Dark Messiah - Review @ Gamespot

Kalia

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Gamespot has posted a lukewarm review of Dark Messiah of Might & Magic. Scoring the game 6.7 ("fair") that is summed up nicely in the opening three or four sentences: <blockquote>Dark Messiah wraps a dull story around repetitive combat. It's not a bad game, but its technical glitches really bring it down.

The Good: Good death animations.

The Bad: Numerous crashes and glitches get in the way; minimal character building and progression; most of the game's combat is unsatisfying; storyline is almost completely transparent right off the bat.</blockquote> Contrasting viewpoints on the Gamespot site, however, are rendered in site user ratings which bring the game in at 9.4.

More information.
 
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I guess it's one of those "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situations. When a "biggie" like Gamespot ranks too many games 8.5 or above, people kvetch about how the reviews are "bought" by publishers. If they rank them too low, it goes the opposite direction.

From MY viewpoint, and I'll qualify this by saying I only played the MP part during the beta, I wouldn't rank it over 7.0 even if the OC was a stellar RPG. Why? Because I HATE the multiplayer aspect. If I want to play those types of MP games, I'd play Unreal Tourney.

I want my RPG online experience to be exactly that: An RPG. But that's just me. ;)
 
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DM has never really claimed to be an RPG!! It's a shooter with swords!! :)
 
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I think the combat is quick fun in this game, but Im only playing the single plater part. I have had no technical issues except for the occasional stutter in the curscenes which only lasted a sec or two when they happened and then all was well.
 
It could use a patch or two but combat unsatisfying? I think that's the best part of the game
 
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From MY viewpoint, and I'll qualify this by saying I only played the MP part during the beta, I wouldn't rank it over 7.0 even if the OC was a stellar RPG. Why? Because I HATE the multiplayer aspect. If I want to play those types of MP games, I'd play Unreal Tourney.

I want my RPG online experience to be exactly that: An RPG. But that's just me. ;)

Won't quibble review scores, but as Corwin says this really isn't a RPG, it is an action game with assignable skills.

I didn't play the MP much at all during the 'open' beta, having worn out a bit on the 'closed beta'. It will be interesting to see how it plays - is it interesting to keep people engaged for any period of time, or will it fade quickly like the majority of shooters?
 
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in light of this, im interested to see how they will score Gothic 3

im expecting a beat down
 
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No big surprise here. Remember everybody, this is the game that used to be Arx Fatalis 2, until it got dumbed down for the X-Box 360 and had the "Might and Magic" name superficially slapped onto it. And today, PC gaming dies a little more.

As far as the game being an FPS with swords and not an RPG -- if I wanted to play an FPS, I'd play an FPS. Melee combat in first person action games has never been very good and never will be. Take melee combat in any FPS -- whether it's Fable, Gothic, Deus Ex, or Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines -- and ask yourself whether it would make a good stand alone game just with that combat. It doesn't. If this game wants to be known as an FPS with guns, then it has to be compared with games like F.E.A.R., Halo, and Unreal Tournament, and it doesn't measure up in the action department. Ubisoft wowed everybody with a cherry-picked combat video for E3, but the game appears to be a lot more repetitive than that.
 
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Ah! This makes me very happy. I'm hoping Dark Messiah bombs and that people admit that it bombed because it doesn't contain enough RPG elements. Maybe, just maybe, Ubi will realize that the Might and Magic franchise was and is all about roleplaying. MMX is the way to go, not some hack n slash crap. I want Black Chests, Obsidian Longswords, Quirky Puzzles, and tons of dungeons to play in.
 
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DM is an action RPG for kids, and has the depth of a toothpick. Why Gamespot thinks it should have any type of real RPG elements is beyond me.
 
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But if it fails it will be because it was a buggy mess and then Arkane won't get funding for their next project and they'll go 'the way of the Troika' ... is that what you *really* want?
 
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DM is an action RPG for kids, and has the depth of a toothpick. Why Gamespot thinks it should have any type of real RPG elements is beyond me.

Probably because of the "Might and Magic" in the name, but your right they are rating it as something it's not. no wonder it fails, in their estimation, when they try to peg it as an RPG when it's not.

That's actually one of my big criticisms of reviews, then tend not to rate games in the genre they are in. Kids games especially, they will say something like 'the game play is simplistic' for a game thats rated for six year olds. My personal "favorite" is when they list lack of multilayer features as a "bad" thing. Is it just me, or does it bug the bejeebers out of you all then when you saved the guy in the first cave in Titian Quest he just stood there! Everybody knows that when you save a guy he's supposed to run off and fade out of sight. Obviously he can't do that, he needs stay put for the next player. Anywho, I've strayed off topic, so I shut up now.
 
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I think that many people misinterpret this game based on (a)Arkane and (b) the M&M name. To put it in context, stripping away the fantasy setting, this is no more a RPG than is Jedi Academy.

Sound weird?
- Neither game has character creation
- Both games have skill trees based on completing objectives
- Both games have very limited scale of 'choice'
- Neither game is an RPG ;)
 
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At least Jedi Academy IS Star Wars. DM is nothing like the old Might & Magic games except the fact that you fight D&D monsters and NPCs in real time, with a dungeon or 2 thrown in.

It could have been called Dark Messiah of Baldur's Gate...or anything else for that matter. I think it should have just been named "Dark Messiah", but that probably would not have sold well and the people who owned the original Messiah FPS would say it wasn't true to the original. :)
 
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I'm a current gamespot subscriber. But their continued "MTv-ization" of gaming and overly critical reviews of non-domestic games irritates me to no end. I won't be renewing. Dark Messiah is a much better game than the score gamespot gives it. Scoring Dark Messiah with a lesser score than The Sims 2: Pets expansion is just wrong.
 
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But if it fails it will be because it was a buggy mess and then Arkane won't get funding for their next project and they'll go 'the way of the Troika' ... is that what you *really* want?

If they can't perform to reasonable expectations, yes! I see no reason to keep rewarding bad behavior. Even if a game and company do well, its no guarantee that the company will stay solvent. At any given time the "powers" may get greedy and accept a buyout. More companies do this, it seems, than those that fold because of crappy products. If Jon Van Caneghem hadn't been a greedy bastige, we'd likely have MMX-XII in the market already.

If Bethesda makes Fallout 3 to look like Oblivion: Afternukes then I hope that the game doesn't sell and it forces Fallout to become part of gaming past. I'd rather have that happen than to see some lame game carrying the prestigious Fallout name. Even if the failure of Fallout 3 caused Bethesda as a company to go under.
If you're not making "Prestigious Titled Real RPG" like its predecessors, then don't make it at all. Make your own game.
 
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Love how Gamespot bashes the title on the their front page, but IGN (with a very positive review) doesn't even bother to do anything more than post a text link you have to scroll down to find.
 
So let me get this straight, because you think if it's called Might and Magic, it should be an RPG? Otherwise it automatically sucks?

I gues then that the first few Heroes of Might and Magic were complete garbage. Those should have been RPG's also.

If you take the game for what it is, a fantasy action game, it's pretty damn good. Right up there with Jedi Academy.
 
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