Autumn Games Preview

Author: Ryan Garside
Published: 24th August 2006

Previous page Comments (16)

Magically Mighty

The game is being published by Ubisoft and is being developed by Arkane Studio, the talent behind the flawed gem that was Arx Fatalis. Add in the fact that the game is running on an enhanced version of Valve's Source Engine, and you have the whole package - the big money support from a massive publisher and possibly the best engine for games in the world.

For once the marketing spin may actually be quite accurate, Tony Kee, Vice President of Ubisoft's marketing department, made this statement recently:

"Dark Messiah of Might & Magic brings a new genre to gaming. Never before has the world seen a first-person action game set in a fantasy universe as compelling as the Might & Magic world. Not only will fans of the Might & Magic franchise be amazed by the direction we have gone with the game, but fans of the action genre will be blown away by the power of the Source Engine from Valve used in such an incredible and fantastical setting. Dark Messiah of Might and Magic will become the master of both worlds."

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The class system is not as varied as Elder Scrolls; your choice is limited to warrior, mage, assassin, priest or archer. However, because the game is more action orientated, this may not be that big a problem. In fact, the way the game works is fundamentally different from Elder Scrolls. You will play through the game with one character, one story, with a final boss arriving at the end of 12 large missions. For some hard core RPG fans who enjoy freedom in their games this will be a big dissappointment, however the compromise has been made to incorporate FPS player's tendencies and encourage them to get involved in the genre.

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Because the game is action based, and because it is made on the same engine that produced Counter-strike: Source, the clever people at Arcane Studios have decided to implement multiplayer as a key feature. This isn't any old ordinary multiplayer either, it's dynamic! "What does that mean?" I hear you cry. As well as the ordinary deathmatch, where you pick character classes similar to games like Battlefield, you then have the opportunity to evolve the classes as you play online. In some ways, the developers hope this will compensate for the lack of choice in the single player.

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As such the multiplayer experience will be dependent on what happens when you play. Whoever wins in your online battle of the undead versus the humans will then have a direct impact on the next round of play, what the map, objectives and weapons will be. With so many multiplayer games out there, it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish yourself, however Evolution Mode for Dark Messiah certainly sounds interesting enough to possibly break the mold.

We have been told by Ubisoft the confirmed release date will be October 20th so look forward to one of our renowned in-depth reviews (with benchmarks) closer to the time.

Conclusions

So there you have it. These aren't the only three games we're really excited about either - the list is as long as all of our arms put together. Let us know over in the forums what you're most looking forward to in the run up to the Christmas period and we'll do our best to run a preview and/or a review on it.