Dark Messiah of Might & Magic

Published by Ubisoft Entertainment SA
Developed by Arkane Studios SA
Released 2006
Genre Action, RPG

Description :

A long time ago an extreme powerful mage called the Seventh Dragon banished all demons from the world and paid with his death for this. But the prophecies tell that after a 1000 years, a Dark Messiah - half human, half demon - will return to the earth to destroy the barrier that stands between the worlds. Now twenty years ago a Demon Lord successfully mates with Isabel Queen of the Griffin Empire and all attempts of the Emperor to exorcist her fail (you can play this mission in Heroes of Might and Magic V) and the Dark Messiah is born. Also he doesn't know it yet, his goal is to optain the Skull of the Seventh Dragon called Skull of Shadows from Skull Island, where it is guarded by the orcs and destroy the barrier between the worlds with it. The name of the Dark Messiah is Sareth and he's an mage apprentice. One day his master sends him to Stonehelm to help another mage retrieve the Skull. And so the Prophecy seems to become real. But it is yours to decide if you use the Skull, once you've optained it, for good or for evil since you are playing Sareth.

Dark Messiah of Might & Magic is a 1st-person action game set in the medieval age so instead of guns you use swords, bows and magic to defeat your enemies. As you progress through the story you obtain skill points which you can invest in one of three skill trees called Combat, Magic and Stealth. How you skill Sareth directly influences the combat in the game. You can either play like an assassin and backstab your enemies to oblivion or make him a perfect sword-fighter who can use different combos to take out his enemies for example.

But you can also use your environment to make your kills. There're countless items you can lift up and throw at your enemy or you can light up your arrow on a campfire nearby to inflict more damage. You can also make good use of your foot and kick your enemies off cliffs or kick them into spikes that come out of the wall or use other traps that are scattered in the levels like bringing a statue to a fall.

The main innovation in Dark Messiah is the so-called Body Awareness System. This basically means that Sareth is a real part of the world like every other NPC. This makes not only the whole combat more intense because your whole body moves with every sword-swing you make but the NPCs can interact more directly with you. For example a Orc can take you by your neck and throw you through the room.

If you've already saved (or damned) the world you can turn to the multiplayer-mode. There you've access to five different character classes from the knight to the priestess. With each kill you make you earn experience points and increase in rank. Then you get skill points you can invest in your skill tree to get new talents or upgrade existing ones. This is most important in the Conquest game-mode in which you play various maps in a row and keep your level between all the way. In the Conquest-mode two teams (Humans and Undead) fight over the possession of the flags on a map. Once one team holds all flags, it wins and the next map is loaded. But there's also normal (Team-)Deathmatch available.


Requirements :

Min.CPU PIV
Min.OS Win XP
Min.RAM 512MB
Min.DirectX 9.0C
DVDROM Speed 4x
Keyboard
Mouse
Internet/LAN
Offline Players 1
Online Players 32
3D Accelerator

Cheats :

Start the game with the -console command line parameter. Alternately, in the game options, on the "Keyboard" tab, click the "Advanced" button at the bottom and check the box "Enable Developer Console". Press ~ during game play to display the console window. Type sv_cheats 1 during game play to enable cheat codes. Then, enter one of the following codes to activate the corresponding cheat function.
Note: Typing part of the code will show all codes that start with those characters.

Effect	Code
God mode	god or god 1
Buddha mode; cannot go below 1 HP	buddha
No clipping mode	noclip
Spawn indicated item	give
Spawn indicated NPC	mm_npc_create
Enemies ignore you	notarget
Add indicated amount of skill points	mm_player_add_skillpoints
Full Adrenaline	mm_player_add_adrenaline 100
Add indicated amount of gold	mm_player_add_gold
Unlimited arrows	arrows_unlimited 1
Load indicated map	map
Start specified map as Assassin	map_assassin
Starts specified map as Warrior	map_warrior
Starts specified map as Wizard	map_wizard
Restart map as Assassin	restart_assassin
Restart map as Warrior	restart_warrior
Restart map as Wizard	restart_wizard
Developer-mode	developer 1
Enables open console with key	con_enable 1
Set the gravity; default is 800	sv_gravity
Invisibility	notarget 1
All weapons and ammo	impulse 101
Disable enemy AI	ai_disable 1
Show the console	showconsole
Hurt character for indicated amount	hurtme
Wireframe walls	mat_wireframe 1
See enemy and items through walls	mat_depthbias_normal <1>
Disable darkness and shadows	Mat_fullbright 1
Show hit boxes on enemies	sv_showhitboxes 2
Allow no clpiping while game is paused	sv_noclipduringpause 1
Sprinting costs no stamina	mm_player_stamina_megasprint_cost_per_second 0
Kicking costs no stamina	mm_player_stamina_needed_for_kick 0
Mana regenerates instantly	mm_player_time_to_add_mana 0

NPC names:
Use one of the following entries with the mm_npc_create code.

Arantir
aratrok
cyclope
death_knight_sword
death_knight_sword_shield
ghoul
goblin
human_guard
human_guard_bow
Leanna
lich
Menelag
necromancer
orc_sword
orc_sword_bow
orc_sword_shield
Phenrig
undead
villager_undead