Might and Magic Dark Messiah: My thoughts.

[deuxhero]

[wall of text]


So my copy arrived monday, just finished (its rather short, but easily worth the 4.46 I payed by playtime, plus I may try another build eventually, so more fun there).

The story is a very on the "meh" side. The villain was pretty neat once the "actual" part of the twist occurred

Spoiler

He wants to stop you from fufilling the propecy and ruining the world, he's just willing to destroy a good chunk of the world to do it

. The twist itself was the most blatant I've ever seen. You can figure it out from the manual FFS (Sereth, the PC, is an orphan. The "Dark Messiah" is a half-demon child. Figure it out yet?)

The atmosphere is very thick for a generic fantasy setting. I really liked the opening to chapter one where you are riding to a city and you hear various people on the outskirts afraid of the undead that are coming, then your horse gets startled by it, KOing you. A guard then drags you past the gates and the action starts. It introduces the main threat well and its a shame it isn't in the demo.

I loved the "marked" secret areas. It could just be because I grew up in the era where they were standard and it's lovingly nostalgic, but it also distracts from the otherwise horrid linearity of the game. The use of rope arrows to reach them is pretty cool too. The arrows were a little buggy (got stuck in a wall too many times to count, you can't remove a rope you have placed as far as I can tell, so swining becomes and issues if your ropes are too close, and there is no way to just drop off a rope, so you can become stuck that way...), but otherwise fun.

As for combat (which is really the main reason to play the game) the sword play and physics abuse is excellent. If Skyrim is really as much of a rip on Dark Messiah as it sounds in the GI preview and Arkane's acquisition and disappearance indicates it is, it should be fun for no other reason then that, regardless of how much lore breaking and other dumbing down there is. The traps are a bit repetitive (cut a rope to unleash convenient hanging object, break weak support to unleash things resting on top of it and kick into convient spike rack/bottomless pit) but still fun. Flurry of blows (rapidly attack) is pretty worthless most of the time (everyone blocks it except undead and spiders, and you want to run before either can hit you back because they poison you and poison is VERY deadly, HP to single digits in seconds and there is a limited number of antidotes(, so you are always have to power attack.

Magic is a little lacking, the power by spell is fixed (mage upgrades exclusively increase your mana, all but the most basic spell have healthy delays) while physical attack goes up pretty rapidly between weapons and upgrades. Also, spells nature as inventory items is annoying as well (they take up space in the inventory, you can "discard" them and get them back any time by dragging the icon from the skill tree, but still annoying). Telekinesis only lets you grab some far off loot and lift objects you can lift anyways, would be a lot more fun (and useful) if you could pick up some of the bigger stuff. It picks up a good deal once you bought the fast mana regen upgrade, but its crazy expensive (25 points total to reach), but I still don't think I would have done very well if I didn't play hybrid. Making the "mage" upgrades speed up mana increase and add power to spells gradually would help a great deal.

You get a special demon form late game that attacks fast and gets health on a kill, but drains your health while active (plus the chapters after you get it have friendly guys all around and you fail the mission if you are seen by them with it on) and it comes late game. it's fairly meh and I got it around the same time as I got magic regeneration (so any "not piss easy" fights got fireballs to the face instead of using it), so no use for it.


There's a limited inventory, but it's pretty pointless, you will only fill it if you keep stuff your build can't use AND outdated equipment.

Overall, worth the four and a half bucks.


[/wall of text]

 

[racofer]

The best character build is a half mage/half archer.

Get Heal, Sanctuary, magic focus and mana regen. Then get full archery stats and full strength and if you have any points left get enhanced adrenaline. You will be an unstoppable arrow machine gun with an invincibility spell. Pure fun.

 

[JrK]

Mage direct attack spells are all pretty weak/inefficient in my experience. But the real fun comes from the environment altering spells. Use telekineses to put a small wooden box on fire, then throw it at an enemy. Or telekinesis to lob oil flasks at enemies and then use the cheap flame arrow spell to set them on fire, killing them eventually. Also, use freeze to make enemies drop of cliffs or freeze them in front of those nice spikes and kick them in. Most fun can be had with Charm, where let the enemies kill themselves one by one. The survivor can be frozen/kicked or whatever.

 

[Tycn]

The swordplay is shit. Severance did it better and so does M&B.

 

[Hobo Elf]

The only weapon you'll ever need is the kick.

 

[Raapys]

The swordplay is shit. Severance did it better and so does M&B.

Kind of unfair comparing it to Severance, since that game easily beats *any* other game when it comes to melee fighting.

Not sure I'd agree on M&B though. I do like the combat there, it can definitely be fun, but I don't really feel that weapons in that game have any 'weight' to them. I don't know if it's the controls for swinging your weapon, the animations, sounds, speed or a combination of everything, but there's definitely something off about it despite being entertaining.

 

[Rohit_N]

Telekinesis only lets you grab some far off loot and lift objects you can lift anyways, would be a lot more fun (and useful) if you could pick up some of the bigger stuff.

Isn't this possible with max adrenaline?

 

[deuxhero]

And considering almost everything is an instant kill with adrenaline, it isn't worth it.

 

[Black Cat]

Mage direct attack spells are all pretty weak/inefficient in my experience.

The true problem is that some of the spells are kind of buggy in certain situations. When they work as intended, however, they are now weak nor inefficient: You can defeat the last boss by...

Spoiler

... running up to him, waiting for the dragon to bit you, using the flamer like spell on its head until it goes away and the boss shield drops, then use the flamer like spell on the guy given you are next to him, then repeat on the dragon when it respawns next to you two, then repeat on him. The end before he can raise the shield again.

But, if you try that with the uber spider you will never kill her, given in some situations she gets bugged and you can't flame her. But if then switch to fireballs instead you will shoot her down in, what? Four castings? Something like that.

The true problem with pure mage builds is that mana reloads slowly.

 

[PWSteal.Ldpinch.D]

The swordplay is shit. Severance did it better and so does M&B.

I would have really digged it however the range on attacks were way off, the daggers had the range of a sword and the swords acted like they were twice as long.

 

[Lightknight]

A guard then drags you past the gates and the action starts. It introduces the main threat well and its a shame it isn't in the demo.

Did i play a demo from another reality ? First level with the ogre WAS the demo.

The swordplay is shit. Severance did it better and so does M&B.

Remind me, just how many buttons did you need to fully control Severance's combat ? And how buggy that piece of shit was ? My copy of Severance CTDs about 3 minutes into the first level.

 

[Antediluvian]

Maybe I would've had a better impression of the game if i didn't play a demo version, which featured one open-ended level. The game itself turned out to be so linear, it was almost on rails. I have no problem with linearity usually, but ffs they should've made some kinda sandbox-like rooms, where you can actually play with environmental traps and use the location design to your advantage. Instead...well, let's just say only the signposts saying "kick him over here/shoot here" were missing
The swordplay was good enough. Also

The only weapon you'll ever need is the kick.

Kind of unfair comparing it to Severance, since that game easily beats *any* other game when it comes to melee fighting.

It's not like Rebel Act pulled off some kind of miracle. They made a simple and intuitive battle system that everyone else cannot, for a reason that escapes me, create/replicate. So it is fair

And how buggy that piece of shit was ? My copy of Severance CTDs about 3 minutes into the first level.

Your copy is shit, not the game. Played through it several times and never encountered a single bug

 

[Admiral jimbob]

Game hits a new level with the latest patch and Nightmare difficulty. You die in a few hits and the kick is powered down to the point where it only launches stunned enemies and you only get one or two uses before you're winded. Makes for a much more intense and fun experience.

 

[Phelot]

Severance did it better...

I wonder why no one has ever thought to make another game in the style of it. Man, what I wouldn't give for an action RPG with the combat of Severance. It has so much potential and yet it was awesome as it was, but if a game like Gothic had this level of combat... Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeit.

 

[Tycn]

The swordplay is shit. Severance did it better and so does M&B.

I would have really digged it however the range on attacks were way off, the daggers had the range of a sword and the swords acted like they were twice as long.

It's worse than that. All melee weapons have the same range.

Not sure I'd agree on M&B though. I do like the combat there, it can definitely be fun, but I don't really feel that weapons in that game have any 'weight' to them. I don't know if it's the controls for swinging your weapon, the animations, sounds, speed or a combination of everything, but there's definitely something off about it despite being entertaining.

M&B probably isn't the most appropriate comparison since it's a very different style of game, but there are many more variables that make a difference, especially in multiplayer. Different damage types that act differently against armour, weight, speed, length, attacks available, sweet spots, locational damage. Whereas in DM the difference between most weapons boils down to the damage value and the superfluity of the twirly animations.

 

[deuxhero]

Mage direct attack spells are all pretty weak/inefficient in my experience.

The true problem is that some of the spells are kind of buggy in certain situations. When they work as intended, however, they are now weak nor inefficient: You can defeat the last boss by...

Spoiler

... running up to him, waiting for the dragon to bit you, using the flamer like spell on its head until it goes away and the boss shield drops, then use the flamer like spell on the guy given you are next to him, then repeat on the dragon when it respawns next to you two, then repeat on him. The end before he can raise the shield again.

But, if you try that with the uber spider you will never kill her, given in some situations she gets bugged and you can't flame her. But if then switch to fireballs instead you will shoot her down in, what? Four castings? Something like that.

The true problem with pure mage builds is that mana reloads slowly.

I spamed lighting bolt on the dragon when it appears because I didn't have inferno. Worked well enough.