Dark Messiah of Might and Magic

Ubisoft has spilled a few details on the multiplayer modes included with its upcoming first-person fantasy saga Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Sure, Dark Messiah is a role-playing game, but one rammed with so much physical action that it only made sense to spill that into a multiplayer game.

In Dark Messiah's Crusade mode, two 16-player teams will enter multiple-round campaigns to conquer one another's castles by capturing control points and killing off the opposition. Teams will choose between the Human and Undead side and pick between five complimentary classes: stealthy assassins, meat-shield warriors, healer priests, spell-slinging mages and the sniper-like archer. This sounds a bit like beloved multiplayer first-person wargame Battlefield 1942 meets The Lord of the Rings, which makes sense; Dark Messiah's producer isthe former lead designer of Battlefield 1942.

Unlike the single-player game where you may choose skills from any skill tree as you evolve your character, you'll have to knuckle under and commit to a class in multi. This rewards smart teams that use a strategically balanced approach - priests can detect the nearly invisible assassins, and warriors will obliterate weakling long-distance attackers like mages and archers, for example.

The Crusade mode exploits the fantasy potential in multiplayer by letting you rocket through the skill tree of your chosen class. Over the course of each mini-campaign, you'll gain up to 10 new skills as your experience grows. The skills you learn and items you pick up will stick with you from one round to the next, and the choices you make on the fly will impact you and your team throughout the match.