Dark Messiah of Might & Magic

This game is nearly 20 years old but still runs perfectly its absolute kino
teh voice acting is cheesy but great and the swordfighting is so good my stat was mainly to run around and kick people while stabbing them
easily a 10/10
inb4 a remaster with a battlepass

I played every game of Arcane Studio and not a single title disappointed me. Those days I am having a blast playing this and Arx Fatalis, they are very old games with a lovely charm.
What, graphismes ? I don't care about that to be honest, only gameplay is important to me, and those games that are 10 even 20 years older than what you can find today are 100x ahead in term of fun and entertainement... Why ? Because it was dev's of their time creating games for gamers of their time.
If like me you aren't afraid of retro gaming, don't hesitate to buy this game and Arx Fatalis (and download the "Arx Liberatis" patch, thanks me later, easy to install really)

It can be janky, the plot's not the best and it kinda drags on at the end but the core gameplay is a blast.

just make sure to specialise in the skilltree

If you figure out how to play the game without it crashing, it is good.

7.5 Too much ghouls
[Orc scream sfx]
Theres a woman in my head and she calls me studmuffin
Quicksave every 10 steps

Still one of the greatest combat games ever made. Everything is interactable, little secrets, nice switch up of the normal story in games like this. I spent 90% of the time goofing around with the environment and kicking enemies off ledges lol

the combat is really fun and simple i didnt expect it to be that fun

A very underrated game and RPG.
Still holds up in 2025 and i experienced few crashes.
The physics are awesome and you can kick enemies down stairs and off cliffs.
The combat system has some real depth and you can do a stealth playthrough if you like.
You can drop barrels and throw objects at enemies. You can throw oil and light in on fire.
It's a very fun sandbox game. The skill system has a lot of variety.
The last level and endings are a let down though.

Fun and original gameplay. You can really feel that the devs were trying out new thigns, some of which didn't make it into modern equivalents of this game like Dishonored, but make for an unique experience that is very enjoyable.

Are you thinking of buying it? You should be this is one of the greatest fighting games ever made period a time when developers cared more about having fun than being sensitive wonder at the woman in the game not being trolls marvel at the fact the game was focused on more than outside politics embrace the majesty that is dark messiah relive an old mans dreams! Kick trolls! set fire to flesh! Be better than you are!

No option for gamepad support?!?

I'll stick with the Xbox 360 version, if I want to play this video game!

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic – A Rough Gem Worth Playing

Dark Messiah is one of those games that might not have had the biggest budget or the most polished execution, but it still manages to stand out in a big way. At its core, it’s a fun, unique, and exciting experience that’s absolutely worth checking out.

You can definitely tell that the studio had limited resources. Some parts feel a bit rushed or like corners were cut—whether it’s a reused asset here or a rough edge there. But honestly, that scrappy feeling kind of adds to the charm. The gameplay, especially the combat and the way you can interact with the environment, is where this game shines.

One downside worth mentioning is the ending. It feels abrupt, almost like they were either setting up for a sequel that never happened or just ran out of steam. Either way, it leaves you wanting a bit more closure.

Still, for all its flaws, Dark Messiah is a blast to play. It's got a distinct personality, and there's really nothing quite like it. If you're looking for something a little different and you can overlook a few rough spots, definitely give it a shot.

Doesn't run on modern systems out of the box. Appears like fixes do exist, but I think its incumbant on publishers to ensure their products are playable if still sold on a digital platform like steam.

amazing besides the crashes here and there. wish it was longer

A dark-fantasy first person action game where you can choose to dispatch goons, ogres, trolls, orcs, and wizards with brute force, stealth, magical powers, or just by kicking them into traps or off ledges? It’s Might and Magic: Dishonored! What’s not to like?

…Okay, other than the Might and Magic-tier narrative and voice acting, your beyond-useless sidekick love interest who gets herself killed whenever you start fights, your other love interest demon lady in your mind who chirps in with “remember me, I’m bad!” every twenty minutes of game time or so, the fact that it is difficult to switch to either of the purported three gameplay styles on the fly, the difficulty of fighting the heavily armed and armored baddies means you have to pick a style and put all your points in it anyway, and that there is bafflingly no controller support, what’s not to like?

This is an epic game!

OVERALL IMPRESSION SCORE: 8/10

GRAPHICS SCORE: 8/10
AUDIO SCORE: 8/10
MUSIC SCORE: 7/10
GAMEPLAY SCORE 8/10
CAMPAIGN SCORE: 8/10
GAME STATE, QOL AND POLISH: 7/10
ENJOYABILITY: 9/10

Date played: 2025
On 4K High End Win 11 system

What a gem of a game this is and I can't believe how I only found out about a month or so ago!
Despite being quite the might & magic fan this one somehow got passed me.
It's a very clever and innovative game for its time making full use of physics and the beauty of the Source engine well know for Half Life 2.
In typical Might & Magic brand fashion the story can be very macabre and dark yet funny and silly at the same time. That's exactly what I love from the Might & Magic brand. It never takes itself too seriously and allows to have fun in the Might & Magic world of angels, griffins, troglodytes and demons.
Despite that the passion and depth of the game are visible from the start.

CAMPAIGN REVIEW
The campaing is an exciting journey which can be played out very differently through multiple reruns.
I like the unique take on such a journey wich at the end one can take some choices in.
They've added a layer of sexyness and adultness to the game with the whole succubus theme and 'this is sparta' kicking around you won't easily find in today's vanillad games. I love it!
It's a game that yes has some bugs and unpolishedness here and there but it makes it up with a tremendous amount of soul and character that oozes out of each play.
In order to net get bogged down by old bugs I've installed the following mods:
- Restoration mod and required submods
It patches out the game, adds some modern system support and makes the game run smooth as hell with no gamebreaking bugs during the entire campaign I played (which you'll definately encounter without the mod)
Loved to play it and I'll definately come back to it.


GAMEPLAY REVIEW
Gameplay is fantastic once you get used it. It tok me quite a while to get used to it. And also takes a while to get comfortably strong to enage in fights. Very cool choice between Assasin, Warrior and Mage class with branching skilltrees while you level up. Marching through catacombs and kicking around while hacking and slashing or spelling and casting through enemies is as much a challenge as a joy.
The combat system and controls, while sometimes clunky remains one of the better and natural feeling swordplay games for its time. Less Skyrim and more Chivalry.
In many aspects this game does a lot of things better than many newer games do today.


SUMMARY
A must have for Might & Magic fan and for any respectable person calling themselves a gamer
Absolute gem of a game.

"This game taught me that violence isn't always the answer... but kicking someone into a spike wall definitely is."

Let’s be honest Dark Messiah is what happens when someone took a traditional fantasy RPG and said, “Okay, but what if we added a physics engine and made kicking a core mechanic?” And it works. It shouldn’t work this well, but it does.

You play as a young warrior named Sareth, who is definitely not harboring a dark secret (he totally is). You’ve got a sword, a bow, some basic spells… and the most overpowered lower body in fantasy gaming history. The game gives you so many environmental traps spike walls, fire pits, rope bridges, ragdoll physics and then gives you one instruction: abuse it all.

🗡 Combat:
This isn’t your average “click to win” system. You have to actually aim, block, parry, and time your strikes. Melee feels crunchy and impactful, especially when you mix in the environment. Freeze the floor and watch enemies slip to their doom. Set them on fire. Kick them off cliffs like you’re starring in “Lord of the Rings: Parkour Edition.”

🎯 Stealth? Sure.
You can sneak through levels, silently taking out guards. But why stab someone from behind when you can snipe a rope, drop a chandelier on their head, and then set the room on fire just to make a point?

🔥 Magic:
The magic system is great fireballs, lightning, telekinesis… but the real spell is casting chaos in every room you enter. The fun isn’t just in winning it’s in making your enemies look dumb while you do it.

🗺 Level Design:
It’s linear, but each area feels thoughtfully designed for maximum destruction. You’ll start looking at every spike wall like it’s a personal invitation to ruin someone’s day.

🧀 Story & Voice Acting:
The plot? Classic "chosen one with a dark destiny" stuff. The voice acting? Cheesier than a goblin’s birthday fondue, but in a loveable way. And let’s not even start on Xana, your demonic companion who whispers things like she’s narrating a fantasy soap opera.

🎮 Final Thoughts:
Dark Messiah is an underrated gem. It’s not perfect the AI has its moments, the inventory is a little 2006, and yes, sometimes the physics break in hilarious ways but none of that matters when you’re slow-mo kicking a flaming orc off a balcony while laughing like a maniac.

This game doesn’t just let you play a hero. It lets you feel like one with a wicked dropkick.

💯 10/10 would get kicked off a cliff by a goblin just to return the favor.

I kicked 20 guys off a dock and into the water to win a level. 10/10 The very best "THIS IS SPARTA!!" simulator.

Physics based fireballs from the past.
When it works it's;
7.8🧌/10🧙

It's a Source engine game that's in love with its physics system. Lots of fun, this is a fairly linear light-RPG FPS fantasy-sword'n'sorcery romp that feels almost like it aspires to be an imsim at times.

Now go forth, Sir Kickington and boot some evildoers off a cliff!

I dunno, this game looked like a lot of fun from watching videos, but I just couldn't get into it myself. Maybe I'll try it again later as a magic build or using cheats for a power-fantasy/playground experience. It's probably a lot more fun if you know what you're doing instead of constantly fighting with crashes or quickloading after a personal or game goofup.

There's a lot of jank, the game is unstable even after installing the Mod Launcher and lowering graphics settings, fighting more than one enemy usually results in an arse-kicking (yeah, I have lots of healing potions, but spamming those like Diablo isn't fun), as melee you only have the ability to use one spell before being OOM, have to individually re-equip weapon and shield after casting spells, the hotbar is very small for all the stuff you'll want handy, the love interest NPC starts vigorously humping your leg only an hour after meeting you, etc.

Man, I just wanted to forcefully introduce bad guys to spikes, chandeliers, and sheer cliffs while humming the Benny Hill theme song.

The Good

+The physics engine really is a lot of fun
+Secrets are usually hinted at
+Melee, while dated, actually has some neat features
+Save anywhere
+You can usually backtrack to prior areas. Few points of no return.

YMMV

~Really janky
~Goofs with Windows keyboard settings. Fixed on reboot.
~Blood, occasional gore, sexual themes
~Story is predictable and corny
~Voice acting so-so
~Game's not balanced well with some builds being superior
~Enemy damage output varies wildly

The Bad

-Takes some work to get running/stable on modern computers
-Objectives are frequently unclear (PITA when timed)
-Can't respec skills without a cheat
-Enemies have weird hit and hurtboxes
-Manual on Steam Library page is broken
-Shield obscures much of your screen even if you're not using it

Played on:
Win11Pro, i7-14700K, RTX4060 Ti 8GB, 32GB DDR5-6000 @ 1920x1080
using KB&M
Normal difficulty

An rpg far ahead of its time. You can see the influence for Arkane studios later games too just purely from how the game functions. Environments are interactible, enemies can be ragdolled around the map once you are strong enough, and it also has a very fun multiplayer mode (unfortunately is dead).

Saw this game in an Avowed comparison video, instantly fell in love—had to play it, so I bought a Steam Deck just for it.

Only a handful of hours in, but I'm loving it.

Story's a bit confusing tho. The little context blurbs during loading screens fly by so fast I can't even read what's going on or why. Imagine a Star Wars intro scroll—but it lasts like 2 seconds.

Anyway, it runs fine on Steam Deck. Just gotta mess around with control mapping a bit, 'cause with default controls you can't even walk straight.


Very fun game, takes me back to the days when ganes were good.

This is a very good goofy RPG game. Some weird hybrid...a mishmash of many things and it is a miracle that the end result is a real gem.
After 3 decades of playing games I can only say that this game is bonkers. The story is so funny and the game encourages you to experiment with the game play mechanics. You can really customize your stats and I like that choice.
Everything in this game suggests that the developers were trying to have fun while making a very good and unique game.
You can find lot of secret areas and the exploration and experimentation is always rewarding.
It is a really well designed game and it gets a 10/10 from me. This is a crazy game, really unique and fun to play.

Yeah it's pretty good.

Movement being super clunky, and the constant screen tearing is the worst part.

Everything else honestly holds up. This game could get remastered with a couple other minor improvements and would be great.

Ending is a bit disappointing... no "Happy ending"

It's nothing special, but I had a fun time. Definitely worth the price on sale.

Don't neglect the magic/physics system. The melee combat plays like Skyrim, but there are lots of fun interactions you can have using the spells, kick button, and the environment.
You could probably finish this in 10-15 hours, I sat around recharging my mana for ages all the time, and hindsight has showed me that was a total waste of time.
This game is going to crash, a LOT, especially during combat. Make frequent use of the F6 quicksave button. Fortunately, on modern hardware it takes maybe 5 seconds to boot up the game and restore your save, so its not quite the headache this would suggest,

Good action combat & tactics.

Bad system compatibility issues.
Lots of crashes due to it being so old.
They can be fixed after some effort.

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic is a "Bro, seriously don't worry about a 'build' just kick everything off the ledges but if you dó really have to melee don't click too fast or the game will crash"- simulator.

Also might be one of *the* worst stories I have ever experienced in an RPG. True Ubisoft era nu-Might&Magic slop.

Go play it. It's fun.

Cheap AF and looks better than I thought it would but fighting with the control layout on Steam Deck caused me to lose interest

Disclaimer: I had to fan patch the f**k out of this game just to get it working properly by any stretch.

This game has some of the best combat I've ever seen in a fantasy title. There's directional attacks, physics-based combat and interactions, and even the ability to execute enemies. It's not perfect and even i sometimes have trouble doing things correctly, but it's freaking awesome. And to be completely honest, I am annoyed that the awesome stuff this game does has not been carried forward much (if at all) into fantasy RPGs since 2006.

An amazing Action-RPG, much better than modern "AAA" slop like Starfield or Avowed.

After beating it on hardcore let me tell you that kicking enemies into spikes and from ledges NEVER gets old. A simple 10mb mod makes it 100% functional on modern PCs.

Fun first few hours, unfortunately the crypt chapter half way through the game was so bad and poorly designed I couldn't believe it. Truly one of the worst sections of any game I've ever played.

good gameplay. Needs mods to run without crashing every 20 seconds

very fun experience, loved the combat and the sexy demon lady. 10/10

From the devs who later brought us Dishonored. This game is a unique one that I have not experienced in most games today.
Real great gameplay, fun weapon mechanics and the Source engine with HDR for skyboxes gets me good too. Best ragdoll kicking simulator!

Positives:
- A better combat system than many overpriced modern slop titles.
- Attractive female characters.

Negatives:
- Some stability issues.

With this mod better performance and mods support: https://www.moddb.com/games/dark-messiah-of-might-magic/downloads

This game is apart of my childhood. and I love it. But for some reason it crashes after the tutorial level rendering it unplayable. truly sad.

abysmal dogshit story redeemed tenfold by funny source engine action rpg gameplay

Impressive, interactive combat system for the time. Sword crafting mechanic is also one of the few enjoyable moments I've had crafting items in a videogame.

It is maddening how no game, indie or AAA, has tried to just be a reskined version of this game yet, let alone an improved version, like, the foot, the sheer cliffs, and the sloppily constructed wooden platforms in this game need to star in more games. I would buy a game while it isn't on discount if it is know as "just a polished clone of Dark Messiah"

Positives:
- A better combat system than many overpriced modern slop titles.
- Attractive female characters.

Negatives:
- Some stability issues.
- Multiplayer is dead.

Notes:
- Stability fix:
Right click the game in your Steam library.
Select 'Properties...'.
In the box under 'LAUNCH OPTIONS' type:
+datacachesize "128"

From the devs who later brought us Dishonored, this game aged the best out of anything I know. The combat system is even more fun in source engine than their later works imho.

while there are a few segments that kinda drag and/or are pretty same-y (fuck the altar of the spider skull) this was a fun linear first person quasi-rpg

also yes like everyones already said this game PERFECTED kick mechanics. virtually half the games combat can be done just kicking motherfuckers off ledges and it NEVER gets old. its actually better than the regular combat and the magic (which is pretty useless aside from healing and freeze).

story is fucking stupid in classic late 00s fashion. a total schmuck gets two insanely hot chicks to follow him around either by his side or inside his fucking head. throw in some daddy issues, you get to be "evil" and i guess Might and Magic lore that i dont fucking understand and you have a terrific standalone janksterpiece from the forever-awesome xbox 360 era.

Can be janky and buggy at times but no game has been able to do first person combat as well as this game in the almost 20 years it's been out.

kinda boring with gameplay that didnt age well compered to modrern games but def worth the low price and it can run on my potato at 120 frames and doesent look half bad

Not quite an immersive sim, but close enough to give you a lot of different ways to approach encounters. Enemies are deadly, and combat forces you to make decisions in the moment to survive. It can be a little confusing to figure out where to go at times, but overall the level design is pretty good, and lends itself well to emergent gameplay.

Still an absolute gem! I played it numerous times when I was younger and thought I would never be able to play it again... But here we are. You can actually play Dark Messiah on modern systems. For me it was just few minor bug fixes that I was able to do on my own.

The price tag is really convenient, trust me even the 5€ are 100% worth the time you're gonna spend in the world of Ashan. For me, this game kinda feels like Doom, at least if we talk combat. You just massacre everything that stands in you way. The story is great but if you want to understand it completely, you should at least read about what happened in Heroes of might and magic V (DLC's included). And surprisingly, the graphics still hold up to this day.

Verdict? If you haven't played it yet, definitely give it a try. It's a great game even after all those years.

I play mostly offline so my play time is inaccurate.

I shall break this down into segments for easy reading.

Story: Its not that good, very basic and bare bones. If you are wanting a competent story you will be disappointed.

Gameplay: If you are thinking this is something like the Elder Scrolls it is not. This game is purely linear and Level based with some light exploration and secrets in each level. That doesn't mean its inferior, just not an RPG.

Combat: The most memorable part of the game, kicking is your best weapon. The majority of levels are like playgrounds for you to experiment with different ways of killing your enemies and if you play that way it will be a lot of fun. Hit detection with melee can be janky but once you get used to things, it stops being a problem.

Overall a very good game if you can get it on sale, even better. The "Playground" elements of levels somewhat drops off towards the end of the game with more corridors and less environmental combat available. The first half of the game is where most of your fun will be had, (Spoilers) With the ending being disappointing, but again you shouldn't go into this expecting a good story, go into it expecting fun silly gameplay.

I give it 7.2 / 10

Satisfying and fun combat along with a surprisingly coherent story. I may be stupid but if you get stuck look for a lever

This is a classic, simple, effective game, from a time when games could be fun and 10-12 hours long if not amazingly memorable without being crucified by critics. Combat is really interesting and gives you many options, though ranged and magic are considerably harder to manage than melee (which is more fun anyway). This is just a good, strong game which does not bother with a tacked-on crafting system, excessive loot, meaningless RPG elements or NPC relationships. It is a bona fide hack and slash action game and it is fun, period.

This game is great and plays well for it's age.
Beware that it is a bit unstable (W11 system), may crash from time to time. So save often.