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Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: Elements xbox360 Game Reviews
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: Elements
Critic Score
Metascore: 53 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
7.6 out of 10
based on 17 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 18 votes
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Rate this game

In Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: Elements, players are introduced to the dark and unforgiving world of Ashan, scarred by a bloody history and threatened by the apocalyptic prophecy of the Dark Messiah. The game sports a refined experience thanks to several improvements in gameplay, design and other technical aspects. Players embody the young hero Sareth and choose his evolution path to acquire spells, skills and abilities that will set his destiny. Experience Might and Magic like never before, with refined game mechanics carefully crafted for pad-controlled carnage, including a brand new lock-on feature and tweaked level design and game statistics. Explore three previously unreleased secret levels with new objectives, gameplay, and rewards. New multiplayer maps have been created exclusively for Xbox 360, while all other features have been completely remastered for an optimal Xbox Live experience, allowing you to play with up to 10 players. Enlist with the Humans or the Undead and choose to play as an archer, priestess, mage or knight. Make use of powerful and unique skills and spells on the battlefield, including powers such as meteor shower, berserk charge and rain of arrows. [Ubisoft]

PUBLISHER: Ubisoft
DEVELOPER: Annecy Studio
GENRE(S): First-Person Action, Role-Playing Game
PLAYERS: 32
ESRB RATING: M (Mature)
RELEASE DATE: February 12, 2008

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

88
Pelit (Finland)
A well-polished remake of the excellent action RPG from PC. It is only due to the far too simplified and illogical character class system that the new version falls slightly behind the original. [Jan 2008]
85
Game Informer
If you can put up with the game’s complete and total linearity and don’t mind a largely forgettable multiplayer offering, there is a ton of brutal amusement to be had with Dark Messiah’s excellent melee combat.
Read Full Review
60
Team Xbox
For a game that originally hit over a year ago, it’s surprising to see how rushed the console version feels. Still, if you’re hard up for adventure, you could do worse ... but you could do a whole lot better as well.
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60
EuroGamer
I love and hate Dark Messiah: Elements. For everything that's good about the combat intensity, the flexibility of the skill system, the quality of the puzzles and the brooding, engaging atmosphere, it's undone by massive technical problems.
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60
360 Gamer Magazine UK
The multiplayer seems to work well enough and we hope for some tasty downloadable content to coax us back in later in 2008. However, it’s a tough market out there right now for average fantasy fayre and as a single player game, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: Elements just doesn’t quite have the spark to stand out.
60
X360 Magazine UK
Poor dialogue and slightly dated graphics are made up for by thumping combat and comic battles. [Issue#30, p.92]
59
Xbox World 360 Magazine UK
Out-dated and out-gunned, Elements feels like a failure on 360. It may have been a hit on PC two years ago, but since then gaming has moved forward, leaving us wishing for a true sequel to Dark Messiah rather than this half-arsed port.
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58
Games Master UK
Just the combat would have been dumb fun. Sadly, too much clag gets in the way. [Feb 2008, p.58]
57
IGN
Tells a formulaic story atop repetitive gameplay and is troubled by frequent technical problems.
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53
Extreme Gamer
In translation from the PC it seems the evil porting gremlins have infected another PC-console port leaving gamers with experience that makes Dark Messiah really hard to love.
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50
Official Xbox Magazine UK
It's just a bit shallow, and technically flawed with it: the frame-rate is nowhere near as solid as you'd expect from a game that looks only "all right" and the physics system is prone to craziness. Despite all the time in development, it lacks polish. [Feb 2008, p.96]
50
DailyGame
A poorly executed game that suffers from just about every malady known to gaming, from bad plot to sketchy gameplay. Best to avoid this one entirely.
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50
VideoGamer
There's no denying that Dark Messiah has a certain bloody charm, with battles against numerous enemies being both challenging and rather gory. By the end though, things do become a little repetitive, and this prevents the game from being anything truly special.
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40
G4 TV
Dark Messiah is a frustrating title, since moments of fun are outweighed by long stretches of tedium.
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35
GameSpot
Nearly two years after its buggy debut on the PC, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic comes to the Xbox 360 with even more problems.
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30
GameSpy
The staggering lack of quality apparent in Dark Messiah of Might and Magic Elements has left us incredibly disappointed.
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20
1UP
Of all the painful aspects of Dark Messiah, the bulk of the problems lie with the controls. It feels like you're moving through a bowl of thick, hearty pea soup; simply walking through the game is exhausting.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now! The average user rating for this game is 7.6 (out of 10) based on 18 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Bill K. gave it a10:
There's some good extra content for the 360 version. I played the PC version and really liked ii a lot. I intended to pay through it again but never got around to it. So when this came out on the 360 I picked it up so that I could enjoy the extra content during my second play through. The stuff I did the first time were just as much fun the second time around (using different weapons and strategies changed the experience quite a bit) and the new 360 content is rad! Excellent version.

Jill D. gave it a10:
This is some serious fun. Don’t go into this game thinking that you’ll get the deepest, most complex of games. This has none of the complexity of past Heroes games. But it isn’t supposed to. This is the game for the rest of us, the one where you don’t have to gather a million resources just to have you butt wiped out 2 minutes into a battle. This is meant for a more instant type of gratification, and it excels there. For what it is, this game is perfect.

Amon S. gave it a10:
This is a treat. My computer is fairly old and not up to the system heavy requirements of most of today’s games. Thus, I was happy to find out that Dark Messiah would be released for the Xbox 360. Despite the 360’s vast library of games, this is surprisingly different than any game available. A bit dungeon crawler, a bit action, a bit adventure and a clear departure (but in a good way) from other games in the Heroes of Might and Magic universe. I can’t wait to try out the multiplayer mode!

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