Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: Elements for the Xbox 360

[Romier S]

Here is the announcement. There is no stauts on the US/Canada release date but you can bet your butt Ubi will be releasing this all over the world:

 

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6171432.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;3

 

Originally released in 2006 for the PC, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic is developed by France-based Arkane Studios. The game sported Oblivion-style first-person fantasy action, but it was extremely light on the role-playing; instead, it focused its energy on sword swinging and fireball shooting. It was based on the same Source engine as Half-Life 2, but it didn't receive the same glowing reviews bestowed on Valve's shooter.

 

Although Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: Elements was being flogged to the press in Paris, it has no official release date in Europe. Its North American status seems even less clear. "At this time, this game has not been officially announced for a US release," was all an Ubisoft rep would say on the matter.

[Camp]

I was way excited about this before the PC release. After the rather 'meh' reaction that version got I'm not so interested anymore. Can anyone who played the PC version give impressions? Is multiplayer good?

[Derrik Draven]

Wonder if they'll be doing anything to improve that "meh" feeling everyone had about this when on the pc or, are they just gonna dump on the console and hope for a better reception?

[Romier S]

I downloaded and played the demo last night until completion and I don't know where my feelings fall with this game. I've played and enjoyed the PC version (I have not beaten it mind you) but the visuals have taken a SERIOUS hit on the 360 IMHO. The game looks downright mediocre at best and considering we just got an absolutely gorgeous port of Half Life 2 on the same console it's hard to excuse it. For those not in the know, Dark Messiah runs on the Source Engine. Some of the texture work wouldn't pass on an regular Xbox game (and no that's not hyperbole) much less on the 360. There are moments of visual splendor like the quality water effects we've come to expect from the Source Engine and some really nice moments of atmosphere in the temple but aside from that I was really underwhelmed. Perhaps it's just a poor choice of level to show off or an older build of the game?

 

Aside from the rather lackluster visuals though, the game is really rather decent fun in the gameplay department. If a bit clunky at first I should add. Combat works nicely on the 360 controller and it's a step up from Oblivion in terms of feeling like you're clashing with swords and impaling enemies for the kill. The use of the environment to kill enemies and other little puzzles are nicely integrated (I especially like the Rope Bow).

 

One thing I really dislike is that they completely dumbed down the character advancement system from the PC. You could pick and choose skills as you liked when you leveled your character up in the PC game so it was fairly easy to create multi-classed characters with a good bit of variety. The console version strips all of that out and makes you choose a specific class that has a set progression with very little to no deviation. A rather stupid change and a concession that was no doubt made with the thought that console gamers are too dumb to figure out a rather simple and elegant upgrade system. Of course maybe I'm completely wrong here and this progression was done simply for the demo so that gamers could focus on the action? That's a possibility and I hope that's the case.

 

Like I said, I don't know how to feel about it. I want to like it and I found myself getting into the experience as time went on. I'm really not much into PC gaming anymore and I'd like to have this game on a console in quality form but right now I think I'll spend the 15 bucks on a the PC game via Steam and gain far better visuals, the complete game experience and save myself $45 bucks.

[Magness]

Is there any multiplayer in the demo? The PC version (final release) had terrible multiplayer. I was in beta and I played it several times after release but, multiplayer was still far too buggy to play. I will say though that the underlying architecture of the MP game was decent: good maps, class based, team based, level progression, melee or ranged - it should have been a pretty fun MP experience so I'd be interested if they fixed that for the consoles...

[Romier S]

Yes, the demo has multiplayer but I haven't tried it as of yet. The multiplayer on the console version is not the same supposedly. It's handled by the same team that did the multiplayer on the pre-Double Agent Splinter Cell games.

[Magness]

Thanks - Chaos Theory had solid MP so that implies that this one *might* be much improved

[Tonner Cyn]

I noticed that Romier has started playing this one. Any thoughts?

 

I was tempted to get this when it came out but ended up passing on it. Probably a good thing. I saw that both Game Crazy and Best Buy have it for $30. At that price, I think I just may go ahead.