Dark Messiah of Might and Magic was released last October to mediocre reviews and slow sales, not surprising for a game based on an outdated strategy series with a small cult following. I picked up the year-old FPS/RPG hybrid while waiting for this season’s storm of new games and had a lot of fun with it.

Dark Messiah is an enjoyable ride reminiscent of Thief and Half-Life with rousing visuals and exhilerating gameplay.

The protagonist is an orphan named Sareth, raised and trained by an ominous-voiced wizard who sends him out to find magical artifacts. Eventually he learns more about his past and makes that eternal choice between good and evil.

The story is told through dialog, cinematics and old books you find lying around. Like Half-Life, the cut scenes are viewed through the main character’s eyes, but unlike Gordon Freeman, Sareth speaks, both to other characters and the succubus that lives in his head.

The voice acting is kind of bad for all the main characters, and the writing is not much better. Where Dark Messiah really shines is the fast, intuitive gameplay, which combines spells and sword-swinging combos.

Combat is a blast, and plays more like a Deus Ex shooter than a Morrowind RPG. Weapon combat is quick and satisfying, with fun animations and brutal fatalities and criticals. Stats matter — you can put points into combat, magic or stealth abilities depending on how you want to play.

Sareth can use the environment to his advantage by kicking unwary soldiers, orcs and necromancers off cliffs or into fires or spikes. Shovels, chairs and jars of oil offer makeshift weapons that can be picked up and thrown, or just cut ropes and drop chandeliers or debris on enemies.

These scripted traps are the only way to defeat larger monsters. They’re fun to find but can seem contrived, especially when every goblin camp has a platform covered in barrels with one shaky support.

Nevertheless the environments in Dark Messiah are nice to look at thanks to brilliant art design and a lot of fun to mess with. Each cluster of enemies can be approached in many different ways, depending Sareth’s abilities and what items are around.

The areas between combat play like Half-Life and force you to work your way through the level using keys and shooting ropes tied to arrows Batman style. They can get a little repetitive and confusing but are generally very fun.

Dark Messiah showcases some entertaining gameplay ideas, albeit with a cliched plot and characters, and makes me wish that Bethesda had used such innovative combat with Oblivion. The game is well worth a quick playthrough, especially when it currently costs $10 on Steam.