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Illusions of life. We are programmed to recognise creatures. More specifically, are we born to see a symmetrical form as a threat of sorts in a similar way to bees that recognise (respond to) symmetrical flowers as food sources.
Put another way: are we naturally likely, as infants, to interpret a complex bilaterally symmetrical pattern as a life form. There may be some evolutionary advantage attached to such an inborn ability. Unknown life forms can be life threatening.
The image panels were made from a complex image by simple reflection about a vertical line. The image on the right is the same as the one on the left, flipped 180º.
Annual Celebration to mark the anniversary of the first performance of Handel's Messiah in Fishamble Street Dublin in 1742.
Annual Celebration to mark the anniversary of the first performance of Handel's Messiah in Fishamble Street Dublin in 1742.
Diabolical Messiah
Chilean Division Death Metal
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Title: Dune Messiah.
Author: Frank Herbert.
Publisher: New English Library.
Date: 1982.
Artist: Bruce Pennington.
I found the serie a little boring but thanks to this fascinating actor, I could see it until the end.
...Can I get myself out from underneath
This guilt that will crush me?
And in the choir I saw our sad Messiah.
He was bored and tired of my laments.
Said, "I died for you one time, but never again."
Lyrics from Limousine, by Brand New.
I was listening to Limousine the other day, a song I have listed to many times before, and these poetic lyrics caught my attention in a way they never had. The words immediately created an image in my head, and a few weeks later, TrevorWayne helped me bring my photo to life. On a side note, he had to walk quite far to get to the shoot; he is a very dedicated model :)
I have started a campaign to raise funds for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome research! There is a desperate need for more answers about the disease. From now until August 31s, 50% of all profits from print sales and my online self-discovery-through-photography course Introspective will be donated to the CFIDS; an organization actively doing research into CFS. You can also donate directly to the CFIDS, of course. Please help spread the word about this; the more people this reaches, the better!
the former emporer of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie I (god incarnate to the rastafarians) is majestically painted in blue tones on a disintegrating wall at the masonic temple on the south side of chicago. unfortunetly, the famous african king of the 20th century was defaced with some gang graffiti, commonly found at abandonments throughout the city.
YOUR COMMENT IS THE GREATEST "AWARD" YOU COULD GIVE -- No graphics please.
THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR ANY COMMENTS!!!
Diabolical Messiah
Chilean Division Death Metal
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Annual Celebration to mark the anniversary of the first performance of Handel's Messiah in Fishamble Street Dublin in 1742.
We had the opportunity to experience Handel's Messiah performed at the University of Chicago's Chapel. Every aspect of the performance exceeded our expectations.
Our 355 cu in Chevy, it never let us down, never broke and pulled 10,000 rpm for maximum power and torque.
Annual Celebration to mark the anniversary of the first performance of Handel's Messiah in Fishamble Street Dublin in 1742.
The Salvation Army is a Christian Protestant church and international charitable organisation structured in a quasi-military fashion. The organisation reports a worldwide membership of over 1.5 million, consisting of soldiers, officers and adherents known as Salvationists. Its founders Catherine and William Booth sought to bring salvation to the poor, destitute and hungry by meeting both their "physical and spiritual needs". It is present in 127 countries, running charity shops, operating shelters for the homeless and disaster relief and humanitarian aid to developing countries.
The theology of the Salvation Army is derived from that of Methodism although it is distinctive in institution and practice. The Army's doctrine is typical of evangelical Protestant denominations. The Army's purposes are "the advancement of the Christian religion ... of education, the relief of poverty, and other charitable objects beneficial to society or the community of mankind as a whole".
The Army was founded in 1865 in London by one-time Methodist circuit-preacher William Booth as the East London Christian Mission. In 1878 Booth reorganised the mission, becoming its first General and introducing the military structure which has been retained to the present day. The current world leader of The Salvation Army is General André Cox, who was elected by the High Council of The Salvation Army on 3 August 2013.
HISTORY
The Salvation Army was founded in London's East End in 1865 by one-time Methodist Reform Church minister William Booth and his wife Catherine as the East London Christian Mission. The name "The Salvation Army" developed from an incident on 19 and 20 May. William Booth was dictating a letter to his secretary George Scott Railton and said, "We are a volunteer army." Bramwell Booth heard his father and said, "Volunteer! I'm no volunteer, I'm a regular!" Railton was instructed to cross out the word "volunteer" and substitute the word "salvation". The Salvation Army was modelled after the military, with its own flag (or colours) and its own hymns, often with words set to popular and folkloric tunes sung in the pubs. Booth and the other soldiers in "God's Army" would wear the Army's own uniform, for meetings and ministry work. He became the "General" and his other ministers were given appropriate ranks as "officers". Other members became "soldiers".
When William Booth became known as the General, Catherine is known as the "Mother of The Salvation Army". William preached to the poor, and Catherine spoke to the wealthy, gaining financial support for their work. She also acted as a religious minister, which was unusual at the time; the Foundation Deed of the Christian Mission states that women had the same rights to preach as men. William Booth described the organisation's approach: "The three ‘S's’ best expressed the way in which the Army administered to the 'down and outs': first, soup; second, soap; and finally, salvation."
In 1880, the Salvation Army started its work in three other countries: Australia, Ireland, and the United States. It was not always an Officer of The Salvation Army who started the Salvation Army in a new country; sometimes Salvationists emigrated to countries and started operating as "the Salvation Army" on their own authority. When the first official officers arrived in Australia and the United States, they found groups of Salvationists already waiting for them and started working with each other.
The Salvation Army's main converts were at first alcoholics, morphine addicts, prostitutes and other "undesirables" unwelcome in polite Christian society, which helped prompt the Booths to start their own church. The Booths did not include the use of sacraments (mainly baptism and Holy Communion) in the Army's form of worship, believing that many Christians had come to rely on the outward signs of spiritual grace rather than on grace itself. Other beliefs are that its members should completely refrain from drinking alcohol (Holy Communion is not practiced), smoking, taking illegal drugs and gambling. Its soldiers wear a uniform tailored to the country in which they work; the uniform can be white, grey, navy, fawn and are even styled like a sari in some areas. Any member of the public is welcome to attend their meetings. As the Salvation Army grew rapidly in the late 19th century, it generated opposition in England. Opponents, grouped under the name of the Skeleton Army, disrupted Salvation Army meetings and gatherings, with tactics such as throwing rocks, bones, rats, and tar as well as physical assaults on members of the Salvation Army. Much of this was led by pub owners who were losing business because of the Army's opposition to alcohol and targeting of the frequenters of saloons and public houses.
The Salvation Army's reputation in the United States improved as a result of its disaster relief efforts following the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The familiar use of bell ringers to solicit donations from passers-by "helps complete the American portrait of Christmas." In the U.S. alone, over 25,000 volunteers with red kettles are stationed near retail stores during the weeks preceding Christmas for fundraising. The church remains a highly visible and sometimes controversial presence in many parts of the world.
In 1994, the Chronicle of Philanthropy, an industry publication, released the results of the largest study of charitable and non-profit organisation popularity and credibility. The study showed that The Salvation Army was ranked as the 4th "most popular charity/non-profit in America" of over 100 charities researched, with 47% of Americans over the age of 12 choosing 'Love' and 'Like A Lot' for The Salvation Army.
Charity Watch rates the Salvation Army an "A-" to an "A", indicating a high level of financial efficiency and organisational transparency.
STRUCTURE, ORGANISATION AND EXPENDITURES
As at 1 September 2015, the Salvation Army operates in 127 countries and provides services in 175 different languages.[3] For administrative purposes, the Salvation Army divides itself geographically into territories, which are then sub-divided into divisions. In larger areas, regional and area commands are also introduced as sub-divisions of divisions. Each territory has an administrative hub known as territorial headquarters (THQ). Likewise, each division has a divisional headquarters (DHQ). Each of these territories is led by a territorial commander who receives orders from the Salvation Army's International Headquarters in London. A territory is normally led by an officer holding the rank of colonel (for small territories) or commissioner for larger territories. In some countries, the work of The Salvation Army may be called a command, led by a command commander. A larger command is typically led by an officer holding the rank of colonel.
Its stated membership (as quoted from 2010 Year Book) includes 16,938 active and 9,190 retired officers, 1,122,326 soldiers, 189,176 Adherents, 39,071 Corps Cadets, 378,009 Junior Soldiers, around 104,977 other employees and more than 4.5 million volunteers. Members of the Salvation Army also include "adherents", these are people who do not make the commitment to be a soldier but who recognise the Salvation Army as their church. (According to the 2006 Salvation Army Year Book, in the United States there are 85,148 Senior Soldiers and 28,377 Junior Soldiers, 17,396 Adherents and around 60,000 employees.)
The current world leader of the Salvation Army is General André Cox.
The Salvation Army is one of the world's largest providers of social aid[citation needed], with expenditures including operating costs of $2.6 billion in 2004, helping more than 32 million people in the U.S. alone. In addition to community centres and disaster relief, the organisation does work in refugee camps, especially among displaced people in Africa. The Salvation Army has received an A- rating from the American Institute of Philanthropy. In the United Kingdom, the Salvation Army is no longer the largest non-governmental provider of social services; however provides a significant service to people in need. The Salvation Army is the second largest charity in the United States, with private donations of almost $2 billion for the fiscal year ending 30 September 2007.
In 2004, the Army in the United States received a $1.6 billion donation in the will of Joan B. Kroc, third wife of former McDonald's CEO Ray Kroc. This donation was among the largest individual philanthropic gifts ever given to a single organisation. The donation came with certain restrictions that caused some controversy.
The International Congress of the Salvation Army is normally held every 10 years as a conference for all Salvationists from around the world to meet. The first such conference took place in London, UK, from 28 May to 4 June 1886, and subsequent Congressional meetings were held sporadically until 1904 and then 1990. The seventh International Congress in Atlanta, GA, USA, from 28 June to 2 July 2000, was the first held outside of the UK. The latest International Congress was held in London, England 1–5 July 2015, in commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of The Salvation Army's founding.
Officers are given Marching Orders to change ministries within the Salvation Army. Usually, officers are given new Marching Orders every two to five years and reassigned to different posts, sometimes moving great distances.
A Moscow court ruled that the Salvation Army was a paramilitary organisation subject to expulsion. In October 2006, the European Court of Human Rights ruled the decision illegal.
BELIEFS
The beliefs of the Salvation Army rest upon these eleven doctrines:
- We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God, and that only they constitute the Divine rule of Christian faith and practice.
- We believe that there is only one God, who is infinitely perfect, the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of all things, and who is the only proper object of religious worship.
- We believe that there are three persons in the Godhead – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, undivided in essence and co-equal in power and glory.
- We believe that in the person of Jesus Christ the divine and human natures are united, so that he is truly and properly God and truly and properly man.
- We believe that our first parents were created in a state of innocence, but by their disobedience they lost their purity and happiness, and that in consequence of their fall all men have become sinners, totally depraved and as such are justly exposed to the wrath of God.
- We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has, by his suffering and death, made an atonement for the whole world so that whosoever believeth in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah will may be saved.
- We believe that repentance towards God, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit, are necessary to salvation.
- We believe that we are justified by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and that he that believeth hath the witness in himself.
- We believe that continuance in a state of salvation depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ.
- We believe that it is the privilege of all believers to be wholly sanctified, and that their whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
- We believe in the immortality of the soul; in the resurrection of the body; in the general judgment at the end of the world; in the eternal happiness of the righteous; and in the endless punishment of the wicked.
The denomination does not celebrate the Christian sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion; although its officers conduct marriages, it holds a traditional Protestant belief that marriage was not instituted by Christ and therefore is not a sacrament.
The Salvation Army opposes euthanasia and assisted suicide. Its official stance on abortion is that "The Salvation Army believes in the sanctity of all human life and considers each person to be of infinite value and each life a gift from God to be cherished, nurtured and redeemed. Human life is sacred because it is made in the image of God and has an eternal destiny. (Genesis 1:27) Sacredness is not conferred, nor can it be taken away by human agreement." The Salvation Army official stance admitted in 2010 exceptions in cases such as rape and incest: "In addition, rape and incest are brutal acts of dominance violating women physically and emotionally. This situation represents a special case for the consideration of termination as the violation may be compounded by the continuation of the pregnancy.” It is also against the death penalty: "The Salvation Army recognises that the opinions of Salvationists are divided on the moral acceptability of capital punishment and its effectiveness as a deterrent. However, to advocate in any way the continuance or restoration of capital punishment in any part of the world would be inconsistent with the Army’s purposes and contrary to the Army’s belief that all human life is sacred and that each human being, however wretched, can become a new person in Christ."
In 2012, the Salvation Army published a "Positional Statement on Homosexuality" after receiving adverse publicity about their position on homosexuality.
"The Bible teaches that God’s intention for humankind is that society should be ordered on the basis of lifelong, legally sanctioned heterosexual unions.... A disposition towards homosexuality is not in itself blameworthy nor is the disposition seen as rectifiable at will.... Homosexual practice however, is, in the light of Scripture, clearly unacceptable. Such activity is chosen behaviour and is thus a matter of the will. It is therefore able to be directed or restrained in the same way heterosexual urges are controlled. Homosexual practice would render any person ineligible for full membership (soldiership) in the Army."
As of 2016 the organisation will not appoint homosexuals to posts as ministers, preferring individuals "whose values are consistent with the church's philosophy." (See also Salvation Army Controversy: Criticism by LGBT activists section.)
The ordination of women is permitted in the Salvation Army. Salvation Army officers were previously allowed to marry only other officers (this rule varies in different countries); but this rule has been relaxed in recent years. Husbands and wives usually share the same rank and have the same or similar assignments - the major exception to this is the General's spouse, who holds the rank of commissioner.
SYMBOLS
FLAG
The Salvation Army flag is a symbol of the Army's war against sin and social evils. The red on the flag symbolises the blood shed by Jesus Christ, the yellow for the fire of the Holy Spirit and the blue for the purity of God the Father.
The oldest official emblem of The Salvation Army is the crest.
In 1878 Captain W.H. Ebdon suggested a logo, and in 1879 it was to be found on the letterhead of the Salvation Army Headquarters. The captain's suggested design was changed only slightly and a crown was added.
The meaning of the crest:
The cross: The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ
The "S": Salvation from sin through Jesus
The ray on the outside of the circle: The Fire of the Holy Spirit
The dots: The Truth of the Gospel
The swords: Spiritual Warfare
"Blood and Fire": The Blood which was shed by Jesus for our sins and the Fire of the Holy Spirit
RED SHIELD
The Red Shield has its origins in Salvation Army work during wartime. At the end of the 19th century, Staff-Captain Mary Murray was sent by William Booth to support British troops serving in the Boer War in South Africa. Then, in 1901, this same officer was given the task of establishing the Naval and Military League, the forerunner of the Red Shield Services.
Salvation Army officers serving in the Red Shield Services in wartime performed many functions. The Doughnut Girls of World War I are an early example, serving refreshments to troops in the trenches. They also provided first aid stations, ambulances, chaplaincy, social clubs, Christian worship and other front-line services.
This symbol is still used in Blue Shield Services that serve the British Armed Forces but it is widely used as a simple, more readily identifiable symbol in many Salvation Army settings. It is common to see the Red Shield used on casual Salvation Army uniform. It is now official Salvation Army policy in the UK that the red shield should be used as the external symbol of the Salvation Army, with the Crest only being used internally. Therefore, any new Salvation Army building will now have the red shield on the outside rather than the crest which certainly would have been used on its Corps (church) buildings.
In Australia, the Red Shield has become one of the country's most identified and trusted symbols, leading the Australian Salvation Army to prefer to use this symbol over the logo on its uniform, corps buildings and advertising materials. In the 5th volume of Australian Superbrands it was recorded that "Research reveals that the popular Salvation Army slogan ‘Thank God for the Salvos’ has almost total recognition amongst the Australian public, achieving 93 per cent aided awareness".
UNIFORM
Salvation Army officers and soldiers often wear uniforms. The idea that they should do so originated with Elijah Cadman who, at the Salvation Army's 'War Congress' in August 1878 said "I would like to wear a suit of clothes that would let everyone know I meant war to the teeth and salvation for the world". The uniform identifies the wearer as a Salvationist and a Christian. It also symbolises availability to those in need. The uniform takes many forms internationally but is characterised by the 'S' insignia for 'Salvation' and carries the meaning 'Saved to Serve', or 'Saved to Save'. Other letters are substituted to conform with local language.
TARTAN
Since 1983 there has been an official Salvation Army tartan. It was designed by Captain Harry Cooper, for the Perth Citadel Corps centenary commemoration. It is based upon the colours of the Salvation Army flag, with which it shares the same symbolism. However, it is rarely seen outside Scotland
SALUTE
The Salvation Army has a unique form of salute which involves raising the right hand above shoulder-height with the index finger pointing upwards. It signifies recognition of a fellow citizen of heaven, and a pledge to do everything possible to get others to heaven also. In the case of saluting in response to applause, in circumstances such as a musical festival or being applauded for a speech, it also signifies that the Salvationist wishes to give Glory to God and not themselves.
In some instances, the salute is accompanied with a shout of 'hallelujah!'
CONTROVERSY
CRITICISM BY LGBT ACTIVISTS
Some in the United States have alleged that the Salvation Army discriminates against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals in its hiring practices. The Salvation Army states that it does not "discriminate against hiring gays and lesbians for the majority of its roughly 55,000 jobs". Because the Salvation Army is a church, Title VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 allows it to inquire into people's religious beliefs in its hiring practices. In 2001, the Salvation Army pressed the Bush Administration to exempt it and other religious groups from anti-discrimination legislation which it felt infringed on the organisation's religious freedoms. This request was denied, and was sharply rebuked by David Smith, then-spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign. “Gays and lesbians are taxpayers, too,” said Smith. “Their money should not be used by religious groups to fund discriminatory practices against them."
The Salvation Army Western Territory approved a plan in October 2001 to start offering domestic-partnership benefits to gay employees. Members of various evangelical Christian interest groups protested the decision. Focus on the Family founder James Dobson excoriated the Salvation Army for abandoning its "moral integrity" and urged his radio listeners to bombard the organisation's offices with phone calls and letters. The American Family Association also accused the Salvation Army of a "monstrous … appeasement of sin" that resulted in a "betrayal of the church." In November 2001 the Salvation Army nationwide rescinded the Western Territory's decision with an announcement that it would only provide benefits coverage for different-sex spouses and dependent children of its employees.
In 2004, the Salvation Army said that it would close operations in New York City unless it was exempted from a municipal ordinance requiring them to offer benefits to gay employees’ partners. The City Council refused to make the exemption. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's administration chose not to enforce the ordinance. The administration's right to decline to enforce the ordinance was upheld by the New York State Court of Appeals in 2006.
On 15 December 2012, in Canada, Andrea Le Good noticed a Salvation Army bell-ringer carrying a sign reading "if you support gay rights: please do not donate." While the bell-ringer claimed he had permission from the charity to wear the sign, Salvation Army spokeswoman Kyla Ferns said that it had no part in the sign, and that the bell-ringer was pulled away immediately when the charity learned about it. The charity's website describes marriage as heterosexual by definition, and a published document called on homosexuals to embrace celibacy as a way of life. The same document also states that there is no scriptural support for the mistreatment of homosexuals.
In February 2000, the Salvation Army in the United Kingdom publicly opposed (in their publication The War Cry and in a letter to a Scottish Parliament committee) the repeal of Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988, which prevented local authorities from "intentionally promot[ing] homosexuality". However, the organisation's UK website states that it offers "unconditional assistance and support regardless of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation, respecting the identity and choices of all those referred to them.... As well as having a right to be dealt with professionally, people can expect from us encouragement and a respect for their individual beliefs, ambitions and preferences".
Before the passing of the Homosexual Law Reform Act 1986 by the New Zealand Parliament, the Salvation Army was active throughout New Zealand gathering signatures for a petition seeking to prevent the bill's passing. In 2006, the Army released a statement regretting the ill feelings that persisted following this activity. It stated in part "We do understand though that The Salvation Army’s official opposition to the Reform Bill was deeply hurtful to many, and are distressed that ill-feeling still troubles our relationship with segments of the gay community. We regret any hurt that may remain from that turbulent time and our present hope is to rebuild bridges of understanding and dialogue between our movement and the gay community."
Despite documented events of Salvation Army's volunteers and their views, the organisation has issued an LGBT Statement as a response. The statement does not address any documented news events of discrimination and claims to debunk these events as urban myth.
In November 2013 it was made known that the Salvation Army was referring LGBT individuals to one of several conversion therapy groups. As a response the Salvation Army removed such referrals from their website.
WIKIPEDIA
Sacred Heart University hosted Handel's Messiah on December 14, 2018, in Chapel of the Holy Spirit at Sacred Heart University, performed by the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and Christ Church Choir. Alumna Allegra De Vita ’11 returned as alto soloist along with soprano Leah Brzyski, tenor John Chongyoon Noh and baritone Edward Vogel. The concert was sponsored by Sacred Heart University, the Knights of Columbus, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and WSHU Public Radio. Photo by Tracy Deer-Mirek
A member of Messiah Foundation USA explains our message to a visitor at the Mind Body and Spirit Expo in Somerset, New Jersey.
Turner & Hercules #103 starts up later today (I'll upload a cover as with the other 2), but for now have a game review.
So recently I bought a bunch of Might & Magic games since I’ve always wanted to try them out. Or, more accurately, I bought the first pack I saw on Steam, which was HoM&M5 + Expansion Packs along with this odd little game Dark Messiah.
For those not in the know, Might & Magic is a game where you play as some stooge in armor and go around gathering up a preposterously massive force of other stooges in armor and beat the crap out of the red stooges in armor. The fun in these games generally stems from finding the perfect combination of stooges to obliterate your opponents, while simultaneously decking yourself out in magic bling (artifacts) to be a better stooge in armor. Best I can tell, the Heroes of Might & Magic games make you play as their pre-built characters in campaigns while the old-school ones let you pick a hero and go on a big open world murderfest to kill a dragon or something.
Dark Messiah does away with the stooge management simulations altogether, placing you in the shoes of Sareth, a bland, uninteresting, and presumably bestubbled simpleton who is working for a totally-not-evil wizard as an apprentice or something. Obviously, you are very quickly sent off to run an errand for your mentor, who bestows you with a totally-not-an-evil-seductress-demon sidekick that does nothing but make innuendos and ‘witty’ one-liners. Your mission is to bring a crystal of totally-not-evil to a totally-not-evil wizard’s giant castle city so he can use it to get the totally-not-evil black dragon skull.
Bla-de-bla, several meaningless meandering wanderings later, it turns out you’re the Dark Messiah, prophesied to herald the return of demons to the world and thus doom it to utter destruction, you have the standard “moral choice” of being an asshole and getting the demon lady and the asshole ending or not being an asshole and getting the other girl (I think her name is Leanna, Sareth only says it 50 times) and the nice ending. At least I assume those are the endings, based on the fact that I can’t compel myself to finish what appears to be the last 2 levels of the game, wherein you are immediately assaulted by a pack of ghouls (who are tough, speedy little bastards).
Obviously, my interest in this game has nothing to do with its garbage storyline and level design, but the combat system. Sort of. In Dark Messiah, combat goes beyond the standard FPRPG fare of block-attack-block. No, in this game the entire level is your weapon. You can pick up just about anything that isn’t nailed down to throw at enemies, kick them through railings and off of bridges and high ledges and even into spikes (which while being cool, begs the question of why the hell there are spikes just set up on walls at random), and set fire to frigging everything. The first few levels were a blast, as they designed the levels to cater to this, with lots of guardrails and storage rooms where I’m pretty sure I killed more orcs, goblins, and necromancers by kicking them around like abused factory workers than by actually using my weapons. If you could combine the environmental combat in this game with the directional swordplay from Mount & Blade, I’m pretty sure you would have the greatest medieval fighting system in the world, no joke.
The problems come when you no longer have the available resources to fight this way. Towards the end, you find yourself in a necromancer city, where the only interior decorations are mummified cats and gruesomely disfigured bodies spiked to the walls (some still alive, somehow). Suddenly, you find yourself no longer able to enter a room by kicking down the door and hurling a barrel into the face of the nearest unfortunate. Instead, you must cope with the awful, awful melee combat. Dark Messiah offers you options for magic, bows, and sneaky-stabby fighting, but the fact of the matter is that no matter how sneaky-stabby you are, when you kill one man in a room full of his buddies, you’re going to become a man pretty fast. The melee is, of course, the block-slash-block system. Only instead of at least allowing you to flail about slashing wildly as with most such systems, your enemies are all, in fact, Neo, being able to parry every single one of your fast attacks perfectly regardless of whether you have the perk that lets your wild flailing break blocks. No, instead you must use “power strikes” in order to “vary your attacks” and break through the blocks and parries.
This sounds almost Mount & Blade-esque at first, and seems to make sense. However, in Mount & Blade, you move at the speed of a regular human being, as well as being allowed a third person view to better see what is going on around you. You also aren’t fighting opponents that scurry around like rodents in pitch-black corridors, either. In Dark Messiah, your character darts around like a ferret in every direction except the most important one for tactical swordplay: backwards. Backwards, you become a crippled old man, hobbling backwards slowly trying to make room for a swing while the enemy darts in and out of your reach like they’re being suspended from the ceiling on strings and pulleys. This isn’t so much of a problem fighting one foe at a time; It’s when the entire Necromancer City Guard is on your ass that it suddenly becomes a big hindrance to try and block-slash-block in three directions at once, particularly considering every action you take leaves your foes a huge window to soften your precious flesh.
I will give it one thing though: The game does severed limbs well. It’s not Skyrim or Fallout, where a feather falling on a dead torso will express-mail their spleen to Ashenvale. Cutting off a limb feels like a major accomplishment and actually requires effort on your part. My favorite melee encounter was fighting a random orc in a blacksmith’s forge, where we were knocking things off tables, smashing oil jars around and setting fire to everything, and then I finally pulled off whatever random prerequisites there were for a Star Wars style contest of strength. My rapid clicking prevailed, sending his sword flying out of his hand into the furnace, as another swing sliced through his torso and removed his hand. He then fell backwards into a water tub, making for the most cinematic of ragdoll deaths I’ve seen in a long time.
As for the level design, you ever play, say, Skyrim, and get stuck in a cave where the exit is so clearly in sight, and you wonder “why can’t I just tie one of these stupid ropes lying around all over the place to an arrow and climb right up there?” Well this game answers that question for you.
You can’t do that because if you could the game designers would make that the SOLUTION TO FREAKING EVERYTHING IN THE UNIVERSE EVEN WHEN IT WOULD MAKE NO BLOODY SENSE. Early in, you will find the “rope bow”, an arrow that drops a rope for you to climb so long as it hits a wooden surface. Which sounds pretty cool, and it is, until you get to the levels where the only method of getting around is shooting ropes all over the place until every rafter and signpost in the level is draped with ropes, which you must jump between with the terrible first-person jumping combined with the rope/chain climbing controls, which snap you to everything you can cling onto regardless of whether it’s the direction you’re facing or not. I had to restart so many levels simply because I got caught between ropes and was completely unable to dislodge myself from the web of doom, the web I had crafted for myself.
The rope bow also leads right into the bad level design, since once you introduce a creative, unorthodox method to traverse levels, you should use it ALL THE TIME EVERYWHERE. Before the rope bow ruined my life, the levels were roads, dungeons, and cities, all of which made it clear at all times where you were meant to go. Once you get the rope bow, things go completely mad. While the main rooms where you fight baddies are pretty well-designed, probably for the intent of showing off their combat, there are very flimsy connections between these areas as you head towards your goal. Also, when it is pitch black and your ‘night vision’ spell makes everything snow white, there is no freaking way I should just guess that I was supposed to climb a pile of rocks that looks the exact same as other decorative piles of rocks, shoot three rope arrows at one obscure board leaning overhead, tarzan across those ropes to a single broken step, then jump to an extremely far pillar and then hop over into a small room to open a gate then reverse my steps to get to it before it shuts.
I’m not sure I would recommend buying it full price, since I still need to get around to sludging through the last missions, but if you can find it at a discount or in some old lady’s yard sale I would say you should get it just to try the awesome environmental combat.