Dark Messiah of Might & Magic Elements Horror Games Review

Compare at: $29.99 (New)
Buy Now: $26.05 (New)

You Save: $3.94 (13%)

Add to Cart

Title: Dark Messiah of Might & Magic Elements
Format: Video Game
Score:
Platform: Xbox 360
Publisher: UBI Soft
Hits: 41

Review of Dark Messiah of Might & Magic Elements

[ Back to Homepage | Back to Horror Game Reviews Index ]

HellHorror.com not responsible for reviews/comments and they may be removed at any time.

Comments for Dark Messiah of Might & Magic Elements

• Posted on 2009-08-14
  Short but good.
  
  This game isnt bad but could have been longer.Somewhat like Oblivion but no cigar.I recommend not paying more than $20 for it.
  
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
• Posted on 2009-07-11
  sucks
  
  Well first things first this is the same game as for the pc, but they donw graded so much its terrible, you cant kck people down stair cases, and that was the best part of the game, kicking people down stair cases lol
  
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
• Posted on 2009-06-30
  DMMM... when girls are around
  
  Just pretend you're playing Oblivion, but just the main quest. I only went through as the wizard, but I got the idea. I never got a stealth kill, I never sniped a dude with an arrow, and I never took on five guys in hand to hand combat, but by the time I was done with the game... I was done. If any of those things that I missed out on sound cool to you, Pick your warrior accordingly. Otherwise be the wiz. He's soft at first, but about an hour in, his magic rocks. The game has stuff hidden everywhere, and that alone kept me looking till world seven... then I sped through the rest. I paid about ten bucks after shipping, and I would say it was worth it. Don't pay any more unless you a hardcore into these games (might and magic). But I'll warn anyone who's not. Oblivion is better in almost every way. Fighting is flashier in DMMM, but the weapons are fewer and almost all the same. That sums up every aspect of the game. Fun for a little while.
  
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
• Posted on 2009-06-09
  Unusually rigid but a decent Theif spinoff
  
  Dark Messiah of Might and Magic Elements is surprisingly rigid, particularly in the level design. It was advertised as sort of a sandbox game where you explore dungeons and set off traps and shoot ice spells at the floor to make enemies slide off ledges. Yeah that's all there, but the game is absolutely nothing but encapsulated rooms/hallways where it is obvious over and over that you can crush the entire room of enemies by setting off an obviously placed trap. However, the combat is so easy, even on hard, that often it isn't worth bothering trying to be clever.
  
  The redeeming features to this game are the rope bow for climbing, the hidden treasures and equipment that you can spend hours finding, creepy spiders, and kicking unsuspecting people or orcs off of cliffs. The value increases if you particularly love the Thief series. Recommended on PC over console.
  
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
• Posted on 2009-04-11
  Even With the Slightly Different Format, It Still IS a Roleplaying Game
  
  As I've mentioned in some of my other reviews, I am heavily into roleplaying games of any type, however they are presented. I was attracted to this game by its Might and Magic title. I've played the PS1 and PS2 games under this aegis and, while they weren't as fun for me as other games back in the day, I saw no cause to avoid this game simply because it bore the same name. I have the original version attached to my Steam account, but my PC isn't quite strong enough graphically to play it smoothly, so I figured I'd give the Xbox 360 console version a shot. There are a few differences between the two, such as the separate character classes in the console version, each with its own specific skill set, but nothing notable enough to give me pause. This particular game reminds me of some of the dungeon crawls I and my friends did old-school on the tabletop version of D&D.
  
  GAMEPLAY-4 Stars
  This game is set up on a first-person perspective to give a more personalized feel for the action, so you feel things are happening to you. The one major difference from just about all other FPS shooters is that you look down... and you have a BODY!!! And FEET!!! This one, as silly as it sounds, was a deal maker for me, because honestly, the only time someone might look down and NOT see their body is if they're on a bad acid trip, so that in itself made the game more real for me (yes, I know it's still just a game, thank you).
  
  Combat in the game is varied enough to be decent. You can parry, make power strikes for extra damage, fighting fatigues you, and when you're on an adrenaline rush, you're truly fearsome. Some creatures, like the undead, require special attention (e.g. a finishing move) to take down for good, and the enemies are sufficiently varied that fighting doesn't become blase. You can make direct use of the environment to overcome opponents, either kicking them off of cliffs, into spikes or bonfires or dropping heavy statues on them.
  
  The game IS pretty linear, but the only first-person perspected games I've ever run across that weren't were the Deus Ex series ('The Conspiracy' for PS2 and 'Invisible War' for original xbox) and even they were area level-based. The game IS a roleplaying game, in that you acquire experience points based on the creatures you kill and the mission objectives you achieve. When you reach an experience threshold, you increase in level (there are 15 levels in total), and each level grants you an additional skill or increase in health based on the character class you choose at the onset of the game (Warrior, Wizard, Archer or Assassin, with-I believe-3 more classes available for download from XBOX Live), so your abilities do improve over time. The specific aspects that keep it from being your typical RPG are game length (about 10 hours from start to finish whereas the average RPG will run about 75-80 hours) and lack of shops to purchase equipment, although you can pick up better gear along the way. These, by the way, are the same gaffs that Lord of the Rings: The Third Age suffers from, although LTOR 3rd Age's game length is about 30 hours long on average, and that game is linear as well. One neat little trick Dark Messiah has is the ability to create your own weapon at a blacksmithing forge depending on the type of metal ingot you pick up. The magical weapons are also pretty cool, if a bit cliched. Parent's notice: The game gets its Mature rating due to violence, nudity (your travelling companion's natural appearance is very... striking... shall we say), and sexual innuendo. It's up to you to decide if that's appropriate for your sons or daughters. It's understandable though. Arkane studios is a French-based company , and they (along with the rest of Europe) have a much more laid-back view of sexuality than we Americans do.
  
  STORY-5 Stars
  The adventure begins with you standing beside a tranquil waterfall and the pool it's feeding into on a warm sunny day. You've just finished your apprenticeship and are eager to prove your worth to your mentor, the wizard Phenrig. The task he's given you is to locate a very special magical crystal, located in an ancient temple just beyond the grotto. No explanation is given as to why this crystal is so important. All you know is that your master needs it and that's enough for you.
  
  At first...
  
  The storyline is quite gothic and over the course of your adventure, via the cutscenes, you discover something particularly interesting about yourself that could affect your following actions, altering the climax at the end of the quest.
  
  The backdrop is pretty immersive for such a linear game. You learn things about the history of the land through books you run across in barracks and libraries, about different wars that were fought and of the schism between the mages and the necromancers. You overhear people talking about how certain things came to be. And there's your companion's narrative throughout the course of your travels. All of that adds to the experience and aids in your 'suspension of disbelief' while you're playing.
  
  GRAPHICS-5 Stars
  The imagery of this game is impressive, enabled through the use of Valve's 'Source' graphics engine (which in turn makes use of Havoc physics). The shrines and crypts you explore give a convincing illusion of vastness. There's cobwebs. There's dank water in the sewers, which give off proper reflections out in the distance. The light shading is dynamic and the shadows are directly relevant to your ability to remain unnoticed. The beach scenery makes me pine to be out on summer vacation as I walk along the sandy ground (as of this writing, my wife, Lara, realizes this, so she's planning a getaway to the sand dunes in our home state of Colorado; I can't wait!). The architecture of the Temple of the Spider is Mesopotamian in flavor, and that's something you don't normally see in a fantasy game (usually it's medieval European). Most of the areas are closed in, in that, if you can see off in the distance to a horizon, it's nothing you can travel to (it's mostly there for eye candy). But the environments are all pretty detailed thoughout. All things considered, the developers did a good job on their environments.
  
  SOUND-5 Stars
  The soundtrack for this game really does it justice. The music is not typically classical but it is of a fantasy bent, with a lot of percussion, and it's applied at just the right moments. Some of it is just monotonal, but its purpose is to increase the tension you feel regarding your situation. The ambient sounds are perfect for where you find yourself. For example, at some point you are walking along a cliff side from one rundown shack to another over planks. The sunlight is balmy as you look out at the water. You can hear the wind blowing through the cracks of the buildings with the occasional bird chirping off in the distance. All of it serves to induce a definite feeling of solitude and it hits you that you really are alone in this adventure. The voice acting of the key characters is of very high quality, with the incidental characters slightly less so (but still reasonably good). The creatures sound convincingly horrifying, especially the cyclops and the ghouls.
  
  REPLAY-4 Stars
  The adventure may remain the same, but the different character classes you play have a direct impact on the situation you find yourself in. There are also unlock codes that grant you access to hidden locations that give you bonus items (such as Arantir's sanctum; there's a point where you jump through a portal and find yourself in the same area, just upside down, making it very interesting to navigate). There are also multiple endings based on your actions, so you get something different out of the game every time you play it.
  
  OVERALL-4 Stars
  When compared to other roleplaying games, some might find this game lacking, but if you truly keep an open mind and judge the game based on its own merits, you might find the experience more than you thought it was at first. One and a Half Thumbs Up.
  
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10