Knights of the Old Republic or Jade Empire.
By about the third or so level, I was at the same predicament I was at another overly-hyped, overly-poor game of recent time (Doom 3).
I liked parts of the game, but it was too slow moving, and to be perfectly honest, not very entertaining at such speed. Do I uninstall, or do I cheat?
I chose the latter, and ended up finishing the game (all four endings?), but I found even that a little tiresome.
High points
- Great graphics and decent effects thanks to the Source engine
- Great physics and associated effects thanks to the Source engine
- You get to be Evil
Low points
- The combat system was a mixture of 'hack-block-kick', 'block-hack-kick', and 'kick-block-hack'.
- Magic was overly underpowered, as were bows (three or four headshots to kill), such that there wasn't a lot of point using it
- Demo gave too many 'features' of the game away
- Predictable story with little/no plot twists
- This isn't an RPG, its a 'fantasy' shooter.
- Main menu loads a very pointless 3D model, which creates very long loading times (for a menu).
If you want motion/prettiness with a menu, why not use full-motion video in the background, ala the Battlefield series? - Cut-scenes were inconsistent. Some were rendered in the game (and then saved, and overly compressed), some were beautifully animated works, performed in a modelling program. The former made the game seem very tacky
- Very low variety of weaponry and enemies (in order of appearance - I think, Zombie, Guard, Cyclops, Ghoul, Spider, Necromancer, Orc, Goblin, Dragonish thing, Lich)
One of the big problems with this game was it was trying to hard.
Its neither a shooter (ranged attacks were pathetic), or a RPG (no 'stat' points, extremely linear, no 'shops', very little you associate with a typical RPG), but tries really hard to be both.
Some of the 'features' of the game show it really did want to be a RPG. For example, you are able to craft weapons. By 'weapons', I mean, I came across two forges, and I was able to make two different swords. Not types of, just two different swords.
It also tries its hardest to be a 'mature' gamers game. Unfortunate for Dark Messiah, but it seems like the entire game industry is incapable of dealing with what would make it into a 'Mature' rated movie, namely sex.
While a good game doesn't have to have bouncing breasts all over the place, having two women falling madly in love with you in 'medieval' times, while you're saving the world (and them), and you're pretending to be rather evil, you'd think you'd ripped somebodies clothes off.
Overall, a great disappointment. A great concept, tarnished by what could only be described as 'consolification' of the mechanics of the game, its interface, etc.
I rate this…