Dark Messiah of Might & Magic
Review by SteerpikeDecember 2006
On Absent Conjunctions
Officially, this game is called Dark Messiah Might & Magic, but the lack of an “of” in there freaks me out. So I, like most other reviewers, have retitled the game accordingly.
Dark Messiah, along with Nival’s Heroes of Might & Magic V, represents a “reboot” of a beloved franchise that’s been a mainstay of fantasy roleplaying for two decades. The universe of Might & Magic competes with Wizardry and Ultima in pure brand recognition and staying power. But the collapse of franchise creator New World Computing, along with several very poor development decisions in recent installments of both the Heroes and plain-Jane M&M games, seriously tarnished the Might & Magic rep even as new franchises like Gothic and The Elder Scrolls appeared to tantalize fantasy buffs. Legends of Might & Magic, a disastrous 2001 foray into action, was shredded by critics and gamers alike. 2002 saw both Might & Magic IX and Heroes IV endure similarly chilly receptions, and New World closed its doors shortly thereafter. Most assumed that M&M was no more.
Enter Ubisoft, which bought the rights and then promptly handed the brand off to a pair of European developers. These studios were told in no uncertain terms to take the franchise in a new direction. Russian developer Nival (Silent Storm) was pretty successful with Heroes V, a beautiful and fun game that probably deserves more positive press than it’s gotten. It was the choice of French studio Arkane to helm Dark Messiah that raised a few eyebrows. Unlike Nival’s proven turn-based strategy background, Arkane is only known for Arx Fatalis, a largely forgotten action-RPG, and an awfully mediocre one at that.
At the end of the day, though, the studio wasn’t really a bad choice. Despite the failure of Legends, Arkane wisely decided to stick with what it knows: producing an action-RPG with heavy emphasis on the “action” part, plus uniqueif somewhat overbearinguse of environmental physics to spice up the gameplay. Dark Messiah is buggy and hackneyed, but I had a good time playing it, and it’s by no means bad. Though their game is mostly unoriginal, Arkane deserves credit for heroic attempts to innovate first-person melee combatattempts that aren’t a rousing success but don’t exactly fail either. Dark Messiah is fun if you like this kind of game, but there’s nothing unforgettable about it.
Horribly Contrived of Might & Magic
The rules of clichéd fantasy are few and simple:
1. Follow the X of Y nomenclature system (Forest of Fangorn, Mines of Moria, Den of Secrets, Age of Heroes, Sword of Sodan);
2. Stick to the standbys (orphans, dark prophecies, potent artifacts, busty women);
3. Abuse the apostrophe (the Demon Prince r’G’acb’bsxb’es).
I bring this up because, though Dark Messiah doesn’t abuse the apostrophe, for which I am profoundly grateful because I hate that, it is otherwise the clichéd fantasy fiction’s poster child. It could be the centerpiece of a college-level course on clichéd fantasy fiction. It is the example that clichéd fantasy fiction uses to describe itself to other genres. It’s almost impossible not to laugh at the storyline, which hurls corny standbys so fast and so furious that at the outset I actually thought the game was trying to be funny.
Let’s see … you’re Sareth, an orphan raised by the wizard Phenrig to be a sick-deadly warrior/mage/thief guy, who employs you to slink into haunted temples and grab important artifacts. One day Phenrig sends Sareth cross-country on a special assignmenthelp his wizard buddy Menelag find an object called the Skull of Shadows. Others have their eye on this Skull, which figures into a prophecy of doom that announces the advent of a world-damning villain called the Dark Messiah. Phenrig and Menelag want that skull.
Never mind that anyone who’s got, you know, a cerebellum will have Phenrig pegged as a bad guy from the moment he walks into the frame; compared to some of the other camp nonsense in this story, he’s positively subtle. Hell, another villain has a spider tattooed on his forehead. That’s the kind of cliché we’re talking about here. When I turn to evil, as I inevitably will, I’m going to have a bunny tattooed on my forehead. That way no one will suspect me until it’s too late.
So we’ve got orphans with mysterious pasts, dark prophecies, obviously evil foster parents, powerful artifacts, skulls, and haunted ruins. Add in the other items not worth explaining: orcs, goblins, a conflict called “the Blood War,” a chesty wizardess in improbable clothing who falls in love with the protag even though she’s only known him for like an hour, a sword called “Souldrinker,” enormous spiders, demon chicks, and evil cults. This, my friends, is the world of Dark Messiah.
Aiding you in your quest is Xana, an unbelievably bitchy voice in your head (she actually has a body of her own but left it behind on account ofseriously”one travels easier than two”). Xana’s job is to motivate the obviously virginal Sareth with overt promises of sexual gratification, to be delivered upon once she gets back into her own body. Unfortunately, Sareth is so dense that he doesn’t recognize how obviously evil she is, and he’s so milquetoast that he wouldn’t do anything about it anyway. People hate playing stupid, wimpy characters, so this is annoyingbut not nearly as annoying as Xana herself. The writing is bad, the actress is worse, and the situation leaves little margin for interpretation. She is so ridiculously over the top as to telegraph a “surprise” that takes place at the end from her very first moment with you, and she’s so meanspiritedly sluttish that you’ll hate her with a blind, all-consuming passion despite her promises to, ah, do stuff to you.
The story is … bad. I mean real bad, like Robert Jordan bad or Heavy Metal magazine comics bad. But if you can look past that, and most gamers are so used to sucky writing that they can with no problem, there’s a pretty fun game here.
One thing that’s worth noting is that Nival and Arkane took their instructions about reinventing the series quite literally. While most previous Might & Magic games shared the same general sprawling universe and mythology, both Heroes V and Dark Messiah take place in a completely new world with its own backstory. While most of this is as badly written as the game’s primary plot thread, some of the new content presumably offers potential for future M&M franchise titles. Maybe we’ll find out what that Blood War thing was all about.
… But No Cigar
Arkane licensed Valve’s Source enginethe power behind Half Life 2for Dark Messiah, and they use its luscious graphics and outstanding if overenergetic physics to great effect. Source is still a fantastic codebase for making good games, and it’ll remain one of the top dogs until Windows Vista ships and we see the first of the DirectX 10-powered renderers that will follow. The use of Source also means that you can purchase and download this game over Valve’s Steam network, which is how I did it, but it’s also available at retail for the same price if you prefer.
Theoretically, you can choose to play through the adventure in a number of waysas a blades-swirling warrior, as a stand-back-and-hurl-fire wizard, as a stealthy knife from the darkness, or as some combination of the three. The level design, not to mention the prescience and ferocity of some enemies, strongly encourages the heavily armed approach, but you’ll probably find yourself dabbling in magic and stealth as well, if only to experiment with some of the other skills that Sareth can learn. You gather skill points for completing tasks (the game is linear so progress is pretty much set; only the choice of how to fight your way through is up to you), and you can spend them on a variety of combat, magic, stealth or utilitarian skills, most of which do come in handy at some point or another.
The real star of Dark Messiah is the first-person melee combat, which almost proves that such a model can work. Thanks to the Havok physics integrated into Source, sword- and knife-play feel pretty visceral, and actions like blocking and power attacks come quite naturally. The best addition to the system is the ability to kick your opponents, to stagger them or knock them back. Unfortunately, Arkane got a little carried away with the kicking, and so there’s almost always a bottomless chasm or a bonfire or a spiky thing to kick your enemies intomaking it a gimmick rather than a natural extension of tooth-and-nail combat. You could actually kill nearly every enemy in the game by kicking them into, against, or off something; the enemies paper their walls with spike boards and love standing near yawning abyssal trenches. The other problem is perennial to Havok: kick someone and they go flying like forty feet.
It hasn’t been done perfectly yet, first-person melee combat, but I think it will be. Though the kicking scheme comes off as comical rather than part of an orchestrated beatdown, it’s a clever new addition to a melee combat system that is pretty well handled in other ways. It’s fast and requires that you move and block a lot, weapon reach is a major factor, the landscape is part of the battleground and power attacks are imperative if you hope to win. I also like the ability to perform gruesome finishing moves when your blood is up. Next time, let’s add more intuitive physicality to fights, things like shield bashing and bull-rushes, plus a handheld combat camera a la Gears of War, and we’ll see something really special.
Another thing I’ll give Arkane props for is that it includes the same “body awareness” we saw in Thief: Deadly Shadows. Sareth is not a floating camera like the protagonist of most first-person games; he’s got hands and feet and everything, and you can see them. It really helps you immerse in the game world, to look down and see your feet. I frankly can’t believe how rarely this is implemented in first-person games.
Dark Messiah also takes advantage of some of Source’s newer technologies, including high dynamic range lighting, which realistically renders extremely complex lighting algorithms such as those predicated by sunlight or the effect of your eyes struggling to compensate for bursts of intense brightness followed by deep shadow. HDR is jaw-dropping when used correctly, and its implementation here is among the best instances yet. Play of light and shadow are exquisite, as are the water effects so well handled by Source. You’ll need the mother of all video cards to run the game at top rez with all the candy on, but it’s worth it.
The art direction, also, is mostly superb. Arkane did a great job with the gloomy subterranea of Arx Fatalis, and they do a great job with the world of Dark Messiah. Almost every surface in the game is very shiny, like it’s coated in gelatin, but I guess developers are still excited about the technology that allows them to do that. And since you spend a lot of time in forsaken temples and necromancers’ lairs in Dark Messiahplaces where I imagine most things would have an evil glisten to themI didn’t really mind the excess.
Overall level design and gameplay, though, are somewhat uninspired. This is especially true beyond the halfway point, when you’ve pretty much kicked someone into everything you can possibly kick them into and realize to your dissatisfaction that there’ll be nothing more to see. I am reminded of the design and play of Quake IV or Sin Episodes, games that are neither good nor bad, but simply and ultimately forgettable.
Or You Could Have Done this Before You Shipped It
Dark Messiah downloaded my patches automatically over Steam, and its stability has improved dramatically in recent days. At first, however, the game was so impossibly buggy that even reaching the main menu was a crapshoot. Level load times took minutes, crashes to the desktop were infuriatingly frequent and minor glitches like tearing and collision problems abounded.
Since Arkane was quick with the patches and said patches seem to have greatly improved the game’s stability and performance, I’m not going to knock off points for this. However, boxed-version buyers should be aware that they’re going to need to download some software updates in order to enjoy a stable gaming experience.
The multiplayer portion of the game is rich and involved, offering a number of game types and a variety of strategies for victory. Unlike the single-player game, where you can theoretically play as a mage or thief but in truth always wind up as a fighter with Rockette powers, in the multiplayer arena all classes are integral team members and kicking is a hell of a lot harder to do with finesse. Unfortunately, much of the instability I encountered while playing was in the multiplayer space, and I simply wasn’t able to devote lots of time to this part of the game experience. I apologize for that; however, what I did sample tells me that Dark Messiah offers unique and fresh multiplayer options that are worth checking out.
Wrap-up of Might & Magic
I was set to give this game a Middlin’ score when I started writing, but the truth is I’d mostly be doing that because the story is so absurd and Xana is so obnoxious. These are major issues, but they do not relegate the game to two-star doldrums. I had a good time playing Dark Messiah, I put a solid twenty hours into it before I finished, and there’s a chancesomewhat remotethat I might one day go through again. I guess the best advice I can give is to wait until this game is $39 rather than $49, and you probably won’t be disappointed.
Randy Smith consulted extensively with Arkane on Dark Messiah, and it shows in nearly every aspect of the experience. Randy came from Looking Glass, where he was a level designer and then senior designer on the Thief games. After that, he served as project lead on Thief: Deadly Shadows at Ion Storm, and he is now working on a secret project with Steven Spielberg and fellow Looking Glass alum Doug Church. He is one of the industry’s most highly respected experts on stealth-based design and use of emergent play techniques to expand player freedoms.
In fact, I give Randy credit for everything I liked about this game. That’s not to say that Arkane was somehow second fiddle in its development, just that there’s a whole lot of Randy’s fingerprints to be seen here. Arkane’s previous offering, Arx Fatalis, shares many general similarities but lacks Dark Messiah’s energetic, if somewhat ill-fated, attempts to bring physics, stealth and a variety of combat options into the mix of a game that may not live up to all of its potential but still delivers the goods where they count.
The Verdict
The Lowdown
Developer: Arkane Publisher: Ubisoft Release Date: October 25, 2006
Available for:
Four Fat Chicks Links
Screenshots
System Requirements
Windows XP (only) AMD Athlon, Pentium 2.6 GHz (3.2GHz recommended) 512 MB RAM (1 GB recommended) 128 MB DirectX 9-compliant video card (256 MB recommended) DirectX 9-compliant sound card (PC audio solution containing Dolby Digital Live required for Dolby Digital audio) DirectX 9 or higher (included on disc) 4x or faster DVD-ROM drive 7 GB free hard disk space Windows-compatible mouse and keyboard Multiplayer: Broadband Internet connection with 64 Kbps upstream or faster. Installation of Steam software required for multiplay
Where to Find It
Links provided for informational purposes only. FFC makes no warranty with regard to any transaction entered into by any party(ies).
Copyright © Electric Eye Productions. All rights reserved. No reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission.
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[…] nobody@flickr.com (graftedno1) wrote a very interesting post today. Here’s a quick excerpt:My greatest fear is to be trapped alone in a confined space with a blind human, in total darkness. They have a heightened sense of smell and hearing, and. […]
Lewis, you made me think of the scariest moments I’ve experienced in gaming, and we’re very similar people.
Bioshock had two moments – the dentist and the flooded room filled with mannequins.
Thief had Return to the Cathedral, which was terrifying to me. Thief 3 had Shalebridge Cradle, which is so scary it ought to be fined.
System Shock 2 kept me on the edge of my seat, but it was more lonely panic than true fear.
Korsakovia was so scary that I uninstalled it.
And STALKER. Oh, god, the haunted labs in STALKER. The latter two games don’t have scares like that. Few games do.
It’s especially rare for a game to have more than mere “moments” – for a game to be scary from beginning to end, that’s a triumph.
Wonderful article. As if Gregg’s review wasn’t enough to convince me that Penumbra is not something I have the courage to play!
I’m with you Lewis … I’m a bit of a puss. I just have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of dread as entertainment.
Still, I’m drawn to dark stories when they have something interesting to say, whether it’s a game like Thief or a film like, say, Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible. So I’ll push through, sometimes peering through my fingers.
The trouble with games, though, is that if you look through your fingers, you’re probably just going to have to play through the scenario again. :~)
I wanted to play this game. I downloaded the demo but the controls were just too wonky for me to get my head around. I liked the atmospheric vibe a lot. I think I’m a bit desensitized from an overdose of horror movies in my youth so I don’t so much get the dread thing from these games as a nice creepy vibration. If only the controls were better…
@ Mike, what’s wrong with the controls bud? As someone who despises poor control schemes, Penumbra’s is just like any other FPS, except to examine things you right click on them. To use things you left click. I’m not sure that can be considered difficult 🙂
@Steerpike: Yeah my greatest shit-scared moments were with those games too. A few spoilers below people, so beware.
Bioshock – Haha, I remember the dentist. I didn’t really find the game that scary overall but the bit where you go into the wine cellar and notice a mannequin facing the wall and after upgrading your weapon it’s stood directly behind you motionless and quiet just for a moment before attacking you. I shat a brick. I also missed that bit originally until Lew told me about it.
System Shock 2 – same as you really, more unremitting tension all the way through rather than specific terrifying moments. Oh actually, theres a bit where you call a lift and it breaks then you realise a service droid is coming to fix it… I do remember having sleep issues after my first encounter with the cyborg ninjas though.
Thief: The Dark Project – The Sword and Return to the Cathedral and Down in the Bonehoard and well, loads of them. The Sword made me break out into goosebumps though because there was a bit where you could hear this creepy giggling which seemed like it was following me about then it suddenly changed to this horrible throaty noise. What made matters worse was that the EAX (bless you Creative) made my foot steps sound like somebody else was there with me. That level was incredible, a bit too incredible as it seems I missed great chunks of it because I was so eager to leave.
Thief II: The Metal Age – Trail of Blood where you end up in that opening with those damn tree beasts. God the first time I saw one of those hurtling towards me I actually died shortly afterward. Do you remember that Mechanist child walking around on one of the levels? That was a little creepy.
Then there’s Penumbra: Overture – quite a few bits but I’m not mentioning them here.
Oh and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – The brain scorcher lab just because it was so damn quiet. My imagination seriously got the better of me there. Those stuffed animals and heads I’d seen in various buildings led me to believe that those creatures were lurking somewhere in the Zone, specifically that lab.
@Mike: My control setup was perfect after some tweaking (as well as the simple weapon swing fix). If you ever fancy giving it another go, give me a shout and I’ll let you know my setup.
I’m not sure why guys, but one of my starting paragraphs had gone missing, even though I copied it straight from the original source, and It was fine earlier.
Incase you missed it due to some technical issue you might want to re-read just after “Well no she wouldn’t in truth, but in Penumbra: Overture you don’t want to move anyway.” at the very start for those who’ve already read the article. Apologies 🙂
Lewis, it was the weapon swing. It had this terrible, unresponsive feel to it, like trying to hit through molasses. I couldn’t stand using it. I tried the .ini fix as mentioned in the review but it didn’t seem to help. Of course this was the demo…but that shouldn’t have made any difference. I might try the second game instead as I guess they did away with the weapons thing.
I’m see your first paragraph just fine. It’s the dialogue, right?
I like the argument that weapons can remove fear, but even loaded to the teeth with ammo in AVP’99 the Marine missions were frightful because the enemy was anywhere at any time.
As for Penumbra Overture, if the controls are anything like the original Penumbra they need to hack in some Wii-Remote 3d controls. I did not like using my mouse for 3d movements.
@Mike: I’ve read that many people avoided conflict altogether in Overture which incidentally is something forced upon you in Black Plague. As somebody who has been renovating a house over the last 6 months with no DIY experience I can safely say that swinging a hammer is significantly easier in real life than it is in Overture without the fix. The fix balanced that for me.
I’d highly recommend completing the first Penumbra because it’s one big build up to Black Plague which spoils the ending to Overture in the intro. And it’s a great ending too. Just so you know!
@ Steerpike, those moments you mention are all my worst too!! Do you remember the Robot labs in SS2? Absolutely terrifying, waiting for robots to burst out on you! 🙁 oh and have you ever player Condemned?
@ Mike, The use of weapons in Penumbra is different to say HL2, where the player is physically holding the weapon, as in Penumbra it floats slightly infront of you. However, if you change the control method to normal weapon swing, it’s no different! Speak to Greggi and he’ll tell you what to do 🙂
@ jdeuel, AVP the original and its sequal were scary however what type of fear do you think it is? I don’t think it’s anything more than sheer tension. Having a Smart Gun makes you feel incredibly powerful. I can honestly say in Penumbra the fear is sheer unrivalled terror, where you actually have to force yourself to play on. It genuinly is that scary! 🙂
It’s so true, an arsenal of weapons and ammo rapidly deflates any sense of horror or uneasiness in any game for reasons you already mentioned. Sakey, I thought Bioshock was more “lonely panic,” while I was pretty much always terrified in System Shock 2. I really, really, REALLY did not want to enter The Many’s nursery, and my weapons were so unreliable and ammo so scarce that I never felt safe.
Silent Hill was terrifying for the same reasons. Ammo was rare and I frequently had to rely on my pipe for self-defense. Even when I had ammo, the game mechanics prevented my character from being anything other than marginal with any firearm.
Fear had one moment for me: I was climbing up a ladder, and as I reached the upper platform, my guy briefly looked down as he climbed off. As my perspective looked up again, that Ring-esque little girl was RIGHT THERE, reaching for me. I screamed and she was gone.
What else…the original Aliens vs. Predator sent me into a locker room and I could only hear the facehuggers scurrying about somewhere within. I had to go in there. I advanced about three steps before the damn thing screamed and filled up my screen with its repulsive underside as it implanted me with its spawn. My roommate made fun of me for weeks for screaming like a girl child.
Korsakovia–meh. I was too annoyed and frustrated by the box rearrangement/jumping puzzles to be scared. I uninstalled it after an hour of play, I think. Maybe the scary parts were later, but I doubt it.
As for Penumbra, I did play through about half of it before other games distracted me. I remember unease and creepiness, but no sweaty fear. I think I’m to blame here, or, more precisely, my daughter, who was still an infant at the time and generally allowed me only to play during the day for 45 minutes at a time. I was denied total immersion and the fear effect suffered. Maybe I should give it another go after I finish Call of Pripyat since she sleeps through the night now. With any luck, Penumbra will keep me from doing the same.
I played the demo of F.E.A.R. but that ladder scare is the only bit I remember. Christ, that made me jump. I’m not too good with cat scares.
Also I felt exactly the same about Korsakovia. It was creepy at first but then it began to irritate me far too much and it just soured the experience. I stopped playing as a result. Not to mention, when I realised I could bash those smoke-things with my crowbar they didn’t bother me nearly as much.
Great article. I look forward to reading more in the future.