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Dark Messiah of Might & Magic is a game currently in development by Arkane Studios for Ubisoft. It utilizes the Source engine from Valve Software.
Game description
Set in the heroic fantasy world of Ashan, the setting for Ubisoft's new entries to the Might and Magic franchise, Dark Messiah is a first-person action role playing game featuring gruesome hack'n slash gameplay. The single-player campaign is focused around the story of the legendary Dark Messiah, an evil lord whose impending arrival is prophesied by seers. In this portion of the game, the player, having been trained by a famous master, will develop their character throughout the course of the game. As their character advances and becomes more powerful the player must adapt their own distinct strategies in order to fit the style of play the character chooses. Along the way you must navigate through dark settings thronged with goblins, orcs, undeads, and other minions of darkness, and you must use your wits in order to adapt and survive. There is also a multiplayer component of the game, in which players fight against each other on teams. It will be class-based gameplay promoting teamwork, and requiring players to conquer territories to overwhelm their opponents. This multiplayer gameplay has been described as a cross between the games from the Battlefield series such as Battlefield 2 and The Lord Of The Rings in both style and scope. Dark Messiah features full body awareness in order to immerse the character in the game and give the feel of actually walking around in the world, as opposed to a floating disembodied camera. The game features full next generation graphics, sound, HDR lighting, and physics, and is built on the Half-Life 2 Source engine.
Gameplay and Features
The main features of Dark Messiah are it's advanced enemy AI, environmental manipulation, combat system, unique character development, and Battlefield Style Multiplayer.
Artificial Intelligence
Arkane Studios has said that the advanced Enemy AI can be best described as, "If the player can do it, so can the AI." This will add an extremely realistic aspect to the game. The player is now no longer the only one that can attack and defend intelligently and realisticly, or create strategies and perform special moves during combat. This means players will have to think on their feet and conform to each new situation in order to successfully defeat the enemy especially once the bigger more powerful enemies come into the picture, Which brings us to the next topic, environmental manipulation.
Environmental Manipulation
The game features destructable environments, which can most of the time be used to aid you in combat and help you create a strategy in order to survive the current situation. You can do everything from cutting ropes and releasing heavy swinging objects to pummel your opponent, to kicking an orc through a wooden fence and over a cliff to his doom. You can collapse structures that your enemies are standing on and even cause a colossal statue to drop directly on top of them and crush them. You can even set traps in order to catch your enemies off guard. These are just a few of the ways in which you can use the environment effectively to defeat your opponents. The two main parts that make this ability special is that using the environment is entirely up to you, meaning that you do not have to use the environment at all if you wish (although this will make combat much harder), and also as stated before "if the player can do it, so can the AI." So you will have to be careful and be fully aware of your environment or else the AI may use the environment against you and lure you into a trap.
Combat System
The combat in Dark Messiah uses a context sensitive system in order to trigger special events and animations. This means that blocking, striking, and special moves will all feature realistic animations that conform to the situation. An example situation: an orc is charging you with a sword, by pressing the block button as the orc strikes at you, depending on the direction, area and type of strike that the orc is attacking you with, your character will realisticly move his weapon/shield to intercept, and block or parry the orcs attack, giving a realistic and fluidic feel to the game. This also goes with your attacking as well. To further enhance the combat you can perform many different combat moves (blocks, parrys, disarms, stuns, slashes, stabs, shield breaking, stealth kills, and lunges to name a few) and you can also perform special moves to finish off your opponent such as a lunging attack where you impale the enemy on your sword then proceed to kick him off the end of your blade, or the lateral slash in which you perform a powerful horizontal swing and decapitate your opponent. Along with this vicious melee combat there is also ranged combat with weapons like bows and arrows, and lets not forget magical abilities. These magic abilities range from ice blasts that freeze your opponent or make them slip and fall down, all the way to conjuring huge fire balls that you launch and guide to their intended target. As with the melee there are also special magic attacks that can be unlocked such as telekenesis, which you can use to hurl objects at your enemies, or even pickup an opponent and hurl him into a wall or off a cliff. Dark Messiah will feature many different weapons that can be used, ranging from different types of swords, shields, staffs, daggers, and bows.
Character Development System
There are no official classes in Dark Messiah. Instead, throughout the course of the game you develop your character through an evolution system in which you spend points to develop your characters abilities in the areas of magic, stealth, and combat and to unlock new abilities and moves in these respected areas. Unlike other RPGs that have similar systems to this, in Dark Messiah you do not obtain these upgrade points through killing enemies. Instead you acquire the points through the completion of goals and objectives. This is so that the different styles of play that the player can choose to use are balanced and one class does not become more powerful more quickly than the others. For example a person that plays using mainly combat abilities will tend to fight and kill every enemy encountered, while stealth based players may choose to sneak past dangerous groups of enemies instead of fighting. In a point by killing system the stealth based player would take a long time to advance and would be weaker against the more powerful enemies, while the combat based player would thrive and grow due to the amount of enemies that they kill. This problem has been eliminated by the points by objectives system used in Dark Messiah. This new system ensures that the player will progress consistently and will not miss out on certain abilities. It also ensures that one style of play is not "better" or more powerful than the other styles, and that they are all balanced in order to keep the player at the same level as the enemies he is facing.
Of course you don't have to choose just a single style of play throughout the game, in fact due to the wide open non class system advancement you could become a "jack of all trades" if you wish, using a combination of all the styles of gameplay. The advancement and abilities of the character are completely up to the player to decide, but it is not possible to become a master of all styles of play. If you distribute your points among the different styles without being careful or thinking ahead to the future, you may end up creating a character that may know a lot of the different styles, but he isn't particularly good at any single one.
Multiplayer
Dark Messiah will feature a new type of online multiplayer gaming. The multiplayer will take on a similar type of gameplay style as the Battlefield games and cross it with a feel similar to The Lord Of The Rings. The multiplayer portion of the game will feature two game modes and will be class based. There will also be two playable factions in the form of the humans and the undead.
The Multiplayer Class System
The class system in multiplayer works mostly the same as the non-class system in the singleplayer, that is, you still build and evolve your character the same as in singleplayer. However, the different abilities are now sectioned into classes and you can no longer combine class abilities as you could in singleplayer. You are still able to customize your character's abilities, but depending on what class you've chosen you are limited to the abilities associated with that class. As with any good team-focused game, the five playable classes on each team complement one another, meaning that you will need a balanced team in order to succeed.
The Assassin
Though physically weak, the assassin makes up for this with stealth, and has the ability to move quietly and invisibly to strike the enemy from behind. Also, assassins can set traps for the unwary.
The Warrior
The warrior is the frontline fighter that does battle with sword and shield. Naturally, warriors are stronger, faster, and have more endurance than other classes, but they're limited to using melee weapons.
The Priest
The priest supports the team by healing teammates, as well as casting combat spells. As an added bonus, priests can detect invisible opponents, making them the counter for assassins.
The Mage
The mage is responsible for dishing out the offensive spells. Mages, like priests, need to be defended from harm.
The Archer
The archer is considered to be the "sniper" of the group, and specialises in attacking from long distances.
Multiplayer Game Modes
There will be two game modes in Dark Messiah Multiplayer.
Warfare Mode
In warfare battle mode the goal is to seize the opposing team's castle. The warfare battle mode is described as being similar to the conquest mode found in Battlefield games. There are two teams of 16 players each battling for control of the map, and each side has a limited number of respawn tickets.
Crusade Mode
In crusade mode, the online campaign, the results of online matches carry over to the next round. If your team wins, you'll advance into enemy territory, and the next match will take place on the next map closest to your ultimate objective. Lose a round, and you'll be pushed back toward your base. The deeper you get into an enemy's territory, the tougher it gets to progress because there are more defenses to aid the defenders. The good news is that your character can level up and gain skills over the course of the campaign, so your new skills and abilities carry over to the next battle. In effect, you become tougher and more powerful, just like in any role-playing game.
External links
- teaser site
- Ubisoft Might and Magic website
- Celestial Heavens - news, features and discussions about the whole Might and Magic series
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