Dark Messiah

It's a very unfortunate byproduct of the technical difficulty good graphics PC games have. It's inevitable that people will have technical problems and usually they are a very small minority but they are usually the most vocal and so someone like me looking into maybe getting the game sees almost nothing except loud complaints about the game. I'm not referring to this forum but to the game company forums. It is probably a deterrent to game companies making these games at all and that's a real shame.

I am enjoying Dark Messiah a lot even though it's not really an rpg (by my own subjective definition). I miss not having stats and most of the other rpg trappings but it's fun as a first-person action melee game and it's quite immersive.
 
Joined
Oct 23, 2006
Messages
840
It's a damn shame that some of you fine folks are having such trouble, I really wish that everyone here could enjoy the game to its fullest. It really blows that Arkane is taking such a hit when it comes to technical flaws, even though they are of their own design. Arx was awesome and DM is amazing, but only when they run well. When I started the game I had horrible performance, after perusing a few forums and reading here I decided to set my texture detail level to medium. It worked like a charm and now the game runs smoothly with zero CTDs. I don't care what gamespot or any other gaming site says about this game. Xana may ruin the story, somewhat, but nothing ruins the combat. Each weapon is implemented perfectly, every skill upgrade lends the player a tangible improvement, and combat is very intense and engrossing. Forget click fests, abusing your mouse will get you nowhere here. Skill and character improvement are the only means of surviving through the game. I really hope that other developers will take note of this games combat and stealth systems. Combat in oblivion would be so much more fun if fighting were like this. Either way I hope that everyone gets their technical issues resolved soon, here's looking to Arkane's next gem.

I do agree with you - the combat is engrossing, especailly once you get past the initial first few acts. I am playing a mage in the game, and having quite a blast (literally); at least when the game is functioning. I have found solid uses for most of the spells as well, though one has to be able to melee ....
 
Joined
Oct 20, 2006
Messages
53
Location
Montgomery, AL USA
Finally someone else is enjoying the game!! I was really beginning to feel like that one in every crowd. Your right, there is a use for every spell in the game even later on. Fire arrow doesn't do any damage but it can easily be steered around an enemy to hit something behind them or it can be used to quickly fill up your adrenaline meter. Combat it difficult to start with. My best advice to anyone who is struggling is to parry more than you swing when getting started. If you're surrounded get out a staff and start swinging. Once the bad guys are stunned kick a few away and knock one down. Kill the one closest to you and whip out a sword. Impale the next one if you can or ready a power strike. Knock that guy down again and then go for the other. Just remember, parrying is most often the key to success. When I first started I was all offense, I got my ass kicked left and right. Parry, run, use potions and traps, knock enemies down, or use stealth or magic. The combat in this game can really take some thought, that’s why it’s so much damn fun! I'm not saying that you need to prepare a thesis on the mechanics of combat and martial arts in order to be successful and enjoy the game. Just use your brain, take your time, and have fun. I can't stress this enough, parry your enemy’s blows, kick them, and use a power strike to knock them down. I rarely use flurry of blows when fighting humanoid enemies; maybe just to shave off a few hit points but nothing more. Save flurry of blows for the face huggers, and spiders. Combat is only repetitive if you make it that way. Hell oblivion's spells were repetitive, every offensive fire, ice, and lightning spell looked the same. Combat was a snooze fest, and stealth was a joke. I love Oblivion just as much as the next guy, but honestly, combat in that game was shallow and boring by comparison. Every game with a first person perspective has the same general combat mechanic throughout the entire game. Perhaps the PC can gain perks, stances, styles, weapons, moves, abilities, etc. but the core is always there; see bad guy, use means of destruction at disposal, make bad guy a dead/unconscious bad guy. It's just that some games offer a larger and more varied menu of said means of destruction than others. I know that the story sucks, I've already lost track of how many times I told Xana to stuff a friggin sock in it. Yes the technical issues are present and very annoying, but for the love of god this is a good game. What happens when the technical issues are ironed out? We'll have an outstanding first person sworder, with a transparent run of the mill story. To say that this game is garbage is far too harsh, when taken out of the context of the M&M universe we get a solid game the sets a new standard in FP melee combat. All I would like to see would be a more diverse selection of spells, a better, well planned story, less bugs at release, guards that don't always scream out "Hey Pal” and voice acting that doesn't compete in the same bracket as the porn actor’s guild.
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
118
Location
Skokie, IL. U.S.A.
I had fun, but I would definitely choose Blade of Darkness (for one) over this.

When the level design is to choose (a) 'put a bunch of spiky stuff lying around for kick exploits' (b) 'put a bunch of cliffs around for kick exploits' and (c) 'put a bunch of stuff on platforms held by cables or rotted boards that break with one hit' ... it is just bad level design.

The problem is confusing 'fun' and 'quality' - battling your way through the game is a frickin' blast. It is just that most of the game is a technical mess, with lousy level design wrapped around a crappy story with uninteresting characters and females that look like they were designed by hormonal 13-year olds.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
14,932
Blade is tough to beat in my book, but if I had to I would say that it retains the crown. Nevertheless, it's tough to compare to the first person perspective feel with the 3rd person perspective feel.

Level design is a bit goofy; I could deal with the rickety wooden structures, but the spiked grates are a little odd. I don't really kick bad guys off of or into stuff too often as I find myself enjoying the stabbing aspect of the game more than anything else. I do have to wonder though, who the hell keeps spiked grates in their attic, basement, garden, living room, cloister, and barn? Aside from hanging one's keys and growing ivy or other climbing plants I don't really see a need to have spiked grates all over hell. The physics traps do seem out of place more often than not. You've got to love the heavy box attached to a chain perched precariously on a wooden board held up with a beaten up wooden strut. If you fart hard enough next to one of those things they break, it’s overdone. But when I approach the game I take on an action movie minded suspension of disbelief. I think I even let out a few Arnold quotes after killing someone. You know, "stick around" after decorating a spiked grate with a black guard. There are some high points though; of instance the giant worm smashing the wooden platform as you are about to cross is great. The disappearing cantilevered floor is nice too. I do agree though that level design could be honed a bit more to achieve a greater continuous, integrated feel to the levels. The spike and physics traps are a bit obtrusive at points.

I'm not sure how to approach the succubus character. While I do wish there was a cold garden hose weapon in the game for use against her I do know that such demons are supposed to be heavily sexually charged. I just wish there was a way to do so without interrupting the game’s flow. But I really don't care too much about that.

Really, the biggest reason I defend the game so fervently is simple. I think that it is a great start; I think that Arkane can easily build upon the lessons learned from this game, combine them with the best features employed, and create a game worthy of everyone's praise. If we, as well as others, keep beating this game up we are limiting our chances for finding future gaming goodness. Everyone makes mistakes; many make mistakes far worse than this! Enjoy the game for what it offers, lend out constructive criticism, and hope for the best the next time around. During the next go though, let’s just leave the M&M stuff alone and get back to the Arx story line!!
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
118
Location
Skokie, IL. U.S.A.
Actually as a melee weapon, I have been using nothing but the staff - and I have to say, using flurry of blows with the staff is wild, literally. It gets into a whirling rythm with a blow landed ever two seconds or so, and it knocks down most human sized monsters, though it does not kill them. So while it is spinning between blows you have to find your next target as, a second later, here comes the next blow. Too cool. So a whole group of orcs charge me, and soon they are all on the backs, I back off and drop a fireball on them ;-))
 
Joined
Oct 20, 2006
Messages
53
Location
Montgomery, AL USA
The staff is tough to get used to. I had to force myself to use it in the beginning. I kept thinking that it was far too slow. After I got out of the "swing until nothing's moving" mindset it started to make a whole lot more sense. Staff fighting can be very effective, stun a few guys, kick one down and kill him, and then move on to the others. When combined with the use of magic a staff fighter can be quite a formidable foe. Using ice to make bad guys slip and then using the finishing move is very effective. Using fire arrow to fill up your adrenaline meter and then snapping someone’s neck works well. And of course your method of knocking everyone down and then lobbing a few fireballs at them can really clear a room. I have to say though; I am a little disappointed with the spell selection. It left me wanting a little more.
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
118
Location
Skokie, IL. U.S.A.
That was me - staff weilding walking fire artillary! Having some points in melee makes the staff quite a weapon (and to think I started using it to look 'mage-like) And getting mana regen means never having to say you don't have a fireball ready ;)
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
14,932
Just to let you know that my (first of two for this game) review is linked on the front page here. Direct link is here.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
14,932
One crash before I installed the patch (and that was my fault because I forgot to install it though I had d/led it before installing the game). Otherwise pretty stable on medium settings.
 
Joined
Aug 31, 2006
Messages
3,754
They really seem to have done a very good job of patching up the stability!
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
14,932
I didn't run into any other bugs, either - but since I'm such a predictable player, I hardly run into game-stopping bugs, anyway... at least not those caused by doing things out of order (the only game stopper I ran into and do remember was in SiN: the game crashed after a certain cut scene. But it did that for everyone, and was fixed ASAP).
All in all, I enjoyed DM quite a bit; I do have some issues with it, but those are issues I had with many recent games. For one thing, it was far too short; for another, being able to choose from several - slightly - different endings shortly before finishing the game prevented me from replaying it altogether, something I did consider at an earlier point (but to be true, they did exactly the same thing in both Deus Exes).
DMoMM reminded me - in a way - of Strife, one of my favorites of old; you had an 'invisible' female guide there, too, but certain actions actually had consequences (five different ending depending on actions you did during the first half of the game).

In short, it was a nice game, but I deleted it as soon as the credits had rolled over the screen. It managed to make me want to replay Arx, however :).
 
Last edited:
Joined
Aug 31, 2006
Messages
3,754
Spoilers!

I played this a couple of weeks ago, but never figured out what was going on due to bugs.

Could someone explain to me wth, actually happened? :)
I have the video bik bug, said to be fixed in 1.03 next patch so I can't even play them with a bik player as there is no sound.

Am I correct in thinking Master Phering just disappears from the story?
Who the heck was the Mage, Phering sent us too, that says in the dinner video (best I could make out), "I know why your really here." then goes on to say "Oh your really don't know why, maybe thats for the best".

Listening to his daugther and others talk she is a Good Mage (i.e. not evil, as I took it) so was her father in league with Evil Phering to get the Skull before the Necromancers?
Why would a Good Mage be in league with an Evil Mage to help bring on an Evil Prohpecy?

WTH just happened. :p

Thanks.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,772
Am I correct in thinking Master Phering just disappears from the story?
Yes. Perhaps while they were weaving a crappy story and unreasonable silly levels they thought nobody would notice tossing a main character ...
Who the heck was the Mage, Phering sent us too, that says in the dinner video (best I could make out), "I know why your really here." then goes on to say "Oh your really don't know why, maybe thats for the best".
I gave them a break on that one, assuming that he 'knew' but chose not to interfere with destiny / fate / whatever.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
14,932
They really seem to have done a very good job of patching up the stability!

Tell that to my machine please.:-/

I haven't really encountered any gameplay bugs ... well, that's probably mainly because I've only managed to get past the tutorial once and that only lasted a few minutes before yet another crash.

On the bright side, I now know the tutorial by heart since I must have played some 30+ times by now trying out different suggestions/tweaks but alas to no avail :'(

According to the official forum it would seem that Arcane are working hard on fixing the technical problems a lot of us is having so I can only hope that the next patch will allow me to play the game. Between problems and bugs in Dark Messiah and Gothic 3 I would have had a cranial meltdown if it wasn't for NWN2, so thank you Obsidian for saving my sanity ... well, what's left of it anyway ;)
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
805
Location
Just outside of Copenhagen
Spoilers!


Wow, it makes absolutly no sence. :S

They had such a great (well good) story going for Arx's but this is nonsence.

I was guessing I just didn't know some M&M lore, which is very possible. ;)

I don't see how Lore could possibly explin this mess of a story, though. :(

It really makes me want to play Arx again as Jaz mentioned, just to have something solid and fun to play. :)

You know I could have understood if Phering was misleading the Mage but that dang Mage says "he knows why you are there" basicly even though we didn't and considering the story, wth hell else could he have been refering too?
Well unless half the story was ripped out?
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,772
Was anyone else as disappointed by the final battle as I was? I guess I was just expecting more out of the last level after enjoying the majority of the game as much as I did.

I also experienced a ton of crashes before the first patch. Even after the patch, I still couldn't play the STEAM version because it kept locking up at the loading screens. I still get occasional crashes with the DVD version, but it's playable.

The game still has a lot of bugs though. For instance, I can't play with the texture detail set to high without a ton of stutters. That's unacceptable on a system with a Radeon X1950XTX. The funny thing is, I can see no visual difference between the high and medium settings anyways.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,130
Location
Florida, US
Yeah I got bored with the End Boss and reloaded and from the top of the stairs was trying to hit him at the alter.
It was funny when I hit him he would turn invis, start running around and can't find you cause your too far and high up. ;)
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,772
I used the Sneak and Backstab skills to finish the first half of the battle in one hit.

You would think that an endboss would be imune to that.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,130
Location
Florida, US
Back
Top Bottom