Messiah

Rating:
Summary: Fantastically original and gorgeous to look at
Review: I've rarely seen a game where opinions are so sharply divided, but perhaps I can make it a bit clearer. First, many of the negative comments have to do with technical problems (from installation to crashes). Don't let that put you off: there's a patch that seems to solve all the serious problems. I had no issues at all with the latest version.

As for the game itself, all I can say is that I haven't been this engrossed in a game for years. You start off thinking it's a first-person shooter, a la Half Life, but soon (after dying a lot) you realize that you'll need to try something else. That's when the clever stealth side really emerges. It's not MGS-like sneaking around (yawn), but hiding in broad daylight *in other people*.

Once you get the hang of it (it's hard but fair), it's incredibly cool. It opens a whole new dimension of game play and lateral thinking. It also means that you can solve problem in any number of ways (possess a cop to shoot your way out, a prostitute to charm your way out, a rat to sneak your way out, etc.)

And of course the game looks fabulous, as technically impressive as Half Life but with Shiny's trademark lush sci-fi detailing (think MDK) and vivid hues and transparencies. If you find first-person-shooters a bit samey but want more action than Tomb Raider-like exploramas, this is the game for you. Beautiful, provacative, fast-moving and seductive. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Game!
Review: I've read alot about other peoples problems with this game, but I have had no problems at all, even without the patch! I have a Pentium Pro 200 Mhz processer, 96 megs of RAM, a 3D Blaster Savage 4 PCI 32 MB graphics card, and a Sound Blaster AWE 32 sound card. Even though my processor is slower than the minimum requirement, the game still runs great, and there isn't much loss of detail. I'm pretty surprised that my computer hasn't crashed with this game, because most games (Half-Life, Quake 3, etc.) will lock up.

As for the game play, the game is very enjoyable, even after you beat it. Possesing people and blending in with the croud is alot of fun, as well as jumping in someones back, picking up a flame thrower, and torching everything that moves! The replay value is great, since there is always more than one way to accomplish a task. If you like either being steathy, or shooting anything that moves, you'll enjoy Messiah.

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Game!
Review: I've read alot about other peoples problems with this game, but I have had no problems at all, even without the patch! I have a Pentium Pro 200 Mhz processer, 96 megs of RAM, a 3D Blaster Savage 4 PCI 32 MB graphics card, and a Sound Blaster AWE 32 sound card. Even though my processor is slower than the minimum requirement, the game still runs great, and there isn't much loss of detail. I'm pretty surprised that my computer hasn't crashed with this game, because most games (Half-Life, Quake 3, etc.) will lock up.

As for the game play, the game is very enjoyable, even after you beat it. Possesing people and blending in with the croud is alot of fun, as well as jumping in someones back, picking up a flame thrower, and torching everything that moves! The replay value is great, since there is always more than one way to accomplish a task. If you like either being steathy, or shooting anything that moves, you'll enjoy Messiah.

Rating:
Summary: Short but Sweet
Review: If you can get this game up and running (for me it took two patches to work with my graphics card) then you will find this game to be a rare treat. Shiny have managed to skilfully combine several genre's, so that stealth, action, puzzles (admittedly few) and platform elements all merge into an enthralling experience. The nature of the gameplay means that there are multiple ways of completing each area, such as posessing people as camoflage or jumping into a heavy cop and blowing everyone away.

What mostly hit me throughout this game was the quality of the graphics. I own an Athlon 800 with a GeForce card, and even in 1024X768 resolution the level of detail was stunning without affecting the frame-rate. Each area of the environment has been lavished with attention to detail and colour, and coupled with the excelent ambient sound effects and music the atmosphere is at turns both dark and humourous. Indeed, a lot of the enjoyment with this game is aesthetic. Its also extremely violent. You can possess someone, hurl them from a roof, break their legs and then force them to crawl on their twisted limbs. The harpoon gun pins enemies to walls where they writhe in agony. And if you manage to posess a behemoth, you can mash peoples heads to jelly with your bare hands. The fact that a baby in a nappy is inflicting this punishment adds a further disturbing element. But this is Shiny, and their trademark wacky sense of humour is ever-present, lightening the mood. The only downsides to this game are that it is over far to quickly, and that it is ludicrously difficult, bordering on frustrating in places (although I did play it on the hardest difficulty level). But don't let this put you off - the open ended gamplay of this game makes it highly replayable, and it feels great to beat a tough section. In short, a classic.

Rating:
Summary: Messiah
Review: Messiah is a third person game. Set in the future you play an angel called Bob sent from god to save the world from the bad humans. The angel is very small and weak, It can be easily killed, but it can posses any charecter it wants and take control of the charecter, Only after becoming someone it can carry weapons. The graphics and sound are average, charecter animation are not very impressive. Messiah's problems is that it is quite difficult, To posses someone you need to fly behind him and jump into his back and that is very hard to do so because of the third person camera angle. The game is quite short too.

Rating:
Summary: messiah, a truely great game
Review: messiah is in a genere of its own. It mixes awsome graphics with nice sounds and great AI. The power to posses people lets you be mulitple characters through out the game. I had lots of fun playing this game(the boss is extremely hard)

Rating:
Summary: Great Game!
Review: Messiah is simply a great action game! It has excellent graphics, sounds, controls, and atmosphere. I've read some reviews that claim it has a few bugs and problems with certain video and sound cards, but I have experienced no such problems whatsoever! I am using a Viper v770 ultra video card and a SoundBlaster Live audio card, and the game runs as smooth as Bob's butt. The game itself is very entertaining and it is a very unique experience from other action games. I highly recommend Messiah, especially if you enjoyed Half-Life and other such games.

Rating:
Summary: Good idea...
Review: Not for the faint of heart! It's a hard game to describe, but it's basically a 3rd-person view type of thing with lots of depth, if a wack ending.

You play an angel named Bob who is sent from Heaven to stop evil forces from taking over the Earth. How do you stop them? With your one lone ability: bodily possession. As Bob, you can do little else than flap around and be a target (and everyone is gunning for you). But when Bob inhabits a police officer or a mindless behemoth or a pimp, it's a whole 'nother ballgame. You then have the ability to slap, punch, kick, shoot and maim your way to the head honcho himself: Satan.

Lots of violence and mayhem, and a way-too-hard to figure out stretch of logistics (at some point you'll be going online to find out what the heck you should do next, only to find out you messed up six hours ago when you didn't get the BLUE I.D. card from the security guard at the power plant, only to find out you didn't save your game far enough to be able to manipulate backwards through the game.....ugh), I don't recommend it for people looking for a simply fun game.

Great graphics, great sound and incredible depth, but too hard for even more-than-casual gamers, and with too little a payoff.

Rating:
Summary: Good idea...
Review: Not for the faint of heart! It's a hard game to describe, but it's basically a 3rd-person view type of thing with lots of depth, if a wack ending.

You play an angel named Bob who is sent from Heaven to stop evil forces from taking over the Earth. How do you stop them? With your one lone ability: bodily possession. As Bob, you can do little else than flap around and be a target (and everyone is gunning for you). But when Bob inhabits a police officer or a mindless behemoth or a pimp, it's a whole 'nother ballgame. You then have the ability to slap, punch, kick, shoot and maim your way to the head honcho himself: Satan.

Lots of violence and mayhem, and a way-too-hard to figure out stretch of logistics (at some point you'll be going online to find out what the heck you should do next, only to find out you messed up six hours ago when you didn't get the BLUE I.D. card from the security guard at the power plant, only to find out you didn't save your game far enough to be able to manipulate backwards through the game.....ugh), I don't recommend it for people looking for a simply fun game.

Great graphics, great sound and incredible depth, but too hard for even more-than-casual gamers, and with too little a payoff.

Rating:
Summary: Exiting But Challenging
Review: The game is very exiting but also very difficult to figure out initially. The graphics are amazing and the 3D freeplay creates a real feeling of being in the game.

No rules, no limits, and no fear makes this game a must own.