Dark Messiah of Might and Magic Previews

Three new hands-on previews for Ubisoft and Arkane Studios’ Dark Messiah of Might and Magic have surfaced on the ‘net. The first is at GameSpot:

On more than one occasion, we found ourselves hastily opening our inventories to quickly use healing potions, but in general, we gave as good as we got with some fancy swordplay. Moving in different directions while attacking causes Sareth to swing his weapon around. You’ll swing your sword from side to side when strafing left and right, while backpedaling will ready your sword for a thrust. You can also cut ropes supporting environmental traps, like a bundle of logs we cut free from a wall mounting to pummel the orcs. In addition, the kick attack not only quickly stuns enemies, but also pushes them into environmental hazards, such as bottomless pits or jagged beds of spikes that orcs like to keep lying around in their storerooms for some reason.

The second is at Games Radar:

If you’ve ever played Bushido Blade – a classic PSone samurai sword-fighter, where skilled bladesmiths could perform one-slash kills – you’ll know the kind of strategic, thoughtful violence to expect from Dark Messiah. You can almost feel the weight of the weapon in your hand, but this doesn’t interfere with the high-action pace. Instead it encourages creative battling, instead of mindless sword-waving.

And the third is at PALGN:

In addition to using your environment, weapons and magical abilities, gamers also have access to more powerful abilities after their power gauge is filled. You are rewarded throughout the game by going into combat and killing enemies, by force or otherwise. Once this gauge is full, you can unleash some devastating skills. We found that after fighting a few enemies more strategically our gauge filled up meaning that we were able to run into the next fight, hold down the attack button, let go and then it was only seconds later that we watched our character follow through with an awesome decapitating slice leaving the enemy’s head rolling across the floor. While these special skills seem to be an excuse for an easy kill, just watching them in motion and getting to the point to pull them off is ever so rewarding. Another satisfying feature of combat appears when an enemy has been knocked to the ground, and you’re given the chance to hold down the attack button and pull off a nice finishing move, such as impaling two daggers into the chest and watching your enemies quiver in pain.