Dark Messiah of Might & Magic

Better than Avowed.
But seriously, a good game for its time. With the current state of modern games, I'm playing old games instead and keeping my money in the bank.

Well what can I say about this game that hasn't already been discussed.
It's a game made by the ImSim legends Arkane Studios in a time where they were still finding their own footing.
The basic gameplay that's happening here is an experiment in creative melee/magic combat with a Might&Magic setting. It's not fully refined, but that's probably because this is 2006 and it had to be finished at some point.
It makes sense then that this game for it's ideas and their implementation would end up a Cult Classic, albeit not very influential outside of it's own circle. A game very famous for it's kick and physics based fatalities that is hard to recommend without mentioning various caveats.
So, let's go with a few goods and bads for simplicity's sake:
The Good:
1)THE KICK - a tool that you start with and the game makes sure to teach you about when you encounter your first enemy. Arcane wanted the game to use a lot of the versatility of the Source engine and Havok physics to make a very unique combat system. This one tool makes the game endlessly creative and pushes the player, in a good way, to try to experiment on every combat encounter.
How it works:
You kick to stun an enemy. If that enemy is near: a ledge, spikes, fire or any insta-kill zone they will get comically ragdolled with speed toward that thing and killed instantly. Nothing quite like kicking an orc off a cliff.
2)The leveling system. As a deeply imsim inspired game, the story will award you skill points to be used in the skill tree after you complete various objectives. There are no levels per se in the game. There are a lot of builds that can be done.
3)The melee combat. Satisfying enough and the animations are great. You also get a cool Adrenaline mode with enough hits. And melee combat also includes picking up a barrel and throwing it into a guy to knock him out.
4)The frost and telekinesis spells. Absolute bangers to transform combat encounters into puzzles.
5)The rope bow. If any of you has played an open ended sandbox game with a grapling hook, Dishonored, Prey or THIEF, you know. Wish it was used in a more sandbox style instead of semi-scripted puzzles.
6)The story. It's pretty good and some choices do matter.
7)Xana
8)Xana
The mediocre:
1)The spell system. Most spells are really boring outside of the above mentioned ones. This really is a Might and Magic game, haha.
2)Stealth. It's not really relevant ever, and a bit obtuse despite having an indicator in the middle of the screen. It's half-implemented.
3)Burglary. I love a skill that's only used for secrets and literally just gives me a lockpick.
4)THE JANK. As an early Arkane game, that is mid-2000s and in the source engine, one would expect a certain ammount of jank that is happening in this game. That is not even close to 5% of the sheer level of jank that is in this game. However, not once will you get softlocked or have annoying bugs happen to you, at most some questionable design. And it's excused since it was trying to punch way above what was possible at the time with it's ideas. Let's call it the funny and harmless type of jank.
Vaulting and platforming are very jank. Jump to a ledge ->Mrghh, Mrghh, Mrghh, Mrghh-> DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH->Black Screen
The Bad:
1-5)THE CRASHES. Oh boy, this game was not stable at release and unless we get a full source code distribution, it won't get better... or worse. There is one fix that would let the game use 4GB RAM instead of 2, but that reduces around 20% of the crashes. The game will crash and you will come to treat it as a normal occurence. It will crash if you try and softlock yourself, corrupting your last save(doesn't matter, you have quicksaves and the autosaves come very often). It will crash with any overlay. It will crash if the hour is 18:34 PM. It will crash if you ever visited Europe in june. It will crash in 5 colours at the same time. And... it will crash because it wants to.
6)Some Pseudo Boss-Fights are a bit obtuse and result in you being 1-2shot way too many times. THOSE DAMN GOBLINS........ GET AWAY FAST, FIND SOME PLACE TO HIDE NOW......... "Quest Updated: Kill The Pao Kai."
All in all a fun experience, especially with the price you can get it at nowadays. It's almost free when it's on sale. Thoroughly recommended.
Also Xana is best girl.

in this game you are that rat bitch jerry and everybody else is tom. why stab a guy 10 times when you can make him slip on ice into another dude which makes both of them fall off a cliff and die? why shoot a guy with a bow and arrow when the kick button is screaming at you to boot another mans head directly into a wall of spikes that people oh so kindly keep setting up even though this is a dungeon made by spiders? funny ragdolls, stupid story, cool secrets, annoying crashes, best ice spell theres ever been in any game

Great game but you might need to follow this guide (very easy to do) to prevent the game from crashing after the tutorial:
Really cool game where you can play as an actual battlemage and it feels awesome. You can cast an ice spell on the ground, make enemies slip and finish them off with your weapon. A lot of fun stuff to do with how good the physics are in this game.
The rope mechanic is also really really cool. You can shoot a rope with your bow on almost every wooden surface and climb it. A ton of secrets to find this way, especially if you're creative. Was going to fight a cyclops and open a gate but did some shooting with the rope and managed to skip the entire fight by jumping from rope to rope.
Highly recommend everyone to play this game

You need the 4GB RAM patcher to avoid crashes and some command lines, these helped fix all the crashes: -width 3840 -height 2160 -dxlevel 90 -novid +datacachesize "128" -console +map_background none
(Make sure to change the width and height values to your resolution)
That aside, Dark Messiah is a ton of fun, cheesy writing, questionable dialogue at times and a good amount of bugs, whether this is because I'm running it on modern hardware and Windows 11 I'm not sure.
What the game does well is the world, exploring and all the different ways you can take on combat encounters and such. The atmosphere and visuals have aged like wine.

I had a few softlocks so make sure to save often, vaulting and climbing ropes and ladders have causes me the most deaths in game due to inconsistencies.
All these issues weren't dealbreakers to me, if you like what Dark Messiah does I recommend you check out Enderal.

Genuinely the most fun combat in a video game i've seen so far.

The horrible story makes it 20x better.

Truly a junk masterpiece

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?
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.