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A FPS with RPG upgrade skills...A great game but a few concerns

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Despite some problems, the game itself is really fun to play!

The Pros:

Dark Messiah Might and Magic is the type of computer game I really enjoy, that being primarily a FPS combined with touch of RPG; if you like System Shock or Deus Ex then I'm sure this game will be of interest to you. This game (when it works properly [more below]) has it all; some interesting quests, first person combat with traditional weapons or magic against various groups of enemies. There were even a few individual bosses to defeat along the way.

One of the nicest things about this game is its replayability; you could, for instance, play the game as a warrior/fighter and then try the game again using the skill points you've earned to develop a top flight assassin or mage. Lots of variety, lots of choices, IF, you can get the game to run properly.

The Cons: (from most important to minor)

1.)Crashes, but less with the latest patch. I eventually put the game settings on low (especially the video [and without any real reduction in game play enjoyment]); I found this reduced most (but not all) of the crashes that usually occurred when I tried to reload after dying or loading a new scene.

2.)The audio and video were often out of sync, for both talking scenes and battle sounds.

3.)Only a small number of recent saves (maybe 3 or 4 ) which sometimes made it difficult to use your hard earned skill points wisely for upgrades. (some skills were very useful [depending on your character], others less so).

4.) Really annoying, grating voice acting for Leanne and Phenrig.

All in all, a great game; they should have waited a little longer to fix the bugs before releasing it.

Great Idea that was Poorly Implemented

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: August 16, 2007
Author: Amazon User

First, the good. This game uses the enviroment and gives a number of options to complete most goals using magic, stealth, or brute force. It is rather amazing to be able to utilize so much of the world as opposed to the usual eye-candy other games give you but no interaction.

The bad. This game is short, very short. I bought it recently and would have been seriously angry to have paid the original retail price for this game. There are serious technical issues going on with this game which include audio stuttering, slowdowns, and hard crashes and some hotkeys just stop working. Much of this is related to the source engine and is found in other games using that source engine, but that's no exuse. The game also has a bit of challenge issue, in that it moves from incredibly easy to moments of frustratingly hard. It wouldn't be so bad if it was consistent. Also, in this date and age, games should not be this linear (there is no deviating from the main game except a few minute quests) and there is only one single male character (what no female story line?). Also the do it this one way or reload approach is not a next generation game methodology... especially when the loading times are pathetic.

Lastly, the multiplayer game doesn't play anything like a the singe player. If they could have create a game that was thoughtful and challenging like the single player as opposed to the quick brawling fests of the multiplayer... then i would have given it more stars. At the price the game sells for now, sure its worth it.

Hopefully, in the future the company will put more effort and technical expertise into their products... this could have been incredible.

Great game, bugs are easily overcome.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 9
Date: October 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have a number of reasons for being incredibly excited about Dark Messiah:

1) I've always been a fan of first-person shooters, ever since Doom and Wolfenstein 3D. I love the tension and drama I associate with playing through something really tough/scary, defeating the enemy with raw skill or through the creative use of my resources. I've also really gotten into innovative FPSs like Deus Ex (I'm a sucker for a good RPG or anything resembling an RPG). Not to mention I'm a huge fantasy nut. Thus, a fantasy-based first-person shooter with RPG elements: it's like manna (mana? as in Secret/Legend/Sword of...) from heaven!

2) As I mentioned previously, I love RPGs. Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG; action RPGs like Diablo and Dungeon Siege (third person) or Morrowind/Oblivion (first person); and even games like Deus Ex that aren't RPGs in the traditional sense but have elements of an RPG. Knights of the Old Republic? Golden. I love playing a game where I actually get to make decisions that have a noticeable effect on the path I take and how NPCs react to me. Even if there's not too much non-linear interest in DM, I'm already digging on the skill system and the fact that I have an arsenal of weapons/fighting styles to choose from.

3) I like graphics. I like physics. They aren't the most important component of a game (I still play a lot of my old favorites on SNES and such), but if they are there I will definitely appreciate them. Doom 3? Very nice (although the formula was a bit disappointing after awhile). Flatout? Most excellent! I really like the Source engine; it delivers great graphics and physics while maintaining a smooth framerate and experience that really gets me excited. I love interactive environments as well, even if it's just certain objects. Kicking enemies into traps, spikes, fires and off of ledges and cliffs is just amazing.

There are so many different things that I love about DM that I can't describe them all in one review. I'll just have to keep ranting and ranting about them until I get sick of the game, maybe in like 10 years or so. Even then I may still be playing it; I still play Diablo, and it's 12 years old. Final Fantasy too. This is definitely a game that will inspire nostalgia in most anyone who plays it, I think.

A final note about the bugs and crashes some have experienced: I downloaded the game on Steam as soon as it came out (I had preloaded it as much as was released before the game became available for download). When I first played it I experienced a number of glitches, NPC dialogue missing/playing as static, etc. I did as one user on the M&M forums suggested and verified Dark Messiah's cache; after that I had very few problems. I also defragged my cache (in Steam) and the drive the game was on and experienced a noticeable performance increase. So I'd say don't let the bugginess worry you too much, as it can be fixed easily enough.

BUGGY

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 22
Date: October 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is full of bugs, and definitely not worth purchasing at this time. My roommate and I both purchased copies on release day, and we both ran into several problems, not always the same.
- Finding and copying the proper .dll's to a directory
- 10-15 minute load times (or freeze up) on multiplayer maps.
- Sound and lag issues in Single player
- This game uses Steam, and sometimes it wants to update the entire game (10 Gig)

Wait a few weeks, see what Ubisoft fixes, then check the forums to see if it is really worth it. I just wasted 100 bucks for 2 copies of an incomplete game... please save your money and don't do the same.

Play Oblivion Instead

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 12
Date: May 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I have not been able to play the game. Every time I have attempted to, it restarts my system. I have downloaded all the "patches", installed, uninstalled, and over again trying to get this game to work on my pc which does fall within all of the specified game requirements to be able to play the game. Obviously there is a huge problem with the game and I can not understand how a game publisher/game developer would release this without working out these major issues. Also, I am out the money it cost me for the program, since they have all of the laws against piracy which leaves me with a game that doesn't work, and without the money that it cost me for this glorified coaster.

Dark Messiah dissappointing

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 8
Date: January 14, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Very disappointing. Took me only 2 days to finish the game. Not worth $49.00. Also, I'm a big Might and Magic fan; this game is NOT AT ALL like the other M&M games. You are the only person, no companions. No buying/selling items and equipment in stores (no stores). When you get a stronger weapon or armor, just throw the old one away. No sleeping to recharge yourself. Not a large variety of weapons, armor or magic. No exporing. Just one long endless quest. OK game for a role playing fanatic-But very disappointing for a M & M fan.

Beware serious performance problems

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 8
Date: January 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game could have been tremendous! I really loved the demo and it played OK for the first few levels. However, it quickly turned into a problem and performance made the game play very slow and then crash out completely. I am a computer professional and have a pretty good machine. I worked for weeks trying to get it to run right and found that for some people, the game runs fine but others have a nightmare experience for which there is no resolution. If you're one of the lucky ones this could be a great game. For me - it was disaster. The company is no help. The forums provided no answers that worked.

Dark Messiah: A Step Into the Fantasy FPS

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: October 31, 2006
Author: Amazon User

To be honest, I always took a much greater interest in the multiplayer portion of Dark Messiah rather than its single player brethren. Developed by Kuju Entertainment, the company responsible for helping develop the EyeToy games for the PS2, the multiplayer mode for Call of Duty: Finest Hour, and Battalion Wars for the Nintendo Gamecube, the multiplayer mode of Dark Messiah encompasses a unique style of gameplay in a fantasy setting. The game splits between 2 factions, the Humans and the Undead. Each faction allows 5 playable classes, the Assassin, the Priestess, the Mage, the Archer, and the Warrior. The only difference between the Humans and the Undead is their physical appearance; otherwise, they are essentially the same.

Now the question is, how does the multiplayer stack up?

Pretty nicely, and I won't stop there.

Despite some slight conflicts of class balance, the multiplayer portion of the game leads as an excellent and worthy contender of popular multiplayer first person shooters. To begin with, the Assassin is a very fast paced and fun-to-play class. In fact, all classes are extremely fun to play, and it will only get better as Kuju decides what should be done to help make the game even better. (And they do, their commitment to the Open Beta was extraordinary, as far as updates and forum responses go). The Warrior is a tanker lover's dream, being able to negate any spells and absorbing the most damage with its Reinforced Armor. Surprisingly, the Warrior's attacks are powerful as well. The Priestess is most likely the main concern of many balance critics. With her instant self-heal ability and an armor buff that lowers any kind of damage, the Priestess can take on any class and win. I haven't even mentioned the insane range of her Corrupt ability and the Bramble spell that slows ALL players to a crawl. Kuju Entertainment obviously decided that Priestesses should do more than just supporting other classes. The Mage is insanely powerful as well, but only in late levels. Finally, the Archer is a class that rewards those with practice; arrows not only take time to reach the target, but they also arc as well. However, 1 fully charged shot deals 56 damage; 2 shots will kill the player.

In conclusion, the multiplayer portion of Dark Messiah is anything but the norm. It features a retrospective view of the modern first person shooter with 5 totally different playable classes. The game delivers tons of different tactical strategies, and will only get better as Kuju Entertainment continues to please its fans with updates and additions to the game.

Fun but crashes like mad even WITH the first patch.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I got this game "free" when I purchased an NVIDIA 8800 GTX graphics card. The game was awesome for about 2 minutes, and then the crashes begain, so I applied the patch, upgraded the drivers from NVIDIA and it's still crashing. Graphically, it "looks great", but playability is not there when I hit any of the "menu options", the screen goes black, and sooner or later, this game actually crashes the computer, not just the game itself. Hopefully it's not going to remain a pile of junk, because the online demo and the small parts of the game I've been able to play seemed really fun. I wouldn't buy this game anywhere though until the forums respond positively that the bugs are worked out of it. I have a ripping fast computer and the top of the line graphics card and it still crashes, so perhaps it's better on a baseline system, who knows.

Great graphics, linear storyline

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I don't consider my computer "high end" - I bought it summer 06 for around $1100. I think the graphics are awesome - the only problem I've had is in the areas where the light is shining through the windows.

The storyline is awfully linear, but the ability to kick your enemies away/off a cliff/into spikes is pretty cool.

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