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Dark Messiah of Might and Magic

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ESRB: Blood and Gore,Intense Violence,Language - Mild,Partial Nudity
Publisher: UbiSoft
Genre(s): Role Playing Game
Home Page: http://www.darkmessiahgame.com/

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By: Nick Evanson Feb 26, 2007

We've come a long way from role-playing games of yore. No more must we type "go north" followed by a sedately "kill dragon" - these days, a good RPG demands that you actively fill your role, with emphasis being on the word action. Step forward Arkane Studio's Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, very much an action, adventure-fantasy game.

If the names all sound familiar, well that's not surprising. The phrase Might & Magic has adorned games for an incredible 20 years, including multiple spin-offs (the most famous of which being Heroes of...). Ubisoft picked up the rights to the series a few years ago and the reviewed Dark Messiah is one of their first offerings in the franchise. Bizarrely, Ubisoft used two developers for the game though: Arkane Studios generated the single player section whereas Kuju Entertainment handled the multiplayer side of things. The former might not sound familiar as they've only done two games so far; the other being Arx Fatalis (another action, fantasy RPG.....hmmmm). Kuju, on the other hand, seem to be old hands at this game-making malarky: Train & flight sims, PS2 games a go-go, etc.

So what of Dark Messiah then? Well, it's the usual fare - you're the adept of a powerful wizard who, following a very short training spell (i.e. the first level!), sends you off to go and help a chum of his. Not surprisingly, things don't go too well for the hero in a very short space of time and before long, you're in the thick of a castle siege. Cue lots of running about, killing, dying and general mayhem.

And thus, the story unfolds - you eventually get to meet your instructor's pal and along a sequence of missions, the plot thickens (slightly) and twists about (predictably) but generally tells a good yarn. All of the right elements are there for a fantasy RPG: buxom assistant/love interest, sinister evil über-wizard and hordes of nasty enemies far too keen on embedding their axes into your skull, rather than having a nice chat over a cup of tea and some French Fancies.