You play a young apprentice who's been training your whole life for well, nobody's ever explained to you for what purpose you've been singled out, but all becomes clear when a Dark Messiah threatens to rise and turn the world into his own personal hell. To stop him you can use fighting, brains, sorcery, stealth, or any combination in-between.
The game is in first person so most of the action is up close and personal. Many games have tried first person setting, and many have failed. Arkane is aware of this and has worked hard to make sure it wasn't a matter of "clicking the mouse button to swing the sword. It's hard to force the amount of combat options normally shown in a hack-and-slash as body movement, like those twirling acrobatic moves you see in games like God of War or Prince of Persia.
Arkane have done an admirable job offering basic slashing moves with heavier power moves of different varieties and special moves that can be added once certain skills have been accessed. There were several stances to chose from and multiple types of attacks and parries with one or two weapons. You can also kick. Combat is also helped by the visual impact: your shining blades will become covered in blood, sparks will fly as two weapons grind against one another, and you can apparently disarm foes or grab them by the neck.
The team at Arkane Studios licensed Valve's Source engine, the technology that brought Half-Life 2 to life. This means Messiah has all the bells and whistles you enjoyed from that adventure: a great lighting model, superb graphics in both indoor and outdoor areas. As a player, you're really going to use what's around you to tackle the monsters you're fighting.
Every area in the game will be designed to give players the flexibility to tackle problems in their own style. While enemies can be killed or affected by basic combat and magic, there are lots of objects laying around in the level that can be used to amazing advantage. One of the basic attacks is a kick that can be used at any time. This kick has the added effect of pushing an enemy back with some good force. That means kicking an enemy can push them over the edge of a chasm, into a fire, or onto one of the many spike racks nailed around the walls. There are also plenty of other traps such swinging items like beams and chandeliers that will drop and knock any enemy senseless that simply need to be freed by slicing through a rope. Add to that the plethora of objects that picked up and thrown or kicked at enemies and the environments are ripe with violent possibility.
Whichever way you look at it, combat is violent and glory. Those that don't appreciate liberal use of blood and flying body parts should beware, especially when enough adrenaline has been built up. Once the adrenaline meter has been built up, a sheen surrounds the game view and any power attack (preformed by holding down the attack button for a bit) that connects will cause immediate and ugly death for the recipient. This means enemies stabbed and kicked off the end of a sword, dismembered, and decapitated along with a spray of the red stuff.
Dark Messiah will have around 12 chapters, with each level being large like a Half-Life 2 level. Although it's still early, the game is looking sharp. Ubisoft is aiming for a Summer 2006 release, but given the complexity we wouldn't be surprised it it slips closer to the holiday season next year.
