Sweet, Sweet Revendications

Last night I found myself in a bad spot: I had forgotten to start the second episode of Penumbra downloading and I couldn't seem to get S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky to run for more than a couple of minutes without crashing. I quickly kicked off the download process in Steam and decided I would start a new Dark Messiah game.

I decided that this time I would play as a magic user who wielded a staff. Also, to protect my sanity, I would play on Normal rather than Hard. The events that followed were absolutely glorious.

I'm not sure if it was the fact that I was playing on Normal or that I had gotten quite a bit better at combat or that I had seriously underestimated the awesomeness of staves, but I absolutely MASSACRED EVERYONE.

Since it takes a while to get any decent offensive spells, I found myself using my staff almost exclusively. The staff has a delightful ability to stun and knock down opponents and also works quite well on groups of enemies. I had previously discovered that staves could be useful when fighting a pack of ghouls, but I definitely didn't appreciate its mystical powers. I quite literally felt like a one man wrecking crew. I would just charge packs of guys and then start circle-strafing whilst landing blow after blow on them. I would stun them and kick them off a ledge or knock them down and finish them. Some of them thought they could limp away from me after they were wounded, I just gleefully laughed and brought my staff down on the back of their heads.

Within 30 minutes of starting, I found myself at the end of chapter 4 (something that took hours last time) getting ready to defend a ship from oncoming soldiers. I also had just learned the fireball spell. The fireball spell is a delightful little thing in that you can actually guide it after you fire it. I stood on the deck of that ship and rained down fireball after fireball upon the guards that were foolish enough to run at me.

Have you ever been doing something and then suddenly realized that you had a grin on your face? Mine went from ear to ear.

Upon starting into Chapter 5 (where you start facing the orcs), I got the lightning spell (orcs are weak to lightning). I had previously found orcs to be semi-annoying/tough... not anymore! I ran from roof top to roof top of those temple steps throwing balls of lightning at everything that moved. I felt like Zeus punishing the Greeks for their lack of piety. I'm also pretty sure I cast the spell three or four times after everything was dead.

I completely finished Chapter 5 and Chapter 6 in that one sitting. All creatures perished before me. None were safe from my firey, lightningy wrath: ghouls, zombies, spiders, goblins, orcs, a cyclops... none of it mattered. I was halfway through Chapter 6 before I even died for the first time (stupid ghouls aren't weak to lightning OR fire).

I must admit, after struggling through the difficult combat in my first play through, this one has been ridiculously fulfilling. I'll probably sit down and finish the game (I'm guessing only one more sitting). I'm predicting brutal efficiency, maniacal grins, and heaping helping of diabolical laughter.