RecommendedSteam player
The Adventures of Sir Kicksalot Deathboot in the Land of the Conspicuously Placed Spike RacksShow moreShow less
10.8 hours at review325 people found this helpful
Dark Messiah of Might & Magic
Dark Messiah of Might & Magic centers on direct first-person fights, with swords, stealth and sorcery as distinct approaches. The offer is ≈ $7.51 at 
Kinguin, so weigh it against your budget and note that the Steam PC listing includes both single-player and multiplayer. The description calls out a Crusade mode for up to 32 players and five classes. Language support may also matter to your decision: Steam lists English, German, French, Italian and Spanish as supported languages. At $9.99 on Steam, compare ≈ $7.51 at Kinguin directly against that price; the game's defining combination is first-person melee, stealth and sorcery.
KinguinDark Messiah of Might and Magic PC Steam CD Key-25%from~ $7.51(~ €6.69)Save $2.48 vs SteamBuy nowAll-time low ~ $2.29across Steam & third-party stores
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Price History
Past 36 months · Updated dailyHistorical Low~ $2.492023-10Current Low Across Stores~ $9.99Steamvs. Historical Low+301%
Prices cover Steam and 39 authorized stores; only legitimate offers are counted. The chart shows weekly market-wide lows and Steam's official price across the past 36 months.
01About Dark Messiah of Might & Magic
Dark Messiah of Might & Magic blends action-RPG progression with first-person combat in a dark fantasy setting. Swords, stealth and sorcery offer different ways to fight, while character development unlocks new attacks and spells. Steam player reviews: 89% positive from 9,386 reviews. The Steam PC listing includes single-player and multiplayer. Listed interface languages are English, German, French, Italian and Spanish. Release date: October 24, 2006.
Credits
DIRECTOR
Raphaël Colantonio
game designer
Composer
Sonic Mayhem
Developer
Arkane Studios
Publisher
Ubisoft
Lowest recorded in 36 months
$2.492023-10-26 · SteamBase game · same records as the chart above; USD history, not a regional Steam low.Language support
| Language | Interface | Subtitles | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Yes | — | — |
| French | Yes | — | — |
| German | Yes | — | — |
Show 2 more languages
| Language | Interface | Subtitles | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Italian | Yes | — | — |
| Spanish | Yes | — | — |
Steam PC edition data · 2026-10-20
02Before you buy
Play modes
The Steam PC listing includes single-player and multiplayer. The description specifies a Crusade mode for up to 32 players.
Combat and progression
The description features first-person melee, stealth and sorcery, with 12 large levels and over 30 weapons.
Languages
English, German, French, Italian and Spanish are listed as supported languages on Steam.
03Frequently asked questions
How many levels are described?
The description specifies 12 large levels.
Does it have multiplayer?
Yes. The Crusade mode supports up to 32 players and offers five complementary character classes.
What combat styles are available?
The description presents swords, stealth and sorcery as different ways to fight.
Popular Steam reviews
Native-language selection · 10 reviewsSelected helpful reviews in this language show both recommendations and criticisms. This selection does not represent the overall positive rating; opinions reflect the version reviewed.
Not recommendedSteam player
Game itself is great. But steam version crashes every 10 minutes.Show moreShow less
12.9 hours at review73 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
Better than Avowed. But seriously, a good game for its time. With the current state of modern games, I'm playing old games instead and keeping my money in the bank.Show moreShow less
3.5 hours at review298 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
Probably the most I've been conflicted on recommending a game. On one hand, you have an immersive sim that a lot of care and attention has been put into. It's clearly ahead of its time with what the developers tried to do with gameplay and environment interactions. There's some light RPG elements in the mix which let you level up the combat style you enjoy using the most and thus, in theory, provide a variety of ways to approach combat in. On the other, you've got a lot of issues that don't get highlighted enough in the reviews. The combat system is ridiculously unresponsive and lacks feedback. The atrocious difficulty scaling further highlights its shortcomings. It makes the main focus of the game frustrating. Enemy animations and attacks have not received the same attention that the player character's animations have, which are some of the most authentic I've seen, especially in a game from the same generation as Dark Messiah. Most often, you will either feel as if you got hit through your block, while an enemy was facing away from you or while you weren't even inside of their attack range. There's also this prevailing sense of lag that worms its way through anything your character does. Swap to a new weapon, and watch an unskippable flourish during which you're entirely vulnerable. Preform an attack, watch and wait until your character's hands get back into their default position, and then wait a second or so before the game can record any subsequent input regarding attacking or blocking. You can't hold your mouse button to keep attacking, nor can you queue up inputs—the game just wont acknowledge you while you're in this cooldown-like state, so you're out of luck even when you're clicking literally right before the attack window opens again. This wouldn't be bad if there was any visual indicator to let you know this is the case, but it seems to be completely unintentional and is made even worse on the higher difficulties. Some will level the same criticism against the way the game handles player movement, but I believe it's unjustified as it's something that actually enhances immersion—providing you with a greater sense of your character's body and prompting you to pay closer attention to the environments you're in. On the easiest difficulty ("Normal"), the game is just too easy. On the difficulties above (Hard and Hardcore), the enemies' health and damage are inflated to the point where the vast majority will two-hit kill you, while hurting very little from most of your attacks, nullifying the whole point of choosing a skill tree and leaving you with just spamming the tested and true method of leveling physical combat and kicking enemies into fire, spikes or off of ledges. The game is also unpredictably unstable, whether it's trying to get it to run in the first place or having it crash at seemingly random points. Story is alright. More interesting than it seems and than people give it credit for. Some memorable characters, too. Unfortunately, it's all filled with too many cliches and suffers from such surface level writing that it can't hope to stand out. The same can be said of the visuals and the music—they're not bad, but look and sound as if they could come from any fantasy setting. Level design I found to be pretty good. Exploration was fun due to the great attention to detail and the abundance of secrets placed within the levels, but again, most of the locations lacked any strong identity of their own. In the end, I understand why Dark Messiah is loved by many, but after beating the game, it makes less sense than the mixed reception critics received it with upon release. When the Steam reviews are sitting at 91% positive, with no real discussion of the game's faults happening, which are pretty severe the moment you try playing on anything above the easiest difficulty, you can't help but wonder, and it's why I can not in good conscience recommend it. Maybe in a very specific way, where your first playthrough is on Normal, and then through a mod which adds New Game+ you go give the harder difficulties a try... But, at that point, we're talking about two playthroughs of a ~20 hour-long game, one of which is possibly a bore due to its easiness while the other's a frustrating nightmare. That seems like a lot of time and work just to try and get the bare minimum of what I'd call an 'enjoyable expereince' out of it. Still not as bad as playing Pathfinder: Kingmaker for almost 180 hours, only to not finish it and hope for a more entertaining second run... but, I digress. Don't make the same mistakes as I did with that game, is what I'm trying to say. Anyways, back to Dark Messiah: recommending it becomes even harder when you take into account other games that have come out in the same genre. It has preceded Bioshock by a whole year, so some missteps in all its ambition can be forgiven, but Deus Ex came out 6 years prior. Bloodlines too, a game with similar combat related issues that got carried by how good the rest of it was, something Dark Messiah's other elements can't boast of. Hell, Arx Fatalis, the developer's previous game, works a lot better, just like their subsequent work in the same vein. You'd have a much more enjoyable time playing any of them, unless kicking people into spikes and off of ledges is all you're looking for in a game. 5.3/10Show moreShow less
20.4 hours at review66 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
I'm just re-installing this little gem as I write this, VERY fun game. This game is like a Pizza. The plot is cheesy and the gameplay is meaty. Do you like pizza? Then you should buy this game.Show moreShow less
17.7 hours at review219 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
Really tried to see what people find in this game. Could not. Unresponsive, messy, glitchy controls. I can't even count how many times I have made a heavy attack instead of impaling enemy on the floor. Enemy animations glitches out, with hits sometimes coming at you without them moving or when they are in a constant cycle of flinching from your attacks. Ridiculously, impact you make with a kick is fully dependant on what is behind enemy the moment you kick them. I just can't describe how much this boggles me. I know that this is supposed to be fun, with making enemy slip, kicking them down the ledges etc., but with how inconsistent everything is - hit boxes, animations, result of the same actions, everything I just don't know how are you supposed to have fun, without knowing if your ingenious trap will work or will flop completely. Best way to deal with any enemy is to lure him in front of spikes, block their attack and kick em. Works with spikes, flames, ledges. Gets old very quickly. If you try to take it as a normal slice and dice rpg - don't. It is truly terrible. Attacks have no impact, animations bug out all the time, fights are both frustrating and unpredictable. Just don't. And don't even get me started on facehuggers and other enemies without human hitbox. On hardcore, literally the only thing you can do is just circle around them for ages, very slowly wittling em down, dying every time you miss two attacks. Pure fun. If you want to have nice fun time with physx - just play Half life 2. Also I have to mention game crashing every 10-20 minutes, and abundance of troubleshooting help tips don't help the problem any. Overall, horrible experience. Skip it, don't repeat my mistake.Show moreShow less
4 hours at review39 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
Demon girl offered me her body to form an unholy alliance. When I refused her, she set me on fire and screamed "I'll get your soul!" Then my PC crashed from CPU overheating. 10/10 best dating sim on SteamShow moreShow less
11.4 hours at review164 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
Wanted to give this a try at the recommendation of a friend, so I grabbed it on sale. Unfortunately, it doesn't want to run at all. Research revealed that it's a common problem with the Steam version. Buy at own risk.Show moreShow less
0.2 hours at review38 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
One of the best games I (re)played this year. In fact, if not for what Valve did to VTMB, I'd be happy to sing GABEN's praises for Valves creation of the source engine. ++Deep and well thought out melee combat system, that rewards players that look to use their surroundings to their advantage. ++Interesting story that's not the usual save the world because you have to business. ++ Excellent level design that doesn't force you to fight everything in the game if you're the stealthy type (Although with the kick function, I'm not sure if anyone wants to play stealth anyway) ++ High replay value to see the different endings and the different choices available to you in the story as well as the different play styles. ++ Demon for a conscience and guide. - Short, so very short. (Although I assume 14-15 hours is ok these days...) - limited RPG leveling system. Overall this is an excellent game well worth the asking price.Show moreShow less
14.3 hours at review130 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
Another unfortunate negative review for a classic and truly awesome game, that is a terrific experience... if you can get it to run first, followed by taking a deep breath and trudging on from the countless random crashes. If you do have the courage to take up the challenge of making the game work, make use of the following settings, this is what helped me the most, but I still experienced plenty of crashes: 1) Right click on your Dark Messiah game in your Steam library, 2) Open properties 3) Set launch options console tab 4) Enter the following: -w your screen width -h your screen height -dxlevel 90 -heapsize 2097152 +datacachesize "128" New Players: Dark Messiah of Might & Magic is an epic adventure RPG that has you play as Sareth, a bright student of the wizard Phenrig who is tasked with finding a crystal that is to be delivered to the wizard Menelag in Stonehelm. On this adventure, you can decide on Sareth's skill sets, whether it be a melee warrior, an archer, assassin, wizard or a mixture of some. The fate of Sareth and his destiny also lies in your hands. Review: I was highly surprised to give this game a run again after more than a decade to find that it's still amazingly fun to play, even with the clunky combat and movement. Around the time that this got released, it faced heavy and superior competition from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which included an open-world, but also much better combat and more options for pretty much everything. Nonetheless, Dark Messiah has got a special charm that can tickle that urge to attempt multiple playthroughs just to see what other builds feel like or what will happen if you change some of the few choices. Game play: If you're a fantasy nut, then playing a game in first person mode where you can do magic, hack and slash with swords and use daggers to assassinate foes is a thrilling experience. The game allows you to customize your character how ever you please, but in a limited sense. Unlike most RPG's you don't actually gain experience, instead you obtain skill points that are only done by completing specific goals that are not clearly mentioned in the game. To get the maximum, you might have to follow a guide, but honestly, trial and error is just as efficient as you won't be lacking skill points if you commit to one of the main build options. Another unlike factor is the inventory and item system. There's no gold or buying items, which means you'll be relying on exploring and finding stuff. In the beginning phase, this is quite annoying, because enemies can be rather tough, but you are encouraged to make use of the environment to have an easier time. Secrets are everywhere, but not all secrets contain good stuff. Also, since you're selective with skill points, you'll mostly pick up useless crap that you'll never use, which can be rather disappointing. I've played and replayed the game three times, and during this particular playthrough I went melee warrior, with healing and burglary. I had a great time finding secrets, but spent half of the game without a decent sword as my skill points lacked the strength or critical hit to use the good stuff. Fortunately, almost every encounter has some environmental advantage, so utilizing that assists in progressing with mediocre loot. Enemies are plentiful, but they generally approach you the same way. Melee ones will get up close, so block, freeze or kick those. Ranged ones will fight at a distance, so close in on them when able and magic ones are similar to range. Some are just stronger with regards to health and damage, but in essence, you'll be fighting different model enemies, with slight differences, but ultimately the same. This doesn't make the game any less satisfying to play though. You'll often find that head on, windmill, flurry attacks have little to no effect during battle, so it's better to time heavy attacks to try and knock them off their feet. Nothing, however beats kicking an enemy over a ledge, especially an orc hearing it's screams echo in the distance... Graphics: For a 2006 game, and even in comparison to Oblivion, this game actually looks pretty good. Models are decently designed and unique, with even weapons and armor looking pretty cool. When wielding a fire sword, it actually shows the embers burning. Even the environment itself looks awesome, ranging from themes such as towns, sewers, dungeons, castles, caves and of course spider invested areas. Each have their own charm to add to the game. You can't expect too much nowadays, as this is an old game. Textures can be a bit blocky and gritty at times, but again, it adds to the charm. One negative to note is that the game is incredibly dark to the point where I almost always used my night-vision ability throughout the game. It's possible that my screen settings didn't mix well with the game (something I literally only thought of now being the problem, but if you do find the game to be a bit too dark, consider tuning your graphics driver settings, or just make peace and use the night-vision. It wasn't awful, but the back and forth vision change can be annoying at times. Story: An interesting bit of lore connected to this game is that it was influenced by the Heroes of Might and Magic franchise, with HOMAM 5 being the prequel to Dark Messiah. You'll hear the names Isabel and Kha-Beleth mentioned, both characters from HOMAM 5. The game's story is your typical hero on a quest adventure that includes finding some artifact, meeting a friend and possible romance partners and experiencing gains and setbacks as your character grows to become the ultimate hero. There is a slight tug of war between what you can say is "good" and "evil", but not as clear cut as it seems. You won't be faced with many choices that influences alignment, but there are two characters that will work on swaying you to their side, with the choice mostly being yours. This is not much of a spoiler, but you'll experience Xana early on who acts as your guide, and she's pretty awesome! Definitely a trademark for this game and a character you'll learn to "love". Conclusion: It's interesting to see how popular such old games can remain many years down the line. Having read some other reviews, it's clear that this game made a mark on many gamer experiences and having replayed the game, I can fully understand why. Although, the game is clunky and on modern systems crashes a lot, it kept me sucked in, wanting to find better loot, progressing in the story and see what other surprises wait me. It does deserve to be among the great classics of the past, and I'll happily revert my review if some fresh update could be given or even a remaster. Do play this game, if you don't mind spending some time trying to fix it.Show moreShow less
13.2 hours at review37 people found this helpful
Source: original Steam user reviews. Helpful votes are an archived snapshot, not live data. Last collected: 08/15/2026.