Wednesday 12 July 2006
You should have already seen just how exciting Dark Messiah of Might & Magic's action-packed combat is - just check out some of the footage on our movies tab - but now we've finally had a chance to thrash about in one of the game's single-player levels. And we're pleased to tell you that the orc-bashing feels fantastic.
Dark Messiah has a pleasing grittiness to skirmishes that highlights the game's differences to fellow first-person fantasy game, Oblivion. This is a brutally physical experience, where your primary concern is bashing the daylights out of your ugly-faced enemies, and it's a more focused adventure than Oblivion's monolithic rambling.
Above: Enemies will hurl you around if you don't protect yourself
Take our experiences for example. Alerting a band of cleaver-wielding orcs, we climb to a higher platform and attack with our bow. But these meat-heads aren't totally brainless, jinking left and right to dodge our arrows. While we're distracted, one of the four orcs has found a nearby ledge and leaps across to our platform, crashing his blade down as he lands.
Fortunately there's a neat kick attack that boots anything and anyone at close range. So, as the orc charges we let loose with a hefty punt and send him sprawling backwards on to a wooden platform - which is where your terrific interaction with the environment comes in. We slash out and cut a rope nearby, releasing a weighty lantern that crashes into the platform and demolishes it. Bye, bye Mr orc.
