Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: Elements - Review @ Gamespy

Gamespy has posted a scathing review of Ubisoft's Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: Elements, the XBox360 version of Dark Messiah of Might and Magic from Arkane Studios, giving it a 1.5/5 starting with a general indictment:

Dark Messiah on PC was not particularly well received, but Dark Messiah of Might and Magic Elements plumbs new levels of awfulness. It's a mess of poorly designed game mechanics, terrible graphics and generally shoddy performance that is simply inexcusable. While the promise of a first-person perspective Might and Magic action game may sound intriguing, the execution here is awful. There is virtually nothing to redeem the game in either its multiplayer or single-player campaign.

And going on to specifics:

Instead of being able to choose your own character's destiny, you select one of four bland classes (Warrior, Archer, Assassin or Mage) at the outset of the game and are locked into a single-track progression that rewards you with one measly skill for each level. This leads to curious issues like the Assassin class being wholly incapable of even considering the use of a bow and arrow. This problem is compounded when, at a certain stage of the game, you get a bow and arrow that shoots an arrow with a rope attached so that you can solve puzzles… but unless you chose the Archer class, you still can't pick up any other bow or use the weapon offensively.

And concludes:

Was it wrong of us to hope for a streamlined medieval shooter experience after the promising yet not fully realized PC version? Perhaps, but the staggering lack of quality apparent in Dark Messiah of Might and Magic Elements has left us incredibly disappointed. It's unfortunate that the game performs so poorly on the Xbox 360, presents a nerfed approach to character progression, and does absolutely nothing to build on whatever credit it earned on the PC. As it stands, we'll gladly return to our N64s for Hexen rather than continue playing Elements.

Thanks to woges for the heads up on this in the forums.
More information.

I just love this quote

Dark Messiah on PC was not particularly well received, but Dark Messiah of Might and Magic Elements plumbs new levels of awfulness.

I know *I* was part of the 'not particularly well received' part

I see it says Ubisoft - Was Arkane studios involved in this at all, or is it a different developer?

I love it. Ever since Arkane decided to give up on ARX, they have sucked.

Originally Posted by GhanBuriGhan
I see it says Ubisoft - Was Arkane studios involved in this at all, or is it a different developer?

I tried to do a little digging on that, GBG, but all I ran across was a mention that the game was made "under their oversight' or something vague like that—they aren't actually credited, someone called Ubisoft Annecy is listed as the dev here.
That's why I've tried to phrase the posts to indicate its a port from an Arkane title rather than by Arkane.

They contradict themselves in these parts "streamlined medieval shooter experience" and "a nerfed approach to character progression" since to have either leaves out the other.

"Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: Elements is being developed by Ubisoft's Annecy studio, supported by Valve and Arkane Studios. Ubisoft Annecy has been critically acclaimed for the innovative multiplayer modes in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell games."

From the spot again:

http://uk.gamespot.com/xbox360/actio…ml?sid=6173509

I can't imagine a more negative opening paragraph. It's a killer.

Developing an RPG by an FPS company.

Yeah, right.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
Developing an RPG by an FPS company.

Yeah, right.

You mean like Ion Storm?

And a review from the spot giving the game a mighty 3.5/10

http://uk.gamespot.com/xbox360/actio…ml?sid=6186262