Messiah Review

(hmmm) I wonder, how does the N64 reviewer end up reviewing a PC game? Heh, who knows. Well, here goes! The Earth has changed. It smells like a toilet and it looks even worse than it smells. Bob, our hero on this adventure, has been sent to Earth - by God - to clean it up because of the fact that it's got into really bad shape. God also thinks it will help build character in Bob because it is a big job. Bob argues he has enough character... Bob is slightly reluctant about going on this mission because he thinks it isn't going to be any fun. So, he asks if someone else could go. Not having any choice in the matter, he gets blasted off to Earth to start his mission.

The planet has basically gone to the dogs. The leaders of Earth no longer care about the people. Even personality and knowledge are just a dollar symbol away. Life has become a cheap commodity and, as a whole, the planet has completely gone off the rails. Money and brutality seem to be the new religion.

The object of Messiah isn't a 100% clear to me. I mean, I know what I'm doing in the game and how to go about it. But as to the final goal - your guess is as good as mine! From what I can gather, You are an angel called Bob, who's main goal is to clean up the toilet know as Earth. The main method Bob uses in his fight to clean up Earth is his ability to take over another humans' body by possessing them and jumping into that persons' immortal soul. After the possession, Bob takes on all the skills of that person. For example, if you become a guard, you can use a gun, and zoom in on people - picking them off like a sniper. There are plenty of different characters to take over, and believe me, they are all necessary to perform certain tasks. Certain rooms have different levels of access, which usually mean only high ranking officers can enter. Try not to get noticed as Bob. If any of the guards spot you, you'll get picked off straight away.

When Messiah has loaded, The game will load the main menu. From here, you can choose whether you would like to play a game, change your options such as the control, video or sound settings, Or watch the introduction to the game. When you are navigating through the menus, the up and down arrow keys will change which option is highlighted. By pressing the enter key you will select that highlighted option. If, however, you would like to go back to the last screen, you need to press the Esc key. After choosing play game, Messiah will ask you if you would like to start a New Game or Load a Game. Choosing New Game will allow you to choose a difficulty setting at which you game will begin. As in most other games, you are able to change the default control keys. You do this by going to control set-up in options. You are also able to configure video device including the adjustment of screen resolution. You do this by going into the video settings. There are three difficulty modes in Messiah. These are, Easy(Disciple), Normal(prophet), Difficult(Messiah).

One of the most important thing to know about Bob is his cone of possession. On easy, Bob can posses someone from any angle - his cone of possession is all the way round the opposition. On medium, It is slightly narrower, Bob can only posses from the sides or back. But on Difficult, Bob can only posses from the back due to the cone of possession being very narrow. I bet you can imagine how hard that can be if they spot you. After all, I bet they ain't just going to just stand there and let you get on with it are they. :0)

Messiah is an extremely entertaining game graphically and audibly. I don't think you will be disappointed. It does look really nice!! But due to the fact I still have a dodgy old Voodoo2(lol) - I can't comment as to how good it really gets. If you are that curious you know the best cure. BUY IT. Hmm, when I saw the intro I have to admit, graphically I thought it looked like it had been based around something from the blade runner theme but with out the rain, sort of. The buildings are a lot shorter though. But it is a futuristic industrial world. I'm sure you remember the Blade runner PC game? Messiah has that sort of mood and graphical style about it I suppose. Obviously there will be a lot of differences, but I think that's the best way I could possibly describe the graphics. After all, there is a limit to how well graphics can be described by the written word, don't you think?

I like this game a hell of a lot! It took me a while to get into it. But after messing around for a while, I soon got to grips with it. I have to admit, whenever I play Messiah, I usually play for a couple of hours, at least! I personally think it's a really cool game. I mean after all, it's not everyday you find a game where you can perform a violent take-over of a Rat's soul. Different, eh? I can without a doubt, recommend this game. If you haven't got it, you need to buy it!