Skill points and physics
Skill points
At the end of each level skill points are awarded based on your performance that can then be used to customise your abilities. There are five upgradeable skills, melee combat, which will improve your attack or shielding abilities, an archery ability that, amongst other things, can improve the accuracy of your bow, critical hit allows you to inflict more damage on an opponent, and there is also a strength skill and an adrenaline skill, which should be self explanatory. Dark Messiah uses a skill tree system in order to distribute the points, and if you’re ever unsure which skills can be upgraded, the icons will flash indicating which upgrades are available. The way you distribute points is totally dependant on how you want to shape your character. For example, if you want to be a powerful warrior you may use up your points on upgrading your strength attributes, but if you want to attack enemies from a distance you may want to splash out on your archer ability and invest in some flame arrows or an improved zoom ability. Whichever you choose, Dark Messiah impresses with its combat options and the need to constantly survey and use the environment to your advantage makes for a thrilling journey that's full of anticipation.
Click for larger imagePhysics Engine
The physics engine, which is an enhanced version of the Source engine, makes superb use of the environment. Most things can be picked up and used as weapons, there are plenty of barrels lying about, and apart from the ones that display a dragon insignia (this indicates that they hide some treasure, such as a health or adrenaline potion), they can be launched at attacking foe. Using the environment effectively is crucial to staying alive and throughout Dark Messiah you’ll need to have quick reactions in order to avoid death. For example, we entered a corridor that looked as though it was just a simple passageway to the next location. We jumped out of our seats when two metal doors slammed down trapping us in the corridor, and if that wasn’t enough, the walls then started to close and we were seconds away from being crushed. We weren’t expecting this sort of action so we were totally unprepared and died instantly. On our second attempt however we used the rope bow, which can shoot a rope and lodge it into place on anything that is made from wood. Luckily for us there were some wooden beams overhead which allowed us to attach the rope and climb to safety.
Click for larger imageThere are plenty of situations similar to this one in Dark Messiah, including trapping a Pao Kai dragon. It’s a spectacular sequence of events, but we’re not going to tell you how it’s achieved as it would spoil the fun. Let’s just say that we needed the help of the Ubisoft staff in order to kill it - Yep okay, we cheated.
In Dark Messiah you’ll often find yourself in situations where there appears to be no escape, but by quickly surveying the surroundings you’ll see levers on the walls, wooden beams or walkways which could be used to hoist yourself up, chains that can be climbed to leave that area, or even boxes that need to moved to reveal secret passageways. Dark Messiah is full to the brim with this type of puzzle solving and it accurately manages to keep the balance between frantic action and more placid activities.