Question on Dark Messiah
Beladi Nasrallah
OK, so I came to the 8th level (out of 10). I escaped from the ruins
of the old palace, and came to the city of necromancers. I need to
take the Skull back from the necromancers' leader Arantir. I
infiltrated his quarters. My quest is to find his diary and other
stuff. And now the game presents me with an optional quest: to save
Leanne (the Alyx' sexy kind of chick) who was thrown into the Spider's
Pit. OK, so I go down, kill the monster and get Leanne back.
And I am already disappointed: Leanne tells me what to do and where to
go. I hate that ! I like to explore maps, and decide by myself where
to go. I am weak inside, and thus I cannot tolerate even a smallest
push. The sorcerer's woman, whose helping spirit is inside of me,
tells me that Leanne would only be drag on our progress and that I
should not have rescued and taken that bitch with me.
At this point I thought: "Wait ! The quest to save Leanne is
_optional_. She is probably not needed in the game anymore. So why
should I lug her around ?" (And this is the question to you, who have
played Dark Messiah). I can well complete the game without her.
OK, so now I go to the Portal (in order to get into the city
Stonehelm). Leanne is walking next to me. At a sudden inspiration, I
draw the sword and hit Leanna. She screems: "What are you doing ??"
But I hit her again and again. She falls dead. I am flabbergasted. The
game does NOT give me any message of the kind it used to do before,
like: "Leanne is dead, mission is failed". Actually, Leanne's body
lays on the floor, and it has the label "corpse" when I pass the
cursor over the body; it is the same label which the dead bodies of
the enemies have. I feel a little of remorse. However, the bitch is
dead. The sorcerer woman's spirit inside of me tells me: "Good
riddance !" I am wondering should I press on with the game without
Leanne, or go to the previous save with the alive Leanne, and continue
the game with her...
Beladi Nasrallah
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Messiah_of_Might_and_Magic :
"Saving Leanna is optional, but impacts the possible endings that the
player may receive."
The amount of detail is just right. It answers my question. But it is
not as detailed as to present a spoiler.
Shawk
Through most of the game you have had the option to be good or evil.
This is no different.
Beladi Nasrallah
The game was totally "on rails". I had no choice but to slash, burn
and kill everybody if I wanted to get to the end of the level. I had
no option to be good or evil in any situation.
Shawk
You quoted one such option in your reply to yourself. If you have short
term memory loss you have helpfully quoted it above.
I only played once and it was a while ago but I remember a couple of
such options scattered in the game including one in a church.
Werner Spahl
> I only played once and it was a while ago but I remember a couple of
> such options scattered in the game including one in a church.
Yeah, but they really didn't change anything much about the levels or the
things you had to do. Even the "different" endings used much of the same
movie except for some little bits here and there. They didn't even bother
to change the beam color when it would have been more appropriate :(...
--
Werner Spahl (sp...@cup.uni-muenchen.de) Freedom for
"The meaning of my life is to make me crazy" Vorlonships
Shawk
> On Sun, 4 May 2008, Shawk wrote:
>
>> I only played once and it was a while ago but I remember a couple of
>> such options scattered in the game including one in a church.
>
> Yeah, but they really didn't change anything much about the levels or
> the things you had to do. Even the "different" endings used much of the
> same movie except for some little bits here and there. They didn't even
> bother to change the beam color when it would have been more appropriate
> :(...
Can't disagree. As I said I only played it once. Quite enjoyed it IIRC
- shame they didn't make more of the options in that case. Shame more
games haven't tried to give you decisions that matter - I guess the cost
and development time is prohibitive.
Beladi Nasrallah
> Here is what I found athttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Messiah_of_Might_and_Magic:
-- SOME SPOILERS --
OK, so I opted to let Leanna live. In the fight which followed she
disappeared. The game gave message that she left for her own business.
OK, so I come outside the sewers and I have to fight the dragon, Kao
Pai (or something like this). Surprisingly, I killed him quickly. And
then I came to the castle. And what do I see... I see Leanna. She
looked unpresentable. And I had to fight her. Killing her was
unexpectedly easy. And I thought to myself: is this the alternative
development of the story if I save Leanna ?? There is nothing to the
"Leanna-is-saved" branch of the story. I am disappointed.
Now, a little offtopic. Before I went to the sewers, I had to fight
the undead cyclope. There were laypeople escaping and hiding. I tried
to kick the women, and I enjoyed it. They suffer so naturally, they
fall so naturally as well. After I kick them several times, they
finally hit the floor (or a stone), let some blood out and they are
dead. It looked so satisfying ! Why I am telling about it to you,
guys ? That's because Go Postal 3 will be released by the end of this
year, and it is based on the same Source engine licensed from
Valve !!! Now it is the game I am really looking forward to !
Beladi Nasrallah
and finished.
Frankly speaking, the ending is weak, and I am disappointed. I am the
person who never expects good stuff from the stuff which is already
good... and DM _was_ good. But I am dissapointed with how DM ended. It
looks to me like they rushed the game to publishing. There should be 8
endings, two of them whether you killed Leanna or not, 2 of them
whether you purged Xana or not, and 2 of them whether you gave the
Skull to your father or kept it for yourself.
I would like to complain. When I went into the crypt with the priest,
I was stripped of my health instead of having it topped up. Obviously,
I was a bad person. I was surprised: I thought I _was_ good one. But
now it explains why I was greated by undead Leanna; it appears I
killed her ! And I thought I did not kill her ! What a disappointment.
Lots of labor for nothing. Those bloody women. You can never be
certain with them. Oh well, man I am or not a man ? I have to regain
my composure and move on.
However, DM is still one of the most enjoyable games I ever played.
When the closing lines with the names of the developers came out, I
noticed most of them were French. Well, this explains the "dangeon"
atmosphere and the depth of immersion it produced.
Amen. Now I can concentrate on playing Stalker.