Dark Messiah Might and Magic

Preview from Oracle - Tuesday, 22 August 2006 @ 12:00am

Lucky enough I was invited to Ubisoft?s showing of Dark Messiah Might & Magic Multiplayer closed beta. Before I get started I would just like to quickly thank Chad for hosting a very enjoyable night and sorry for eating all the pizza.. and drinking all the beer..

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As the room was quickly getting full, Ubisoft grabbed our attention and presented to us a quick Dark Messiah Might & Magic presentation. The presentation included explanation of the teams (human and undead), classes and the multiplayer modes of the game (Crusade and Death Match).

The most important mode of multiplayer is known as Crusade. The story behind the Crusade mode serves as a prequel to the single player game which involves the Humans and the Undead initiating brutal battles on certain maps which will once again be recognised later in the single player.

Different results from your battle will branch you off to another location to battle. For an example if the humans fail to hold the castle keep against the undead the next map will be located behind the castle which will be a great advantage to the undead. This mode has many maps and many paths for each team to take, adding richer replay-ability to the game.

Each map will give each team a certain objectives to complete. From the example above the undead will need to push a giant catapult-like-ladder to break into the castle while the humans must do whatever the costs to defend the wall at the same time.

You as the player are able to select certain classes on each team. Each class has there own unique killing/healing/defending mechanism which will help your team succeed in the battle. The selectable classes are an archer, a mage, a priestess, a warrior, and the coolest of all an assassin. Another unique aspect of the multiplayer is that each class is upgradeable.

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You can use your XP points to upgrade your character in a menu much like in World of Warcraft. You can upgrade your magic, defense, offense, speed and other cool unique stuff say like fire arrows for your archer, poison tips for your assassin, and stronger swords for your warrior, etc. You earn XP points by killing, healing, or even doing objectives in the maps. I found the XP system to be unbiased but especially rewarding for the teamwork objectives.

As the presentation was nearing you could see it in everyone?s faces that they wanted less chit chat and more sword swinging action. The first thing I noticed was that the menus are very simple to use, which is what I was beginning to worry from hearing about all the advance options you have for your character (upgrade menu, character select menu, and spawn menu).

I quickly chose a warrior being the n00b I am, and we we?re off. The objective was shouted out to us by someone and we all stuck to it. The game started off very exciting; I?ve never seen so much teamwork in a game since Return to Castle Wolfenstien: Enemy Territory. It was so funny yet serious trying to get everyone to push the giant ladder up to the castle while hearing bows wiz pass you.

The game is on the Half Life Source engine so you can expect to see some very astonishing visuals and effects. We ended up breaking through the castle where the action was taken up a notch.

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Ok, now I don?t want to toot my own horn but I?ll mention this anyway. Yes, your Oracle was on top of the ladder. There is nothing sweeter in the world than hearing the screams of pain from PALGN?s very own James and Chad from Ubisoft. It was great fun, and might I mention the warrior eats all in its path.

I gave the assassin a quick go and I fell in love with his back stab technique, some very swift moves can bring anyone down faster than Matt getting drunk. After 2 hours and 5 beers later my sword swinging action was becoming a little.. off target.. Ok, I was team killing. From there I decided to call it a night and pack my bags before someone had the chance to find out I was that Oracle guy. I also managed to collect a Ubisoft show bag with many many goodies. Feel free to have a peek of what was inside in the photo gallery.