The movement of your character as he walks runs and jumps also feels suitably weighty, almost as if you can feel that heavy suit of armour weighing down on your keyboard. Another nice touch is the ability to kick enemies back. This can prove extremely useful in the midst of a battle, helping you to keep your foes at a reasonable distance. There is also a certain amount please to be had running up behind a goblin and kicking him in the backside, watching him tumble over the ledge.

Combat is further enhanced by the excellent environmental physics provided courtesy of the still excellent source engine. From simple things such as kicking an enemy into a fire and watching him run around screaming to a fiery death, or slamming him up against a conveniently placed rack of spikes to an all to sudden end. Then there are the more complex traps, often attached by a rope that can either be slashed by a blade, or shot with an arrow from distance, reigning down disaster upon an unsuspecting enemy. Of course, there are always ledges with barrels to be toppled, broken or smashed. This interactivity makes the whole affair seem more ‘real’ although many of the traps/spikes/barrel type elements are too often repeated. It would have been good to see more variety in the way you can use the environment. All of these elements combine to create a rewarding experience, the end result of which is that Dark Messiah has the kind of combat experience that Oblivion could only dream of.

However, that is where any comparisons with the RPG behemoth end. Much has been made of Dark Messiah’s attempts at including RPG elements into the mix. However in the way the game play’s, it is much more an FPS with swords, than an RPG. Don’t go in expecting the large open ended environments of Oblivion, or being able choose between multiple quests, or any kind of freeform ‘go anywhere, do anything’ game play. For the most part Dark Messiah is a pretty linear affair. This doesn’t make it a bad game, as it provides more than enough satisfaction in other areas, but any comparison with the RPG’s of this world would be mistaken.

This doesn’t mean Arkane haven’t expanded on the old FPS/action style template. They have incorporated a hybrid RPG style character development system, whereby you can develop your character to specialise in certain things, such as Magika, Marksmanship or Stealth, or be a jack of all trades – however just keep in mind that ‘a jack of all trades is master of none’. Development is achieved through the awarding of skill points, through the completion of game objectives and/or missions that you can then spend on upgrading your various skills. The variety is good, and as mentioned above you can general fall into one of a few categories. Wizards have an array of spells to use, from the obvious, such as fireballs (which look great as your character moulds them between his hands) and health regeneration, to the more imaginative, such as being able to shrink your enemy, and then step on them like a bug!