Dark Messiah: Might and Magic
Description official descriptions
A long time ago an extreme powerful mage called the Seventh Dragon banished all demons from the world and paid with his death for this. But the prophecies tell that after a 1000 years, a Dark Messiah - half human, half demon - will return to the earth to destroy the barrier that stands between the worlds. Now twenty years ago, a Demon Lord successfully mates with Isabel, Queen of the Griffin Empire and all attempts of the Emperor to exorcist her fail (you can play this mission in Heroes of Might and Magic V) and the Dark Messiah is born. Also he doesn't know it yet, his goal is to obtain the Skull of the Seventh Dragon called Skull of Shadows from Skull Island, where it is guarded by the orcs and destroy the barrier between the worlds with it. The name of the Dark Messiah is Sareth and he's an mage apprentice. One day his master sends him to Stonehelm to help another mage retrieve the Skull. And so the Prophecy seems to become real. But it is yours to decide if you use the Skull, once you've obtained it, for good or for evil since you are playing Sareth.
Dark Messiah: Might and Magic is a first-person action game set in the medieval age so instead of guns you use swords, bows and magic to defeat your enemies. As you progress through the story you obtain skill points which you can invest in one of three skill trees called Combat, Magic and Stealth. How you skill Sareth directly influences the combat in the game. You can either play like an assassin and backstab your enemies to oblivion or make him a perfect sword-fighter who can use different combos to take out his enemies for example.
But you can also use your environment to make your kills. There're countless items you can lift up and throw at your enemy or you can light up your arrow on a campfire nearby to inflict more damage. You can also make good use of your foot and kick your enemies off cliffs or kick them into spikes that come out of the wall or use other traps that are scattered in the levels like bringing a statue to a fall.
The main innovation in Dark Messiah is the so-called Body Awareness System. This basically means that Sareth is a real part of the world like every other NPC. This makes not only the whole combat more intense because your whole body moves with every sword-swing you make but the NPCs can interact more directly with you. For example a Orc can take you by your neck and throw you through the room.
If you've already saved (or damned) the world you can turn to the multiplayer-mode. There you've access to five different character classes from the knight to the priestess. With each kill you make you earn experience points and increase in rank. Then you get skill points you can invest in your skill tree to get new talents or upgrade existing ones. This is most important in the Conquest game-mode in which you play various maps in a row and keep your level between all the way. In the Conquest-mode two teams (Humans and Undead) fight over the possession of the flags on a map. Once one team holds all flags, it wins and the next map is loaded. But there's also normal (Team-)Deathmatch available.
Spellings
- 魔法門黑暗彌賽亞中文版 - Traditional Chinese spelling
- 魔法门之黑暗弥赛亚 - Simplified Chinese spelling
- 다크 메시아 오브 마이트 앤 매직 - Korean spelling
Groups +
- 3D Engine: Source
- Fantasy Creatures: Orcs
- Fantasy Creatures: Trolls
- Gameplay feature: Drowning
- Gameplay feature: Equipment quick slots
- Gameplay feature: Multiple endings
- Middleware: Bink Video
- Might and Magic universe
- Software Pyramide releases
- Sound engine: AIL/Miles Sound System
- Technology: amBX
- Ubisoft eXclusive releases
- White Label releases
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Credits (Windows version)
490 People (421 developers, 69 thanks) · View all
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Executive Director, Worldwide Studios | |
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Producer | |
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Special Thanks | |
Creative Director | |
Producer | |
Lead Level Designer | |
Lead Programmer | |
Art Director | |
Art Technical Expert | |
Lead Animator | |
Executive Producer | |
Studio Manager | |
[ full credits ] |
Reviews
Trivia
Development
This is the second Might & Magic since Ubisoft acquired the license to the universe. The singleplayer part of Dark Messiah was developed by Arkane Studios. Kuju Entertainment Ltd. was responsible for the multiplayer mode.
German version
In the German retail version some blood effects were removed: when executing an enemy which lies on the ground, in cutscenes and during a special move against the enemy's stomach in adrenaline mode. Also removed were cut off limbs, enemies die instantly instead of slowly burning to death when using fire, and interactions with corpses (using weapons, burning, throwing). A detailed list of changes can be found on schnittberichte.com (German). The German version on Steam is uncut.
Setting
Dark Messiah: Might and Magic takes place in Ashan, the Might & Magic world created by Ubisoft. It replaced the old Might & Magic universe, which consisted of many different worlds and was used by New World Computing until its dissolution. According to Ubisoft, it was done because the old continuity became hard to manage, and to avoid confusing newcomers.
In contrast with the old universe, which incorporated science fiction elements, Ashan is a pure fantasy world. The first game it was featured in was Heroes of Might and Magic V.
Awards
- GameStar (Germany)
- February 01, 2007 - Best PC Action Game in 2006
- PC Powerplay (Germany)
- Issue 02/2007 – #2 Best Action Game in 2006
- Issue 03/2007 – Best Action Game in 2006 (Readers' Vote)
Information also contributed by Mark Ennis.
Identifiers +
- MobyGames ID: 24996
- Steam App: 2100
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Sicarius.
Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, Sciere, vedder, Paulus18950, lee jun ho, Patrick Bregger, Stuttgart.
Game added November 18th, 2006. Last modified March 28th, 2023.