Random game
Every so often I’m going to pick a random game out of my vast collection, play it and write some stuff about it. The game could be from the Amiga, DOS, windows, SNES, Megadrive, gameboy, arcade, N64 etc. I may do more than one a week if I get through it or get bored because its shit though. Also don’t expect any deep insights into the games, its just for fun.
First up is…
Dark Messiah of Might & Magic
Dark Messiah of Might & Magic is one of the only first person fantasy games to primarily focus on the ancient art of kicking people. Orcs, Goblins, big spiders, zombies, evil guys etc can all be kicked, repeatedly, in the face. You can kick them off the edge of cliffs, into conveniently placed wall spikes, down bottomless chasms, into fires, into each other. This is one hell of a kick fest of a game.
This is my foot connecting with the face of a zombie!
The disgusting prick only went and poisoned me though.
The hand to hand combat in this game is frigging awesome it has to be said, it really feels like sword fighting. Or axe fighting if you’re that way inclined. I didn’t really bother with stealth or much magic because I wanted to kill everything, right in the face. I mean the baddies are there to be killed, that is their sole purpose in life, to die in the most entertaining way possible. Right?
Finishing off a...whatever it is with a hefty stab to the guts.
Lots of gore too, with heads, arms and legs spinning off. I even managed to slice a goblin in two. If I’d played this on the 360 I’d have probably got an achievement for that. The problem with Dark Messiah is that the story just doesn’t grab you at all really, I found myself carrying on with the game just for the next fight. theres nothing wrong with generic fantasy if its done well but this isn’t, story wise that is. It still looks goddamn gorgeous at times though.
Its got some really nice HDR effects going on in some levels, like the one in the picture above. One of the main reasons I do actually like the game is the obvious nods to Robert E Howard’s Conan stories, not in the way the story is told but the world it’s set in. Its an ancient world with an even more ancient history. Descending into dusty tombs and underground temples buried away for thousands of years you dodge lethal traps by the skin of your teeth. A bit like a dark age Indiana Jones really. Thats why the game gets two thumbs up in the atmosphere stakes.
Unfortunately as I was approaching the end of the game it suddenly dumped me back to the desktop for no apparent reason so I uninstalled it. By that point it had got a bit old and I was just playing it for the sake of completing it(even though I have finished the game before) in that OCD way us gamers get, or it that might just be me.
