Dark Messiah

nameless hero

Watchdog
Joined
October 18, 2006
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115
Heya,
Just downloaded and played the (1.4Gig) demo of Dark Messiah. Seems pretty good. The combat system is very interesting, although I think that in Oblivion it was easier in calculating the distance from an enemy. But really, its not a hack-n-slash as such. You cant just run into a room with 5 orcs and click your way to victory. Many aspecs determine who wins, including the environment.

Graphics are good too, but Im suprised my PC ran rather slow with the game on Med-High settings. Athlon3200+.

Anyway, Im curious if anyone else has played the demo yet, and what you think of it.:)
 
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I was in on the closed beta so I'd been playing all summer ... I did play the demo but just once and never rechecked the Steam demo (heard it stuttered less). I want to be fresh for the actual game when it arrives.
 
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I am downloading it right now, will be back when I tried it
 
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But really, its not a hack-n-slash as such. You cant just run into a room with 5 orcs and click your way to victory.

Actually, you most likely will be able to. That's what I hate about these heavily scripted games like DMoMM. If you rush ahead carelessly then -yes- you will very likely be getting your ass handed to you because you will inevitably run into the carefully prepped "death traps" that the developers have placed along your way.

That's why you're more or less "forced" to -at least if you don't want to die and reload too often- move ahead carefully and as soon as you realize that you have activated a trigger point for a script, you just need to run back a few meters. Then you can usually conveniently watch all hell break loose where the developers wanted or anticipated you to be and when the "death trap" has been "disarmed" (or discharged), you can just move into the room or the spot or the clearing or whatever place it may be to kill all enemies rather easily. Well, or pass that area safely without the ground breaking away from underneath you or stuff dropping on your head, depending on whatever the script is set to do.

I'm not a huge fan of that type of gameplay (which is unfortunately used in many FPS games). It's making gameplay way too technical. You just move through the game from script trigger point to script trigger point as the game slowly "educates" you about how to pass certain points.

I'm afraid that DMoMM could become a game just like that, especially because Arkane seems to have set up a lot of locations so you almost have to use the prepped up environment to your advantage.
If that is indeed so then -aside from the "trigger point hopping"- you will probably end up rushing into rooms to check out the setup. Memorize where all the triggers and traps are while you're getting slapped around. Get killed. Reload. Rush into room again, knowing where the rope is that you need to cut or the barrels you need to kick loose or whatever. Rinse. Repeat. Until game over.

That could turn out to be extremely boring after a very short time so in case that is what the gameplay is like, I wouldn't even mind to be honest if the game would really only be 5-10 hours long.
 
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The devs have been promoting this one as an action game. A stellar one a that. Sort of like Thief, but instead of sneaking, combat! Glorious physics based combat! The reason I mention Thief is I heard Randy Smith(designer Thief 1 and 2) did some consultanting for this one. It looks like something Looking Glass might have done, with combat Oblivion wish it had.
 
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I agree with Moriendor. He stated exactly what I was trying to tell my husband about this game after I played the demo. I mean, there are only so many novel ways to kill something. I'm taking a wait-and-see approach although I have a feeling I'll be buying it because I'll buy any rpg in any form.
 
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I'll tell you all about it Celeste, I'm starting it at lunch today since I preordered on Steam ;)

As for there only being so many ways to kill things, I'm OK with that ;)
 
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Of course, my first and oldest love is FPS, closely followed by RPG ... so that will obviously influence the way I see things ...
 
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Interesting launch :x

The game downloaded last night (pre-load). This morning there was a 'preload update', and at 10AM the 'pre-unlock dpwnload'.

I play the tutorial (same as before), and get to the first level - but the speech files for anyone but the hero are missing, replaced by loud hissing. And there are bugs and CTD's.

The answer appears to be to go and 'verify cache', which will then check what is on your system against the Steam records and update or replace any missing / corrupt files. That took a while, and downloading is *huge* - already ~15 minutes at >350KB/s and I'm ~60% done ...

Hopefully it will be playable for 10 minutes before I'm done with lunch ...
 
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@Moriendor and CelesteGB: I've played the demo quite a bit and I must say that while the novelty of various options for death dealing may wear off after a while simply clicking your opponents into submission is not really a viable means of achieving victory. They will parry light blows, counter attack when opportune, use tactics when possible, and attack with decisive and effective action. I'm not trying to say that every fight will be a fight for survival, or that you will have to be proficient in 12 forms of martial arts prior to engaging an orc. Really, I just want you to know that the combat and scripted sequencing in the game will not disappoint, well inasmuch as the demo shows me. As far as I am concerned if the demo provides an accurate depiction of how the full version will play I am sold. I don't work for Arkane and I don't own any of their stock, I'm just writing this because I think that missing out on this would be a tragic loss of good nerdy fun. Seriously, I love stabbing orcs just as much as the next guy here; but I've never enjoyed doing so this much. Aside form BOD that is... Just give the demo a shot, then buy the game!!!
 
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I want to play Dark Messiah, right after I finish Might and Magic X :D
 
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I would wait to buy the game until some bugs are sorted ...

But once I got past the initial bugs and crashes (which brought the Ubi forums to their knees for a while!), it was some pretty fun stuff - I'm a bit annoyed that I only got a few minutes to actuall y*play* since I spent so much time updating, but there it is ...
 
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txa1265,

Are you going to give it a go tonight and update your impressions? I guess, in any case, that it will be several days until the game shows up in stores, so I can wait a bit.
 
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Oct 20, 2006
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Montgomery, AL USA
Yes - I will give an update after playing a couple of hours. Tonight or in the morning - depending on whether or not I stop playing before exhaustion sets in ;)
 
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Mike, are you insinuating that you had to patch the game right after DLing it from steam so as to stop having problems with it? I'm asking this because I'm also DLing the game ATM from an "oh-not-so-official" source and I've been hearing people complaining about how the game crashes and locks up quite often. If it's pretty much unplayable now, I'll simply suspend the download, I guess.
 
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What I have heard is that prople who bought the DVD edition had fewer issues - the pre-load was terrible,basically, leaving orphan files and missing critical ones. You needed to re-sync the files to the Steam Master to get things straight. After that I was able to play ... and I played a bit tonight, and will do more later as well.

So basically, DVD = OK, Steam = extra hours of install hassles.
 
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