Repossessed (Messiah (PC))

Member Name: 3rd Rock Satan

Product:	Messiah (PC)
Date:	22/01/01 (57 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Orginal story, some great action moments

Disadvantages: Gameplay can get repitive

Shiny always have a reputation to make off the wall and original games, Earthworm Jim, MDK and, more recently, Sacrifice. And as good as these games were (bar Earthworm Jim) they have failed to sell as much as they deserved. Obviously gamers prefer the safer, more normal mainstream games, which is a shame because Shiny's games are little gems.

Messiah is no exception. It has a weird concept (taking control of an angel called Bob, saving the now deadbeat planet Earth from a guy called Father Prime, while doing so possessing a range of people from police, engineers to pimp daddies) yet it the gameplay is familiar, it has that console platform type style.

Yes platform. There is a lot of jumping around from place to place (or flying around). There is also a lot of 'find right person to push button' 'puzzles'. This is not what you would come to expect from a game so delayed and so hyped up.

However sometimes playing Messiah is real good fun. Imagine for instance that you are in an area with police and Chots (sewer dwellers who don't like the police...at all). You could watch the battle commence or have some fun by possessing a police man, you could then help them with the fight or you could make him turn on another fellow officer. Great fun. I should point out though, that sometimes possessing someone can become difficult once you are spotted.

The graphics of the game set the dark futuristic tone well. Shiny made a new engine that renders detail in areas that are most needed and will sacrifice areas that you may not pay attention to. You will need a high end PC to get the most out of this game though; I didn’t experience too many problems with my PII450 and Voodoo2 card though.

I strongly recommend that you find the Messiah patch as well. I got this when it first came out and it was bugged to hell, crashing any place it pleased, however patch 2.0 sorts out this annoying
problem.

Although the gameplay can get repetitive Messiah is a joy to play, it has that zany Shiny touch, it also seems ironic that, there you are playing as an angel and causing all this violence but what do you expect? This was a game controversial from the start. Releasing a game called Messiah in 2000 is notable enough but the advertisement that Virgin put forward (Pope with a joint in his hand with the tagline 'What on Earth possessed you?') really sent people on their high wires. So expect the unexpected in this game and you should be pleased enough.

Summary: