The Dark Messiah of Might and Magic Demo is HOT HOT HOT!

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic has a single-player demo out. After a few download problems with GameDaily.com, I had to go to Fileplanet.

My first impressions: the demo is short, but packed full of action goodness. Players get to test out a little bit of everything. This is a true FPS and RPG hybrid. In the demo the player is only introduced to the first few skills in each class, but players can see the full skill trees. There is definitely a lot of potential!

The combat is fast and engaging. Players don't just spam the attack button, unless they want to watch the enemies parry endlessly. Kicks, stuns, and attacks of opportunity are key. Along with daggers and swords, the environment itself is a weapon. Kick enemies into spikes, throw crates at them, fling them into fires, or whatever a player can come up with. All are valid strategies, but could become boring if overused in the final game.

The only question mark while playing the demo was how strong the single player story will be. The demo followed no reasonable storyline, and ended up just being a couple action sequences tied together. The demo starts in the tutorial area and then whisks the player away to some caverns; a splash screen detailing "Several months later...". Hopefully there will be more of a plot in the final release.

In conclusion; I'm drooling over this game's vivid environments, intense combat, and potential for a stellar fantasy FPS/RPG multi-player experience.

Update: 8 Jul, 2007 - Edited post and applied labels.