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Dark Messiah Of Might & Magic - Hands On Preview
Jon Wilcox
19/07/2006
In a candlelit crypt in central London, TVG discovered more on Ubisoft's forthcoming Dark Messiah...
Having launched a rejuvenated Might & Magic franchise with Heroes of Might & Magic V earlier in 2006, Ubisoft are just a matter of months away from releasing a new spin-off series in Dark Messiah of Might & Magic. A first-person title set twenty years after the conclusion of 'Heroes V', Dark Messiah is a far cry from the role-playing that's synonymous with Might & Magic in the past. Currently in development at Arkane and Kuju Studios, Dark Messiah is two years in the making and will be released on PC towards the end of September.
Recently TVG had a hands-on preview of Dark Messiah's multiplayer Crusade Mode, held in a candlelit crypt right in the heart of London. With the atmosphere perfectly suited to the new M&M world of Ashan (save for the appearance of a random group of middle-aged American tourists walking into the building midway through the demonstration), Ubi proudly unveiled the Kuju-developed multiplayer and also re-acquainted us with Arkane's single-player campaign.
Having pacified the hardcore fan base of Might & Magic with Heroes V, Dark Messiah is the spin-off that aims to attract new gamers to the almost age-old franchise. In the single-player Campaign, players have the ultimate goal of tracking down and destroying the Dark Messiah of the title, who threatens the fate of Ashan. Built using Valve's Source engine, and focusing on action rather than the traditional role-play of standard Might & Magic games, Dark Messiah has more in common with Half-Life 2 than any traditional Orc-laden fantasy title. It's not an open-world Oblivion-like extravaganza where free-roaming rules the gameplay, instead Dark Messiah Producer, Ubisoft's Romain de Waubert de Genlis described the experience as '...a succession of sandbox moments...', where there are several ways to progress through the various challenges in a room.
Utilising the environments in this way means that Dark Messiah's rooms, tunnels, and caverns feature traps that players can use against enemies from a distance. Adhering to the notion of sandbox rooms does mean that players won't be forced to activate them, but they allow for more scope with enhanced realism. There is however a set structure of hints to the traps and situations that players will be able to pick up on, such as a pile of planks, or hanging rope. Hopefully there'll be a variety in the amount of these elements in order to keep that aspect of the gameplay from feeling too artificial.
But as Ubisoft explained, traps aren't one-way elements solely for gamers; if spotted by an enemy, players may also be on the receiving end. Enemy AI will of course be a vital feature of Dark Messiah, so an ability to identify opportunities to use a room's traps is sure to help build an absorbing experience. The relationships between the enemy types is also something that de Waubert de Genlis was keen to point out, citing one example where a group of orcs began to attack a number of goblins just as the player's character was trying to escape from the room. How these relationships develop through the game, and how much of an impact they have on the gameplay, will have to be seen when we get our hands on the single-player campaign.
The focus of the gameplay is very much on the action, but in a more intelligent way than is usually seen in first-person titles. Being set in a world with no guns means that there are significant levels of strategy involved, depending on the character and the weapon being used. Recent video footage of Dark Messiah showed how players can take a number of stances that develop their character, with Warrior and Assassin-style tactics offering a variety in the gameplay. Four distinct weapon types in the game expand upon the experience on offer for players too, going far beyond the usual plethora of guns and munitions found in FPS titles.
These four, swords, staves, daggers, and bows, allow gamers to confront enemies in new ways, enhancing the stances. Quiet, sneak tactics as an assassin would be useless if players wield a clunky broadsword, so a stab in the back with a couple of daggers is likely to keep their characters hidden. In addition, gamers will also have the choice of following a more magic-based path, and practice a wizard's stance with an array of spells instead. Fighting with a sword will also introduce a new dimension for players, in that they won't be able to just aimlessly swing a sword around with mouse-button bashing gusto. Stressing the use of stances in the game, there's much more emphasis from Arkane and Kuju to create a more realistic 'duel' style of gameplay.
Dark Messiah is also to include four different endings, depending on the decisions made by players through the course of the game. With a main quest that's strengthened by the addition of side-quests, Ubisoft currently assumes that gamers will be able to complete the campaign in about twenty hours, although the publisher does state that this is more down to the way it's played.
Moving onto Kuju's turf, and the development of Dark Messiah's multiplayer experience, the game revolves around two factions: Humans and the Undead (Necromancers). Explaining a desire to reproduce huge fantasy battles, Dark Messiah will include scope for up to 32-players to take to the battlefields around the world of Ashan. Three gametypes will be available in the game, though with multiplayer regulars Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch taking two of those places, it was up to Dark Messiah's Crusade mode to hold the torch...and it was then that we got hands on with the game.
Expanding far beyond the likes of Unreal Tournament's 'Dominion' Mode and Halo 2's 'Territories', Crusade sees the two sides fight through a number of battlefields in a similar manner to Tug-o-War. Splitting the game into a number of locations, each of the factions are designated a base (in this instance, Humans were in the Border Keep and the Necromancers in Nar-Heresh). In between the bases were three further locations in this instance Stone Helm, Nelshan's Scar, and Vradek's Crossing - neutral territory to be fought over in subsequent rounds. Beginning with the defence of the Border Keep, the Human faction has to work its way through the locations until the Necromancer base has been won. Each of the locations are on their own separate battlegrounds, with UT-style nodes that can be taken control of. Once a base node has been lost to the enemy (or won by the player's side), the battle is over and the frontline of the overall map is changed; and so it goes until that all important 'base map' is taken once and for all.
In a departure from the single-player, Kuju has taken the decision to create a Class System within the multiplayer game, which the studio hopes will help to define the role of each player. Five classes are available to choose from, Archer, Mage, Priestess, Warrior, and Assassin, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, such as a Mages weakness at short range, or the Assassin's strengths in sneak attacks. There's a definite strategy implemented into the multiplayer mode, and that's something that we experienced first hand during our playtest of the game. For instance, the Archer specialises in ranged attacks, and is perhaps the closest to normal FPS 'characters' of all the five classes. Multiple arrow-types including poison arrows, or flash flare arrows, open up the versatility of the class beyond expectations, yet their weakness lays in its low armour qualities. When a well armoured class (such as a Warrior) tries to attack an Archer by rushing towards them with sword drawn, the player controlling the ranged character has to make a vital decision: flee there and then, or try and get one last, and potentially deadly, shot before attempting to escape. For once, there's no harm in running away, and it's almost encouraged to do just that when faced with the juggernaut-like Warriors.
Set in a ruined castle keep, the hands on demonstration really gave a successful taste of what to expect in the final game, and it was interesting to experience the results of the class system in practice. Archers stayed back to defend the rear node until a more distant one was won by some of the more melee heavy classes; Assassins used their powers of invisibility to sneak up and backstab some of the more static avatars, whilst Warriors ran straight into battle, decimating those naïve players who thought that 'one more shot' would prove to be the fatal blow...which it seldom was.
Character development and Skill Tress are also included in the Crusade mode, with new talents becoming available as battles occur in real time. Archers can introduce zoom control for their shots for example, whilst Warriors can improve their stamina so they can run for longer periods. These skills last the course of the overall battle, from one location to the next, so that when the end game does finally occur, a player's character really will have developed since the initial battles. In that respect, both the single-player and the multiplayer feel strangely separate from each other, though at the same time they are still very much a single game.
Dark Messiah of Might & Magic is a bold step by Ubisoft, and both of the development studios, thanks to its significant departure from other M&M titles. Whilst Ubisoft is quick to point out that even hardcore gamers don't restrict themselves to a single genre, there is no doubt that a relatively quick succession of Might & Magic titles is a clear indication that the publisher aims to appease the hardcore, whilst at the same time, attract new gamers to the fold.
