Dark Messiah of Might and Magic

There's a good game hidden inside Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, but you have to ignore the hype to play it. The box for this game would have you believe you're playing some kind of 5th-grade Might and Magic fanfiction, a dark, edgy game with blood and guts and killing and evil and death and also grit and nastiness. You won't be. The game has blood and stabbing and whatnot, sure, but it's not extreme or edgy or any of that. It contains wizards with silly voices, maidens fair, cuclopses (cyclopi?) and all that fun stuff you'd expect from a fantasy game.

If you actually were expecting BloodKillHackcorpes: The Deathening, well, you'll be let down.

DMMM casts you in the mold of a generic fantasy hero who gets bounced around between incontinent old men performing quests. You get a hot spirit familiar who lives in your head because, you know, Halo, and you find and master an array of weapons. You also level up, learning various traits to become stealthier, stronger, or more magical. It's basically a fantasy Deus Ex, which suits me fine- it's certainly better than Deus Ex 2, so it works as a sequel, at least as well as Bioshock worked as a sequel to System Shock.

The big hook of this game is supposed to be combat, and it is pretty great. There's an Errol Flynn pirate movie swashbuckling feel to fighting in this game, as you hurl debris, trip your enemies, and kick dudes off of things. Or into things. Or over things. Kicking quickly becomes your most valuable attack, due to its power to propel your enemies into the many, many, many environmental traps that abound in this game. You can also block, do special melee attacks, and cast all sorts of fun spells. You can even sneak, which is a viable option because enemies can dish it out at least as well as you in most cases.

So if you can ignore the "there's blood and murder and EEEEEEEVILLLL" hype, this is a pretty fun FPS-RPG-action title. Just remember that F makes your dude kick, and you'll be fine.

7/10