The storyline of Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: Elements follows a young apprentice, Sareth, to the wizard Phenrig. The game starts off with you, Sareth, being sent on a trial mission to raid a temple in search of a magical crystal. Upon returning the crystal to Phenrig, you are then asked to take it to another wizard in the city of Stonehelm. In order to help you on your journey, the spirit of a woman named Xana takes up residence inside your head (trust me, it's even worse than you think). Upon delivering the crystal, guess what? You're sent to find ANOTHER artifact, the Skull of Shadows. Soon after receiving your new quest, Stonehelm comes under attack by necromancers and their undead armies. It becomes clear that the necromancers are after the Skull of Shadows as well. From this point on, Sareth, along with Xana and a few new friends, race against the necromancers to reach the skull. Why? Don't ask so many questions! Just do it because the wizard-like dude told you to!
I won't spoil the amazing and completely unpredictable twists in the story just in case you happen to play it at some point, but a number of "surprises" arise throughout the story which leave you wondering who exactly the good and bad guys really are. This perspective is really the only thing I liked about the otherwise boring and cliché story. The game gives you a few "choices" which affect what ending you get to the game, but honestly Elements does a terrible job of letting you know that it's a choice at all. In most cases you'll unknowingly choose a course of action just thinking that it's the only way to continue along the story's path.
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| Umm so let me get this straight, you get the crystal, and I get a woman living inside my head? |
The game's characters are just as flat and boring as the story. You have the wise, yet oblivious wizards, the female companion that begins to fall for you for no apparent reason, and the overly evil nemesis with no real plan to speak of. Oh, and then there's Xana. Xana is the worst, most annoying character in the entire game, and she's stuck in your head! Nearly everything you do is met with either a condescending remark or an extremely thinly veiled innuendo. In fact, so many of Xana's lines involve innuendo that I would almost swear a twelve-year-old boy wrote her character.
Elements's gameplay isn't much better than its story. Players move around in a First-Person perspective and explore 10 levels facing different enemies and finding new weapons and armor. The game's combat is extremely repetitive with only two different types of attacks. What is likely the biggest pleasure of the game, however, is the fact that you have the ability to kick enemies away from yourself. This may not sound like much at first, but the joy of kicking an unsuspecting enemy off a cliff, or into a fire trap, or onto spikes, or any of the other environmental hazards strewn throughout the levels is undeniable, especially after the monotony of hacking and slashing away at one of the whole 10 different enemies in the entire game.
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| Oh look, another black knight... |
Making combat even more boring, the enemy AI in the game is terrible. I played through the game as an assassin, meaning I had the ability to sneak around and kill from the shadows. In many cases I would "sneak" right up to an enemy who was facing another enemy, engaged in conversation with his pal only to stab him, then "sneak" around to the other guy as he just stands there still talking, oblivious to his bleeding comrade on the ground in front of him and finish him as well.
It's not just the enemy AI that's terrible either. I came across many "scripted" events (events that are pre-programmed to happen automatically upon entering a certain area) that went wrong. At one point, a dragon was supposed to swoop down and kill a mage that would drop an item I needed for my collection. Unfortunately, the "scripted" dragon swooped down, hit a wall, got all confused, and just flew in circles as the mage chased it around on the ground. I had to kill the poor guy myself in order to continue on my way!
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| The zombie in the back there must have forgotten what he was doing... |
Other than fighting, Sareth will spend his time climbing and jumping from platform to platform. This maneuvering is made easier by the addition of another of the game's scant positives, the rope bow. With this bow, Sareth can fire an arrow at any wooden surface which sprouts a rope upon impact. With this tool, Sareth can reach ledges and other areas which may hide secrets. Speaking of secrets, Elements has two types of collectable items hidden throughout the levels. The first item type are relics, which after they are all found unlock a special ring for use in the multiplayer portion of the game. The second type of collectables are weapons and armor. These items can be equipped by the player in order to gain bonuses.
Unfortunately, weapons and armor go along with a major weakness in Elements, the class system. When the player begins the game he or she is asked to choose between four different classes. This choice will affect the entire game as weapon types are limited to use solely depending on class. This means that if you choose to be a wizard, any daggers, bows, armor, anything that isn't a robe or staff is off limits and won't even appear in your inventory when you find them. Each class has its own skill tree, but you don't get to choose from different skills to customize your character, there is a set 15 skills for each class which unlock one at a time as the player gains levels. In fact, the gain of experience upon killing enemies is the only RPG-like element in the game.
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| Unfortunately for you, lightning is one of the few skills I have! |
I've previously hinted at it, but Elements is a glitch and bug-ridden experience. Not only did I encounter bugged scripted events, but I often fell through the ground, randomly took damage with no enemies nearby, and at one point I jumped onto a rope hanging from a beam which then proceeded to pull me upwards through the ceiling as the beam started moving for no apparent reason. Rarely are these bugs game-breaking, but there are so many of them that they become extremely annoying. Frame rate issues also pop up from time to time when more and more enemies appear on screen.
Elements's graphics aren't doing much for it either. At many points I felt like I was playing a very old PC game on its highest resolution, and on a computer much more powerful than the game required. Textures are flat and muddy, characters aren't nearly as blocky as one would expect, but they don't look great either. The graphics overall are more akin to those found at the beginning of the Playstation 2 and Xbox generation of consoles.
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| Oh wow, look how realistic the horse's mane is! |
The game has a multiplayer component, but for this review the mode is completely omitted as absolutely nobody was playing the game online when I tried to give it a shot.
While Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: Elements definitely has its fair share of problems (and more), I still got some enjoyment out of playing it. Luckily, the game only lasts for around 10 hours (wow, it's sad that this is a good thing), so you won't get as tired of the game's repetition as you could if it were a longer adventure. Overall though, the game was lackluster and made me glad that I only spent $3 on it. I can't really recommend this game to anyone, unless you really have nothing else to play.
Amulets and Ale Rating:
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