Simply enough, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic is a first-person, dungeon-romping adventure game. It doesn’t brag about its depth, and it won’t have you looking at mushrooms. Instead, Arkane Studios is making a fun and moving action-adventure title like those we’ve played in the past, only with much more advanced graphics, AI and physics.
The combination is good. Built using the Source engine (used for Half-Life 2), Dark Messiah’s visuals don’t disappoint, and physics play a big part in the game, with traps spread throughout each level and lots of items to throw and knock around.
The AI is highly advanced, as it will work to push you into those traps, and its ability to recognize patterns means enemies can counter your style of attack. In fact, if you want to trap, flank, trick, or even shrink and step on your enemies, expect that they might do the same back to you. Fortunately, the environment is just as inhospitable to enemies as it is to the main character, so physics and strategy will play a significant role in combat.
Combat itself is far more complex than simple dice-rolling. Dark Messiah uses full contact detection, so you’ll need to really learn the moves and actually aim for whatever you think is the enemy’s head. We were only shown a few nimble creatures, but the boss looked good and creative, which bodes well for the rest of the game’s variety.
Players have three different ways to play the game: as a Warrior, Mage or Assassin. Each class has its expected attribute differences, but as you level-up don’t expect to get lost in a sea of attributes. Dark Messiah focuses on the action / arcade style of gameplay, so your character development is only for tweaks.
Arkane Studios is also planning a multiplayer component for Dark Messiah. Currently, the plan is for two teams of 32 players to go against one another using every environment, character, weapon and spell from the game. We weren’t shown any of the multiplayer components at E3, but suffice it to say that shrinking and stepping on your friends does sound fun.
If you know Rune, or perhaps more recently Enclave, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic is another such game that will reach a soft spot with hardcore gamers. Scheduled to release this fall, Dark Messiah should be a fun adventure for even the non-core gamers as well.
— Robert Dusseau
