What a waste of potential

[Vuk]

I bought Dark Messiah M&M yesterday and played through it (yes, in one day) on normal mode. Gotta say, I really liked the gameplay as far as combat goes and the puzzles. The graphics were good AND the game ran well! How often do you get both of those in the same package? Why am I complaining then? Because the excellent gameplay and great graphics were a great wrapping for a horrible game. It was the cheesiest, most disappointing storyline that I have encountered in a long time. It was like a mix between a 60's movie and an emo's sexual fantasies. :P I don't know if they thought that filling it with sexual inuendos and gore would somehow make their lousy storyline more palatable, but for me it did just the opposite. The only reason I played through to the end of it is because I enjoyed the gameplay so much (and am already missing it :P). The first thing I did was check if there were any mods for it, but unfortunately I have been able to find any major mods.
Are there any good mods out there that preserve the gameplay to an extent?
I am sorely disappointed with this game, because the gameplay was so fun (kicking people off cliffs, beheading screeching little goblins, what a blast :P), but the game itself was pretty rotten.

[DisruptorX]

Why is a good story a requirement for a game about decapitating orcs? That is the game (the orc decapitating). What you are complaining about is the story, which is far from being a necessary or even important aspect of game design.

Now, I would agree that the constant innuendo is a little much, but other than that, its certainly not the worst story out there. Its about as average as they come.

[Meneldil]

Well, DMoMaM is a FPS. FPS are usually well known for their plot and storyline, and when they are, they often has a poor gameplay (CoC:DCotE being an example).
While this is not always true, you can assume that your FPS will have crap storyline.

And to be honest, I didn't find it to be that bad. It involved Aranthir, who is cool, a Succubus talking in your head, giant undead cyclops, gobelins who act as gobelins (running around and being annoying), orcs who act like orcs (smashing stuff and killing people), cool vampires and what not. More than what I would have expected for a small budget FPS based on the HoMM franchise.

I can't remember any sexual inuendos or unneccessary gore, but heck, I'm a decadent european so who knows?

[Vuk]

Well, DMoMaM is a FPS. FPS are usually well known for their plot and storyline, and when they are, they often has a poor gameplay (CoC:DCotE being an example).
While this is not always true, you can assume that your FPS will have crap storyline.

And to be honest, I didn't find it to be that bad. It involved Aranthir, who is cool, a Succubus talking in your head, giant undead cyclops, gobelins who act as gobelins (running around and being annoying), orcs who act like orcs (smashing stuff and killing people), cool vampires and what not. More than what I would have expected for a small budget FPS based on the HoMM franchise.

I can't remember any sexual inuendos or unneccessary gore, but heck, I'm a decadent european so who knows?

lol, sorry, but when I play a FPS, I expect it either to have a great storyline and medium to great gameplay (like Deus Ex, Thief, etc), or to have no storyline/small, straight forward storyline and great gameplay (Battlefield, etc). This was a game with great gameplay, but fall-flat-on-your-face storyline. If they made it a treasure hunting game and just took all the storyline out I would have liked a lot more. You don't have to have a storyline, but if you include it, either make it incredibly simple or at least good. When you have a horrible storyline, it kills the game (for me at least). Killing the screeching goblins was my favorite part of the game (I almost felt sorry for them when they said some of those funny things :P) actually. :P
'As for the unnecassary gore and the sexual inuendos, I am not sure about you, but I would consider people hanging up with their waste down cut off and their intestines dangling as they scream for help unnecassary and quite disturbing gore. It is things like that that really helped ruin the game for me. I didn't mind the stabbing the cyclopes in the eyes bit, but when a Niagra Falls of blood comes spilling out of his eye, I think that has gone a little too far. As for the sexual inuedos, hmmm...a completely naked woman (with fully detailed privates) bending over you trying to bite you, a woman in your head always talking about how she wants to do you sexual favors (and hints at them being kinky). I don't know, maybe you are right and that is normal for Europeans, but none of the ones I have met would consider that normal.
If they kept the outrageous gore out, kept the filth out (the torture, full nudity, cheesey as voice in head, etc), and had some kind of storyline where you did not know what was going to happen after playing for five minutes it could have been a great game, but I found it a great disappointment. I hope someone makes a good mod of it though, because I do love the gameplay. Maybe I will try multiplayer next week...

[Zenicetus]

Why is a good story a requirement for a game about decapitating orcs? That is the game (the orc decapitating). What you are complaining about is the story, which is far from being a necessary or even important aspect of game design.

I think the difference here is that if a game developer isn't going to bother to do a really good story, then they should do the minimal story necessary as a rationale for the action, and then keep it out of the way. Don't insult the player's intelligence (and good taste) with a terrible story that just distracts from the gameplay. Dead Space is a recent game that doesn't have a very original storyline, but the devs mostly kept it in the background, so you could enjoy their different take on FPS games.

If the story and game world is compelling enough, I can overlook somewhat mediocre gameplay. The Witcher game is a good example of that. I sure didn't play it for the combat, which was repetitive and too easy. Bioshock was similar... basically just a so-so FPS game, but an interesting story and very interesting environment that kept me playing the game.

It's much harder for the gameplay to be so good that I'm willing to forgive a stale or juvenile storyline. Mass Effect and Fallout 3 are almost, but not quite in that category for me. Assassin's Creed definitely was. That game had some interesting mechanics (the whole rooftop jumping thing), but the story was just terrible; especially that constant flipping back and forth to the modern world. I couldn't finish it, because I just stopped caring about the story wrapper for the action.

Another example would be the two Kohan fantasy RTS games. As strategy games they were great, but the backstory and game world were cringe-inducingly awful. I never finished the campaign for the second game because I just couldn't take it any more (and it still worked fine in the alternate sandbox mode). I'm keeping my fingers crossed, and hoping Stardock has some good writers for their upcoming fantasy TBS game. It's so easy to write terrible fantasy storylines and game worlds, and apparently it's hard to write it well.

[Meneldil]

Come on please. The plot isn't that bad. I'm not saying it's awesome, but it's decent, and far from terrible.
It's not a "evil scientist creates a hord of zombies", it's not a "Dude musts find the awesome sword of Death", nor a "Guy was actually a super hero but forgot everything" storyline.

It's not a manichean "good vs. evil" kind of plot. The characters are IMO well-designed, interesting, with goals, a personality and what not. The voice acting is quite good (even in French and Spanish, and that is quite an achievement), and you get different endings.

I blame american puritanism rather than any excessive gore or sexual inuendo. I never found the game nearly as gore/disgusting as Call of Cthulhu:DCotE, or even as Resident Evil and some other mainstream games. As for the sexual stuff, I'm not even sure it's worth being called sexual. One of your ally is a succubus, I for one appreciate that the devs didn't made her a blank character for the sake of censorship.

Please remember that this game is based on the HoMM franchise. HoMM's have never been known for their great storyline, but for their awesome gameplay. HoMM5 is obviously a great step forward, as I found the plot to be as interesting as you could expect for a turn-based fantasy strategy game, and so is DMoMaM.
Not to mention the fact that meeting Aranthir in a FPS after leading him in a strategy game is damn awesome.

Bref, I guess we have different tastes ;). Most FPS storyline fail to keep me interested for more than 10 minutes (though I also think some FPS have completely awesome plots). While I didn't find DMoMaM one to be extraordinary, it was IMO interesting enough for me to finish the game 3 times without being bored to death.

and xana haz huge b00bies lol

[Vuk]

I think the difference here is that if a game developer isn't going to bother to do a really good story, then they should do the minimal story necessary as a rationale for the action, and then keep it out of the way. Don't insult the player's intelligence (and good taste) with a terrible story that just distracts from the gameplay. Dead Space is a recent game that doesn't have a very original storyline, but the devs mostly kept it in the background, so you could enjoy their different take on FPS games.

If the story and game world is compelling enough, I can overlook somewhat mediocre gameplay. The Witcher game is a good example of that. I sure didn't play it for the combat, which was repetitive and too easy. Bioshock was similar... basically just a so-so FPS game, but an interesting story and very interesting environment that kept me playing the game.

It's much harder for the gameplay to be so good that I'm willing to forgive a stale or juvenile storyline. Mass Effect and Fallout 3 are almost, but not quite in that category for me. Assassin's Creed definitely was. That game had some interesting mechanics (the whole rooftop jumping thing), but the story was just terrible; especially that constant flipping back and forth to the modern world. I couldn't finish it, because I just stopped caring about the story wrapper for the action.

Another example would be the two Kohan fantasy RTS games. As strategy games they were great, but the backstory and game world were cringe-inducingly awful. I never finished the campaign for the second game because I just couldn't take it any more (and it still worked fine in the alternate sandbox mode). I'm keeping my fingers crossed, and hoping Stardock has some good writers for their upcoming fantasy TBS game. It's so easy to write terrible fantasy storylines and game worlds, and apparently it's hard to write it well.

THANK YOU! lol, that is exactly it! A game can be great with a get-by storyline and great gameplay, but do not insult one's intelligence with garbage.

I blame american puritanism rather than any excessive gore or sexual inuendo. I never found the game nearly as gore/disgusting as Call of Cthulhu:DCotE, or even as Resident Evil and some other mainstream games. As for the sexual stuff, I'm not even sure it's worth being called sexual. One of your ally is a succubus, I for one appreciate that the devs didn't made her a blank character for the sake of censorship.

lol, not sexual stuff? In more than one scene she is stark naked bent over you. She is always talking about doing sexual stuff to you. I guess we Americans must be some messed up puritans then, cause I found the gore in that game quite disturbing. :P You argument that other games are more disturbing is damaging for those other games (now at least I know not to check them out :P), but hardly does this one any favors.