The Knife of Dunwall opens spectacularly, kicking off with the protagonist - or antagonist, depending on your perspective - slipping through an enormous slaughterhouse and whale oil processing facility. While being in-line with “standard fantasy” is fine, but it boasts none of the charm found in The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings. The furthest the game goes is that the player is the dark lord’s son and is meant to bring him back to life.

Whereas Dark Messiah has no twist or hook it’s a traditional Tolkien-inspired fantasy world set within Ubisoft’s Might & Magic franchise, one that takes us through traditional caverns, crypts, villages, dungeons, and kingdoms. Arx Fatalis' post-apocalyptic twist on high fantasy tells the story of a sunless world forcing its inhabitants to adapt to civilization underground. One of the developer’s best qualities is its ability to build settings with alluring depth. Dark Messiah of Might & Magicīeyond Dark Messiah’s frustrating combat and lackluster narrative, the game’s greatest offense is that it’s without Arkane Studios' fascinating world-building. That's a ridiculous question, right? Everything is wrong! 10. How can you take apart something that is wholly and unbelievably awful to the point where every element of it is baffling? Imagine being thrusted into the depths of the underworld before being asked what steps you'd take to make this place more homely. Redfall is so exhausting and egregiously poor that it's somewhat difficult to criticize. Whereas the developer's other titles offer tons of ways to approach each scenario, there's not much else to do here.

Redfall is simple: Approach enemies, shoot at them, and they die quickly. With character abilities that have nearly no function (like invisibility in a game where enemies won't do anything to you anyway, alongside the lack of a stealth kill), and a complete and utter lack of gameplay options, it barely feels like an Arkane title. Even when (or if) Arkane finally fixes the visual, performance and gameplay bugs, this is a fundamentally poor video game.

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