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Dark Messiah of Might and Magic took me by surprise. When I think of the MM series, I typically think of party-built dungeon crawlers and tactical army-based strategy games. What I don’t think of are first-person RPGs—and yet not only is DMoMM (can we just call that DM?) a first-person RPG, it’s a great first-person RPG.
DM has everything a great game needs. Excitement, adventure, enough dialogue to keep things interesting, not too much dialogue to make things boring, mechanics that don’t just push the game forward but mechanics that are fun—for instance, one interesting feature is that you can always deliver a good strong kick in front of you with the F key. What can this be used for? What can’t this be used for! I’ve kicked people into fireplaces. I’ve kicked people into spikes. I’ve kicked zombies off of cliffs. I’ve drop-kicked pottery into a town guard’s head just for fun! Kicking isn’t just a strictly combative mechanical feature of the game, it’s built into the way you can interact with the world around you. A good strong kick (or a series of the same) will destroy a large portion of the architecture in the game and a majority of the objects are able to interacted with, or at least picked up and thrown. This means that the traditional combat of “block and strike” opens up into a wide range of feats in a 3-D world. You can do something as simple as throw a barrel at a knight, or find some oil, break it on the ground near a chokepoint and when in danger ignite it while running past to cover your retreat. You can lure guards to unstable storage structures and break the supports when they are underneath. You can pick up a teacup and chuck it at a ghoul because… well darn it, sometimes you just have a desire to throw the good china at the undead!
While progress in the game is linear, the levels are designed with enough secrets and multiple paths that in many instances you can choose your route. Combined with the destructive environment, and simple but distinct choice of weapons and skill paths, I felt encouraged to explore unique ways of fighting because the game seems to reward it all in an equally potent manner. Usually when I play a game, I find specialization in traps to be an overwhelmingly tedious task with underwhelming rewards. In DM though, I’ve not only discovered how to effectively use my fire trap spell, I’ve found that I love it! I feel excited when I’m running away from a pack of thugs and in my haste I have the presence of mind to throw down the trap in the middle of the doorway. The sound of explosions behind me usually signal that its done its job well. The collateral damage caused by the explosion just adds more fun to the chaos. Once, I found myself in an attic whereupon with each trigger of the trap spell, another portion of the floor boards were blown completely away, making combat with the remaining enemies a dance upon the remaining shifty rafter floorboards.
The environments of the game are nice, and despite being over 10 years old, the game largely avoids uncanny valley by not overstepping the bounds of its graphical design. The story and characters, while not particularly profound or engaging, are likewise not bad and provide sufficient motivation for the player while having a few interesting twists here and there. If I had one complaint, it’s that in spite of the well-designed nooks and crannies containing hidden treasure, I feel that too often the treasure is healing or mana potions. I would have enjoyed more unique rewards for my exploration (something along the lines of Lands of Lore II where almost every secret reveals something unique or rare) but the limited pool of weapons and equipment does keep the game from becoming a gear hunt and more of a check against your skill as a player with the equipment you have on hand.
From what little of DM I’ve played, it’s been a well-paced and simply a fun experience. Whether it’s finding the next hidden terrace I can leap onto through a window, or the next sweet explosion from a fire trap that destroys half the environment, I look forward to my future exploits in the game.
