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MESSIAH By WILLIAM
BARKER They think they can play God, eh? Well, Mr. Big has sent this cherub to the mortal world to straighten things out, and while this annoyingly cute baby is, well, annoyingly cute, he's not all wide eyes and rosy cheeks. On the contrary, this diminutive freak is quite a schemester, with a bag of tricks that would put Duke Nukem to shame and an acid tongue worthy of, ahem, me. Shiny have been a little quiet of late, but Messiah is here, and while not being the Holy Grail one was expecting, it is still a very enjoyable title with innovative gameplay twists that said developers are so famous for. The game starts off with the camera centred on Bob, the main character and cherub extraordinaire, shooting down from the heavens like a mystic meteorite. The FMV is of a high quality and has that essential storytelling quality that makes viewing all the more interesting. After smashing through a few buildings he comes to a stop next to a cop and a maintenance worker. This is where things get interesting as Bob has a special ability known to those in the Parish as possession. Essentially this allows Bob to take over the physical being of a host, whether it be an engineer, a cop, a soldier, a pimp - the list goes on. This unique ability creates a game that is very open-ended, allowing multiple solutions to singular puzzles. To possess a humanoid you must simply jump into them creating a "bullseye" that creates a crackling of Holy lightning and discharges a pleasant sound. But there are rules to this fancy little game, oh yes - rules that make the dance much more complex. If you transmogrify into another being in full view of another person they will freak out and either try to eliminate you or call for help. Your options here are obvious.
Generally speaking if you need something done that involves a bit of travelling through levels, the pulling of levels or the moving of crates (which the game is apt to throw at you) shooting every bad guy in sight is not the smartest thing to do. You have to realise that the game is quite difficult, and often the best way to get past tricky situations is to exercise a bit of stealth. That said, however, there is always a time and a place for taking out the bad guys and there is quite a bit of shooting to be had in this game. You can also use hand-to-hand combat and there is even a headlock, which is particularly gruesome. There are many, many implements of destruction, ranging from puny pistols, to gauss guns and sniper rifles that will put holes in anything. There are some really weird and also helpful weapons too, such as the strange dart gun that doubles as a mobile helicopter doohickie. This allows the player to float down from higher areas without shattering one's shins in the process. This and other tools are often crucial to the completion of some levels, where you might need to use object Y with door A, then item Z with lift B. The visual style that Messiah aims for is quite utilitarian for the most part, and this fits in well with the neo-futuristic city in which the game unfolds. There are lots of grey steel catwalks, vats of industrial waste waiting silently for their next victim and some very impressive transparent glass floors. Lifts are in plentiful supply and always yield a surprise at the top. The level design and overall look is very polished, though the game isn't quite as impressive looking as say Quake 3. A dandy side-effect of this is the fact that the game will run on most systems - and in super-high resolutions on high-end machines to boot. The characters for the most part are
quite detailed and they move very realistically, their lifelike
idiosyncrasies making for some of the most impressive animation on the PC. There are
a huge amount of "actors" (as Shiny likes to call them) too - these
being the humanoids that Bob can transmogrify into. This
Another facet of the game for which Shiny should be commended is the AI, for which no other game comes close. Sure some of the really neat sections are scripted, but on the whole the peculiar situations you are placed in result in some smashing AI, rather than sloppy no-hopers that stand around and scratch their heads. Even when you have possessed a mortal being, others will be suspicious if you exhibit strange behaviour such as shooting a co-worker. Generally speaking this is a thinking man's
game, though that's not to say everyone can't enjoy this style of gameplay. If
you want flat-out action you'd be silly to pass up Soldier of Fortune, but
those who want a clever mix of gaming styles and that MDK style
eccentricity, Messiah is for you. A unique game that will provide weeks of
fun, Messiah is a pleasant departure from the usual genres - it's half
adventure, half action and a quarter bizarro.
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