Dark Messiah of Might and Magic

Though the first-person combat isn't as precise as it could be, this one's still a good choice for some online magic blasting fun. Just don't expect a memorable story or characters if you're more interested in the single player content.

Dark Messiah gets points for being unique among shooters, but it loses points for not being unique enough. It's the same old dungeons, the same generic monsters, and some uninspired gameplay that doesn't make for a very memorable game.

There's no denying that Dark Messiah has a certain bloody charm, with battles against numerous enemies being both challenging and rather gory. By the end though, things do become a little repetitive, and this prevents the game from being anything truly special.

Dark Messiah feels like a missed opportunity, with some huge ideas but a definite lack of polish.

Sareth’s adventure does tire, however, during later moments when the game leaves you with neither an objective nor waypoint, but instead an arduous hunt for the next NPC trigger or gateway. [Christmas 2006, p.84]

Far from perfect but Dark Messiah has entertaining fantasy action. Dispatching foes in imaginative ways is the highlight.

While it doesn't pull off everything perfectly, it injects enough originality into a familiar framework to make it one of the more enjoyable releases since the release of its more auspicious Source engine cousin.

Like an angry Orc, Dark Messiah of Might & Magic feels unbalanced, with all of the focus going into the melee action and everything else feeling a little forlorn and unloved.

It's painfully obvious that the Half-Life 2 engine caused many problems, which weren't ironed out in time by the programming team. Consequently, players with modest rigs won't be able to experience the game in its true visual potential.

Dark Messiah wraps a dull story around repetitive combat. It's not a bad game, but its technical glitches really bring it down.

A let down; not a terrible game, but disappointingly short of its potential.

Easy to get and get into, with a slick engine (and only a few nitpicky problems) but clearly lacking a really creative story team.

With more action and more engaging levels and storyline, Dark Messiah may have been a great game. As it stands though, it feels like a demo in search of a full game or a game brought to market a year before its time.

It's hard to deny that the game has some immensely enjoyable moments. It's just too bad that they're too often surrounded by so much clutter.

A broken game - which is a shame, because with a bit more effort it could have been something rather intriguing. It takes some significant gameplay risks and attempts innovation in both its single player and multiplayer modes.

Short of rewriting the entire story and redrawing the whole dungeon, the single player isn’t going to get any better. I do genuinely hope that this combat system appears in some future, hopefully better, game.

When I previewed the game in September it oozed potential greatness, but somewhere along the line Arkane and Ubisoft have lost their way and we're left with what I can only deem as half a game.

It's so schizophrenic that it almost feels as if two developers of wildly different skill levels worked on the game at the same time, and everything was sort of thrown together at the last second. [Feb. 2007, p.72]

I am very disappointed with Dark Messiah Might and Magic, yet I will leave it installed on my system for some time. It is a deeply flawed game and one of the worst launches in recent history - certainly the worst Steam launch to date. Yet it is a blast; the visual effects and combat system and, yes, kicking Orcs off ledges and ghouls into spikes are all a lot of fun, if not particularly satisfying beyond the short term.