Dark Messiah - Final Thoughts

Here are my final thoughts for Dark Messiah of Might and Magic:

What I liked:

• Combat. It was generally quite interesting and varied, despite being either easy or difficult most of the time. There were nearly always a lot of ways to kill a group of guys, whether it was hand to hand, bow/magic, kicking them off something, kicking them into something, bringing a trap of some kind down on them, or throwing rocks at their heads. While some things were more effective than others (hay bales FTW!), you always had options.
• Rope arrows. I mentioned these previously, but can't help but bring them up again. They were a great gameplay mechanic and were the cause of some really interesting solutions to puzzles and problems. I only wish they had been used a little bit more... I think they could have done all kinds clever and interesting things with them.
• Overall design. The levels were relatively varied, the enemies were semi-interesting and the locations where logical and fun. There wasn't really anything that stood out as being overly amazing here, but generally speaking ,it was good.
• Secret areas. I don't know that I could tell you why, but it always made me happy when the little "You've found a secret area!" message would pop up on the screen... even if I often found them accidentally thinking I was just going the way I was supposed to.
• Price. $6 on GoGamer.com (including shipping). Can't go wrong there.
  

What I didn't like:

• Inconsistent difficulty. Early on, this game was REALLY hard. I think that is partly due to learning how to fight properly and partly due to the fact that my weapons were so underpowered. In Chapter 7, however, when I found the lightning shield, the game was ridiculously easy... to the point that I didn't even have to try. And finally, in the Epilogue, the game adjusted to the point where I felt like I was neither godlike nor completely feeble. It's much more entertaining to be eased into combat while ramping up difficulty (and weapons/stats) as the game progresses. This game just didn't do it very well at all.
• Skill point system. This game rewards skill points as you complete quest... while there is not necessarily anything wrong with that, it's a system I've just never really liked (although Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines did that and it is still one of my all-time favorite games). My biggest complaint with such a system is that is doesn't reward me for killing everything or exploring everywhere... something an experience with level-up system does. Although I will admit that this system makes a pure stealth, kill-as-little-as-possible approach much more feasible.
• Magic. I didn't go too far down the magic skill tree, but there just didn't appear to be much down there to get excited about. Perhaps I'm underestimating it, but I basically only used my magic heal throughout the entire game.
• Demonic powers. The game forces you to use these for a segment of gameplay lasting about 5 minutes. I found them to be useful during those 5 minutes and then never again.
  
• Loot/Inventory. The game had a fixed inventory size, but it just really didn't need one... it was quite possible to carry one of every type of ring, staff, sword, bow, and dagger in your inventory at once. Furthermore, I've never been a huge fan of RPGs with a super fixed loot table... as in I go to point x and get item y where x and y are constant. It was especially bad here as I would find a second (or third) copy of a specific item and when picking up the second one, it would just disappear in my inventory over the first... making me feel more like I had earned a skill rather than found an item.

Closing thoughts:

While this game certainly had its fair share of faults, it was definitely entertaining. If you enjoy action-RPGs (Oblivion style), you'll enjoy Dark Messiah. Don't expect a deep, exploration filled experience... just sit back and enjoy the ride.