The Dark Messiah Thread

[Mochan]

Gave the game a spin and played through the first 3 chapters. I don't understand why this game is getting so much flak, I think it's an awesome game that can play in many ways. Basically it's like Oblivion's combat done right, put into a good singleplayer campaign with exciting set pieces. It's a corridor shooter, sure, but it's still a fun game and developing your character into a specific type and having different ways to utilize him remind me a lot of Deus Ex, and this is done just right.

[PapaSmurf]

I got this in a demo, but it didn't look that interesting. I shall give it a spin I suppose.

[Bane]

Played the demo wasnt impressed with what i played very repetetive gameplay.

[Mochan]

Lots of games have repetitive gameplay, actually pretty much any shooter has repetitive gameplay. I'm not too sure why this game is getting panned for it so much, especially when its gameplay is less repetitive than other shooters due to its set pieces and the many different ways to dispatch your opponents, plus the many different skills you can learn.

[Mochan]

Got even further into the game, I say I am actually playing this over Stalker right now. I was only supposed to try it out to see if it works, but as I played I got more engrossed with it that I seem to have dropped Stalker in favor of this.

It's actually a very good game. It can play like Thief, it can play like Blade of Darkness, it can play better than Oblivion, and it has some witty writing and some great voice acting along with some pretty good set pieces that mix up the action in what is an already extremely dynamic "Jackie Chan" core gameplay mechanic. The Source Engine used is no slouch, performance isn't blazing on my rig but it's great especially when indoors, and it looks pretty good. Add character customization options based on gained experience points and it's honestly a winner.

I don't understand all the reviews that have been panning it, and all the animosity the online community seems to have for it (probably influenced to no small degree by the idiot reviewers reviewing the game). All in all I would have to recommend this to fans of first person action adventure.

And if you're still worried about the gameplay being "repetitive," well let me just say Oblivion's gameplay was a hell of a lot more repetitive, but nobody ever complained about that now except maybe myself, huh?

[Mochan]

Great, soon as I start pimping the game, I run into a critical bug that stops me from loading the 5th level. Thanks a lot Dark Messiah for making me feel stupid!

I retract my words, don't buy this game.

[Bane]

Great, soon as I start pimping the game, I run into a critical bug that stops me from loading the 5th level. Thanks a lot Dark Messiah for making me feel stupid!

I retract my words, don't buy this game.damnitt mochan your suppose to be playing stalker anyways whats wrong with you!! I should have stalker myself tommorw as long as the stores by me have them available.

[Mochan]

You're right! I have seen the light!! *goes back to playing Stalker*

[ShatteredCiv]

Don't sweat it Mochan. Chapter 5? Never encountered anything there... What problems are you having? Chapter 7 however, if you're getting repetitive crashes on this level, it's due to you picking up a weapon before finding your equipment...

A hint? Let the beast within you rage... In other words, don't pick up any equipment between you "changing" and then getting your equipment. It's been awhile since I played it last (too much STALKER - thanks Renz for the INI file), but I'm surprised they haven't patched that error yet.

I tend to agree with the OP. The game is great. I'm waiting for a sequel for certain... Beats the buggy, crap game that STALKER was supposed to be. I mean I like STALKER, but it's hardly as polished as DM. Ah well...

[Mochan]

After applying a patch the game is back up and running in Chapter 5 (it just dropped dead when loading Chapter 5 before the patch). It still crashes way too many times for my liking but now at least I can progress. (Well at least I get to post here whenever the game crashes)

What can I say? I have left Stalker on the backburner temporarily to play this game. It just managed to suck me in more than Stalker did. Don't get me wrong Stalker is a great game and the atmosphere is something else, but this game looks better (at an acceptable framerate for my rig) and the narrative and the action is more intense -- Stalker is more atmosphere and survival, with lots of atmospheric moseying around without any actual action going on so the constant kicking and bashing in this game is more... instantly gratifying.

I'll be getting back to STALKER in due course but I predict finishing the Dark Messiah campaign tonight (I'm about halfway through).

Hey Civ, I wouldn't quite say DM is a "polished" game in that it's got a ton of crash bugs giving me hell (even patched to the latest 1.02) but overall the game is indeed more polished than STALKER. Stalker has less game-stopping bugs, but more of the small bug infestation that make what would be an otherwise perfect game a bit rough on the edges. Not as buggy as Gothic 3 for sure but still could use more work surprisingly even after 6 years.

Well I wish STALKER ran better with Full Dynamic lighting on my PC, this game needs more monstrous GPU processing than I can afford at the moment.

I'll take your advice in Chapter 7 so I'll wait until then. I am sure that, by the time I finish this game, I will be wanting a sequel. Too bad this game was so poorly received by the gaming community at large. Why, I will never know why. That sort of kills the prospects of a sequel, so I guess I will want to check out Project Offset instead for a "spiritual sequel" (hopefully).

PS - what is with Leanna and all her "panty" shots?!

[ShatteredCiv]

I never had any problems crashing with DM (only the one area, which I am sure is patched now).

RE: STALKER: I found another poster's initialization file settings very helpful in getting Full Dynamic Lighting working in the game. Took me a bit to figure out they were playing on Master setting after getting wasted a few dozen times.

[Mochan]

I'm about to finish the game (one ending), I'd have to say you're extremely fortunate to not have had any crash errors in this game. Well it's like I have a chance to post here each time the game crashes, LOL. Darn, and I was planning on finishing this game last week. Well better now than never.

Okay time to get back in and finish it.