Dark Messiah of Might & Magic Reviews

Instead of buying avowed for $70 buy this for $5 and get a game that is worth way more than it's price

It's fine, but nowhere near as good as I’ve heard people say. The level design is kinda ass, the third act is just straight-up dogshit, and the final boss was so bugged that I couldn’t kill him no matter what I tried. I must’ve hit that piece of shit dragon a thousand times with my legendary sword, but he just wouldn’t die like in the videos I saw. The kicking, though, is pretty fun for the most part, and I guess I had just enough fun to barely recommend it.

Got this game for only $2. Its alot of fun sure its messy but its old classic rpg. Its just pure fun.

One of the most underrated games ever made and a good example of how versatile the Source engine truly is. just buy it

I've only got a few hours with this game on Steam but I've played through this game so many times over the years before losing my copy (hence buying on Steam). Firstly, compatibility is OK.... I had a few crashes but after consulting the PC Gaming Wiki and installing a couple of their suggested mods, it runs smoothly. The gameplay is, as others have said, a fantasy hack 'n' slash with magic and a mighty kick. The kick is the star of the show really, it doesn't matter what arena, what enemy, what situation, the kick rules supreme. The melee combat is actually quite fun and challenging for a game of this age. Sometimes the enemies do seem to land hits when they aren't near you which is annoying, but mostly it is fine. What they did nail was the environmental interactions, I remember the first time I accidentally held my bow with an arrow ready to fire against a torch on the wall and the arrow head set on fire, it was amazing. You can set arrows on fire, then shoot them at flammable platforms causing the stuff to collapse on enemies, cut ropes holding chandeliers etc. A great adventure.

I picked up Dark Messiah on a whim, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun I had. The systems are all solid, and they work together with each other well. There is a decent amount of different abilities that you can build your character around, adding to the replay potential. The movement is also super satisfying, and it works so well with the speed of the combat. I'm a big fan of the art style. There's a bit of an 80's dark fantasy, sword and sorcery art style. I've got no experience with the Might & Magic world, so I don't know if that's the standard for the series. In terms of graphics, it's a game from 2006 in the Source Engine. It looks wonderful, and it's also a game from 2006 in the source engine. I had to consult the Steam forums in order to get the game running on my computer, so take that into consideration. I definitely recommend Dark Messiah if you're in the market for a short dark fantasy first person action game. But I mostly recommend it because you can kick. Get it for the kick.

A hidden gem Some of the most creative level design and puzzle solutions I've seen in a game - The combat, whilst kinda clunky at times, is also hilarious and when it clicks, can be really fun Definitely worth trying out if you appreciate good level design or the Dishonored games, as it's very clear that foundations of that started in this game

Such an amazing immersive sim kinda game. This game also makes me wish Current games improved in quality instead of just being slop. I'm talking about AAA and AA games not indie. (•ˋ _ ˊ•)

Well what can I say about this game that hasn't already been discussed. It's a game made by the ImSim legends Arkane Studios in a time where they were still finding their own footing. The basic gameplay that's happening here is an experiment in creative melee/magic combat with a Might&Magic setting. It's not fully refined, but that's probably because this is 2006 and it had to be finished at some point. It makes sense then that this game for it's ideas and their implementation would end up a Cult Classic, albeit not very influential outside of it's own circle. A game very famous for it's kick and physics based fatalities that is hard to recommend without mentioning various caveats. So, let's go with a few goods and bads for simplicity's sake: The Good: 1)THE KICK - a tool that you start with and the game makes sure to teach you about when you encounter your first enemy. Arcane wanted the game to use a lot of the versatility of the Source engine and Havok physics to make a very unique combat system. This one tool makes the game endlessly creative and pushes the player, in a good way, to try to experiment on every combat encounter. How it works: You kick to stun an enemy. If that enemy is near: a ledge, spikes, fire or any insta-kill zone they will get comically ragdolled with speed toward that thing and killed instantly. Nothing quite like kicking an orc off a cliff. 2)The leveling system. As a deeply imsim inspired game, the story will award you skill points to be used in the skill tree after you complete various objectives. There are no levels per se in the game. There are a lot of builds that can be done. 3)The melee combat. Satisfying enough and the animations are great. You also get a cool Adrenaline mode with enough hits. And melee combat also includes picking up a barrel and throwing it into a guy to knock him out. 4)The frost and telekinesis spells. Absolute bangers to transform combat encounters into puzzles. 5)The rope bow. If any of you has played an open ended sandbox game with a grapling hook, Dishonored, Prey or THIEF, you know. Wish it was used in a more sandbox style instead of semi-scripted puzzles. 6)The story. It's pretty good and some choices do matter. 7)Xana 8)Xana The mediocre: 1)The spell system. Most spells are really boring outside of the above mentioned ones. This really is a Might and Magic game, haha. 2)Stealth. It's not really relevant ever, and a bit obtuse despite having an indicator in the middle of the screen. It's half-implemented. 3)Burglary. I love a skill that's only used for secrets and literally just gives me a lockpick. 4)THE JANK. As an early Arkane game, that is mid-2000s and in the source engine, one would expect a certain ammount of jank that is happening in this game. That is not even close to 5% of the sheer level of jank that is in this game. However, not once will you get softlocked or have annoying bugs happen to you, at most some questionable design. And it's excused since it was trying to punch way above what was possible at the time with it's ideas. Let's call it the funny and harmless type of jank. Vaulting and platforming are very jank. Jump to a ledge ->Mrghh, Mrghh, Mrghh, Mrghh-> DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH->Black Screen The Bad: 1-5)THE CRASHES. Oh boy, this game was not stable at release and unless we get a full source code distribution, it won't get better... or worse. There is one fix that would let the game use 4GB RAM instead of 2, but that reduces around 20% of the crashes. The game will crash and you will come to treat it as a normal occurence. It will crash if you try and softlock yourself, corrupting your last save(doesn't matter, you have quicksaves and the autosaves come very often). It will crash with any overlay. It will crash if the hour is 18:34 PM. It will crash if you ever visited Europe in june. It will crash in 5 colours at the same time. And... it will crash because it wants to. 6)Some Pseudo Boss-Fights are a bit obtuse and result in you being 1-2shot way too many times. THOSE DAMN GOBLINS........ GET AWAY FAST, FIND SOME PLACE TO HIDE NOW......... "Quest Updated: Kill The Pao Kai." All in all a fun experience, especially with the price you can get it at nowadays. It's almost free when it's on sale. Thoroughly recommended. Also Xana is best girl.

Better than Avowed. But seriously, a good game for its time. With the current state of modern games, I'm playing old games instead and keeping my money in the bank.