Dark Messiah of Might and Patchware review...

[Thoran]

RANT MODE ON:

So in the prior thread I posted about crashing issues with the game, and even with all the updates I could get... the game still crashes. Up to chapter 11 it was only once an hour or so, but in chapter 11 and 12 it's crashing almost every time the map changes. Of course it's not an ordinary crash... because in order to retry loading the next map you need to go through a lengthy process, reboot the computer (because when it crashes it messes up the graphics card so you can't do anything until you reboot), restart the game (it takes forever just to get to the main menu), reload your last save game (which takes forever and isn't even on the level you want), THEN try to get the next level to load (which takes forever and in the last two chapters has been a 50/50 proposition at best).

My recommendation is avoid this game... it is far below Valve quality, and I think is going to damage their reputation (guilt by association). Even when it's running properly the game isn't stellar... maps are decent but combat is weak (very detached feeling... you swing and most of the time can barely tell if you got a hit or not), plot is soo teen-hokey ("oh baby... you're such a MAN!") I'm surprised they don't have a porn soundtrack (boom chicka-chicka boom).

It's the worst game I've been sucked into buying in many years... all because I trusted Valve's rep and figured "it's source... it'll be solid". Well it's NOT.

When it's fully patched it may be worth getting... but it'll still be one more patchware crap release. As long as we keep putting up with this shoddy business model they'll keep doing it. Grrr...

[Luvian]

I think you're letting your anger cloud your judgement. The game is pretty good quality, and I haven't had that much fun in a long time.

My brother too experienced the crashes. About one every hour, but then again he played the game at release, patches might have fixed that already I don't know. Personally I only got 2-3 crashes in 12 hours or so of play.

[WSBoaBoa]

Have not had any of the game crashes that the original posted has, however I will have to agree the game is nothing special and I would not write to anyone recomending it unless they are a first person shooter junky. Low and behold if someone picks this title up in mistaking it for an RPG of old...

[Luvian]

It certainly isn't an rpg, a simple glance at the back of the box should have extablished this. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Thoran]

Yup I was angry... but I don't think it was clouding my judgement. I normally would shy away from games that have this many issues, because I don't want to pay 50 bucks for a game I then get to be a member of the debug team on.

Today I finished the game up, and thankfully didn't have any crashes over the 4 or so hours. What I did get more of is the reason the game isn't that great even if it never crashed. I gotta admit that some of the levels were very well done... what one reviewer thinks of as "unintiutive" I consider a plus... the game is linear but the level design did a good job of hiding that (the necropolis was one example of a very well done level). On the other hand, the melee combat was mostly unsatisfying... occasionall providing some decent feedback but too often being very repetitive and uninteractive... click, click, click until the bad guy is dead, don't expect to have any feedback regarding if you connected on most of your swings. The ending plot was pathetic, "multiple endings" in their book means dubbing SLIGHTLY different vocals over identical visuals... and lets not do anything like tie up loose ends like the female interest relationships.

I stand by my assessment... this was no valve quality game, and I'm sure they're not happy their engine is attacked to this half lemon (even though there were some bright spots).