fun, janky FPS combat paired with some of the most embarrassing writing ever seen in a video game. two women follow you around who are both SO desperate for your boring actionman fantasyguy dick and never shut up about how cool and sexy you are the entire time. like they're not even characters outside of how badly they want to fuck, it's so overbearing that it's funny. it's on that anime mobile phone horny gacha advertisement shit. i don't think i've ever cared less about the story in a video game, it's the lamest kind of tabletop nerd fantasy, but i don't think anyone who's played this cares about it either. the game's encounter design and the way you, inevitably, end up using the arena's to score environmental kick kills is the core appeal. and it's fun!!!! i like kicking nerds into: pits, oceans, spikes, fire, and more! most of it feels pretty rough, though. movement and regular combat are very clunky and awkward, stairs are a nightmare, and it has some questionable collision at times - but the time you'll spend with your foot up a dude's rear end is good.

A strong start for Arkane, you can see all the things to come from their philosophies on game design and focus on player freedom. I played this numerous times back on Xbox 360, it was the first time I played a game that really felt like it was letting me make my own fun. I played through as a sorcerer, as a stealth archer, a knight, etc. Every configuration you could think of and I had so much fun.

Revisiting it now it does feel somewhat like a relic. The combat isn't very engaging and there's a lot of jank that feels almost endearing. It does seem like a prime candidate for the remaster/remake treatment. Even better it would be cool if Arkane revisited this world and made a sequel building off of the mechanics. They really improved on the formula with Dishonored and Prey, and I think it would be neat to revisit a fantasy setting again with what they've learned in the nearly 2 decades since.

Outstanding and fun gameplay as well as containing very funny moments when launching enemies off the cliffs with a simple kick.

Unfortunately, the incredibly generic and boring story elements make it a hard case for it being great.

Since it brings out interesting gameplay but boring story and environments I can't really enjoy it as much as I wish I did.

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic is a decent action adventure. The combat is pretty solid. There's that kicking meme, but it serves its combat utility purpose well enough. Swinging your weapons and performing power attacks and using physics objects against enemies (like creating an avalanche of stuff, or using telekinesis spell to throw objects with greater force) is satisfying. The platforming... admittedly, it's kind of mediocre. My biggest issue is how unbelivably janky the ledge climbing is. Later I discovered that you have to hold down the jump button to climb stuff, I've never seen this implementation of ledge grabbing anywhere else. Even then, Sareth will fail to climb some objects. You also have to sprint to make across some gaps, which doesn't always feel reliable. The fast paced sections where you have to quickly run feel a little trial and errory for my tastes Later on, you obtain a rope bow which allows you to shoot at wooden objects to create ropes to climb them up. Pro-tip: Don't jump onto the rope as soon as it falls, let it straighten itself, otherwise you may find yourself out of bounds, since the rope itself doesn't have collision. Speaking of bugs, I had to fix some compatibility issues that caused crashes, that 4GB issue and Nvidia's Threaded Optimization thing. After which, I've experienced no crashes at all, but be aware of those technical issues. The story... it's kind of basic. The ending in particular felt kind of underwhelming, I chose to purge the demon power, and I think I used the skull to use its power instead of freeing the father, but really, all I did was to plop it at pretty much the same place it's been before (though looking a different direction). The ending cutscene is short and I didn't gain much from it. I guess the world is saved? The game is also relatively short. This isn't necessarily an issue, but a noteworthy observation. The game definitely has rough edges, but the gameplay is fun and engaging enough despite some jank. An interesting spinoff to the Might and Magic series.

The Might and Magic fantasy universe is a well-established series dating back to 1986. We've all seen many of their games on different platforms, even if we haven't all played them, but most of them have been straightforward turn-based strategy or role-playing games. However, Ubisoft and Arkane Studios' 2006 Dark Messiah of Might and Magic does not fall into any of these categories.

Like Arkane Studios' previous game from that year, Arx Fatalis, it is a first-person game. However, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic turned out to be very linear in terms of role-playing, and is instead an action-based game that focuses more on sword swinging and magic fireball throwing.

The main character is Sareth, a young half-demon raised by Phenrig, a stern mentor and devoted to his teachings. Our protagonist knows very little about his past, yet he has absorbed the lessons of martial arts mastery and has become proficient in both weapons and magic.

About 40 different weapons can be found in the game and you can learn several dozen different combat spells. This diversity allows you to destroy enemies as you please, whether in melee with a sword or dagger, or at range with a bow or spell. The game world consists of 12 large maps.

In Ashan, the forces of evil are stronger than anywhere else in the realm, and evil is rampant in the land, surrounded by fearless orcs, cruel goblins, treacherous trolls, undead, gigantic dragon-like beasts and many other monsters of great malice. Often, the only way to survive is to hide in the shadows and sneak past enemies.

In Dark Messiah of Might & Magic, by gaining experience, the player can unlock new items, specializations and abilities that can then be used effectively in battle. These are combos, spells or different deadly critical hits. The multiplayer part allows you to play together with up to 32 people.

The online part of the game has a variety of game modes, starting with simple deathmatches and allowing you to develop your character during extensive scenarios. The graphics are created by an improved version of the Source Engine, previously used by Valve Studios in Half-Life 2. Additional improvements to the engine include character control, environmental physics and character models. The game's storyline, including side content, is approximately 10-13 hours long.

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic is a very unique B-tier style game I wish we got more of. It is a linear, level-based action RPG in contrast to most other fantasy games that are massive and sprawling. Although really, it is a fantasy Jackie Chan simulator: run around an environment kicking guys into things, throw physics objects at them, or use magic.

The combat is mostly great, although the hit-boxes feel a bit weird. I would often do a horizontal slash with the sword that would miss the enemy because they weren't in the crosshair, even though the sword swung through them.

Story-wise it's pretty good for a small linear game like this, with some good and evil choices you can make to determine the ending (as was the style in the mid 2000s). It justifies going from level to level without becoming annoying. Sareth and Xana have some fun dialogue back-and-forth occasionally, which helps to give the game some life since most NPCs will just be outright hostile.

Other than constant crashing, the biggest problem I have is in environment. Most of the game takes place in caves, sewers, dungeons, underground lairs, etc. The latter half of the game especially blurs together because all these areas are so dark, so you spend most of the time in the blue night-vision mode. I wish there was a torch or lantern or spell for light instead to not take away from the art and lighting of the levels.

Arkane, why isn't the kick in every game?

A fun immersive sim RPG hack-and-slash with fun and cathartic combat giving the player tons and tons of tools at their disposal for slaughtering enemies including but not limited to weapons, spells, projectiles, abilities (including a ridiculously-overpowered melee kick), traps, and environmental hazards, and thanks to the comical ragdoll physics the game has a bombastic, almost sort of slapstick vibe at times that makes melee combat in other first-person games look and feel like a chore in comparison.