Beneath the crypts prophecies clash

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
Game Category: Action - First Person, Fighting
Developer / Distributor: Arkane Studios and Kuju Entertainment / Ubisoft
Release Date: 24 Oct 2006
Rating: ESRB - Mature

Introduction
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic is a first person action fighting game that continues the lore of the Might and Magic franchise. Taking the story arc of Kha-Beleth featured in two of the sub-campaigns from Heroes of Might and Magic V, Ubisoft has expanded on the Demon Sovereign's story.

Dark Messiah tells us the nefarious story of how the Demon Sovereign is brought back to life to terrorize the world of Ashan as foretold in the Prophecy of the Dark Messiah. In fact the quote for today's game features a line from the prophecy.

In the game, you take on the role of Sareth, a young apprentice mage who eventually gets embroiled in the search for the Skull of Shadows. Somehow, our protagonist's life will get intertwined with that of the prophecy. It will be up to you to decide how fate plays out and whether the Demon Sovereign will be released from his prison forever to torment the world of Ashan.

The game of Dark Messiah comes equipped with an interesting single player campaign as well as a fun multiplayer element. Unfortunately, as of today, the multiplayer element cannot be accessed at all. Let's concentrate on the single player element then, but is it good enough to stand on its own?

Is this guy the Dark Messiah?

Gameplay
Dark Messiah's single player campaign starts you off as an apprentice mage. Your tutor and foster father Phenrig sends you into a dungeon as a test. Your task in this first dungeon is to find an artifact; this is going to be quite an easy task as long as you pay attention to what Phering has to say throughout the Prologue level.

In the tutorial, you will learn how to navigate the level (through walking or sprinting), pick up objects and use them, interact with levers, kick on flimsy structures to cause them to collapse, climb up a chain (or rope), jump up walls, move objects out of the way, activate a very simple spell - Dark Vision to navigate a pitch black area, and use your sword against zombies and live enemies known as Black Guards.

Your tutor Phenrig teaches you the basics

Most importantly, by the end of the tutorial level, you would also have learnt how to use your skill points and award yourself a new skill. You get skill points in the game, not based on an experience points system, but based around reaching checkpoints where you are considered to have accomplished a mission objective for that level.

Your skill points can be spent on combat skills, spells, or miscellaneous skills:

• Combat skills such as Melee Combat, Archery, and Strength typically have three levels. The more levels you have, the more powerful you are at that skill. Critical Hit has two levels while Adrenaline does not have any at all.

Dark vision in action

• There are twelve spells available to Sareth in the game. Using spells require that you use Mana points (the blue bar at the right side of the screen). Other than Dark Vision, you can cast Fire Trap, Flame Arrow, Freeze, Fireball, Lightning Bolt, and so on. It seems like these spells come straight out of a Dungeons and Dragon manual.
• Miscellaneous skills tend to be latent in nature. They include Stamina, Magic Affinity, Alertness, Endurance, Vitality, and Mana Regeneration.

I suggest you get the Heal spell

The story proper commences in Chapter 1. You get to see a very voluptuous femme fatale in the cutscene movie before you are whisked away on your mission. This lady is a magical construct conjured by Phenrig, and she will accompany you in your head throughout the campaign. Her dialog tends to be rather... colorful, so you will find yourself smiling when you hear her speak.

In one interesting use of the Source engine, Arkane Studios has you ending your journey to Stonehelm on horseback. As soon as you enter the city gates, pandemonium will ensue and you are off on a frantic run through the exciting first level. Under siege by a necromancer led army, you will somehow win the day with your heroic derring-do. Your actions will help you win the admiration of Menelag - the mage and ruler of Stonehelm who must be given the artifact you found in the Prologue mission. At the same time, a pretty lady by the name of Leanna, Menelag's niece, would also have set her eyes on you. Life really gets interesting when you are a hero.

Somebody has to help that poor guy

Part of the game play in Dark Messiah has you sneaking around to surprise your enemies. There is an indicator in the dead center of your screen (shaped like a letter "C" in the screenshot below) that tells you how well hidden you are from your enemies.

When fighting in a battle, you can opt to employ traditional weapons such as daggers, short swords, long swords, staffs, or bow and arrow. You also have advanced actions like performing a power strike, a fatality, a parrying attack and so on. Most of the time, you will click your mouse to inflict small amounts of damage with the weapon you wield. If you hold the mouse button down for a long time, releasing it will inflict more damage, or likely perform a finishing move such as impaling or beheading your enemies.

Being stealthy is fun

You will find all sorts of treasures in Dark Messiah. I have seen weapons, armor, shields, mana potions, health potions (to increase that red health bar at the left side of the screenshot), keys, and even food. Make sure you collect what you need as the treasures will help make your game a whole lot easier. After all, you have to survive the campaign till Chapter 9 before you get to see the Epilogue.

Graphics
The graphics in Dark Messiah is rather well done. From the 2D artwork to the 3D architecture and the incredible dungeon dressing - lots of stuff lying around, chests to open, and so forth. You also get cool 3D models in the form of  the good guys - guards and villagers, and the bad guys - black guards, ghouls, goblins and more. Watch out for the scripted events such as flying rocks that pummel your surroundings, collapsing towers, etc. These really help to immerse you in the game.

Nice artwork

Audio
The music in Dark Messiah is composed by Sascha Dikiciyan and Cris Velasco. Both are veterans in their field and have composed music for many games over the years. Here's a few samples featuring the thrilling music from the game. I remember hearing the awesome sounds as well, but if you ask me, it's all been overshadowed by the excellent music. The voicework in the game was pretty strong as well and I really had nothing to complain about.

Cower when you hear this beast bellow in rage

Pros:

• Interesting campaign with 12 huge levels to play through.
• Nicely done movie cutscenes to watch.
• If you like violence, then you will be happy to know that there is copious amounts of blood and gore - beheadings and stabbings are commonplace moves that you can perform. Not to forget, you can even kick and impale your enemies on nasty looking dungeon implements.

Stick around guys

Cons:

• Multiplayer on Steam seems to be no longer available. There is a dedicated server under View->Tools of the main menu, but I couldn't figure how to get it to work. It is sad that multiplayer is no longer available, it would have been a totally different playing experience where you can choose to be one of 5 classes (archer, assassin, knight, mage and priestess). Each class even had their own unique skills that are different from the single player skills. For that, I have sliced off (pun intended) 1.5 points from the final score. 
• If you are a parent, be aware that this game is extremely violent with no way to tone down the violence.

Conclusion
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic features an impressive single player campaign that runs almost like a Dungeons and Dragon movie adventure. I adored the fierce melee fighting with the added option of casting magical spells to fry or scorch my enemies. The campaign will take you a couple of hours to play through and when you are done, you can attempt the Hard or Hardcore difficulty levels.

I lament that the multiplayer mode seems to be dead. It seems probable that you could set up your own server, but I do not have the inclination to try it out. If you can get multiplayer to work, please drop a comment here and share with everyone else. Thanks.

Daily PC Game Review Score: 6.5 / 10
Review Date: 10 May 2011