GameSpot recently dropped by the Arkane Studios office in Lyon and played the tutorial and the first levels of Dark Messiah. You can read their hands-on preview, which includes a series of very interesting new screenshots. They also have new gameplay movies, but you can skip movie #9, since it's the trailer that comes with the demo. Let me reprint a couple of quotes from the article:

"There's so much sheer variety to the combat that each encounter feels different and challenging. In some ways, the combat reminds us a bit of Halo, as we got the feeling that you could fight the same battle multiple times and watch it unfold in wildly different ways."

"We're impressed by the sheer intelligence at work in the opponents of this game. The enemies we battled were smart and aware of everything around them, and they summoned help when needed, or barked instructions to one another when in a group. In a fight, enemies could skillfully dodge and parry our attacks, making each fight a challenge."

"The game is nearing the end of development, and we can expect it to ship in October."

The preview and the movies include a few never-seen-before features: there are sights of the human city of Stonehelm, which looks quite different from the series of orc dwellings we've seen until now, and a few interactions with human NPCs. In one of those scenes, Sareth appears to be sitting on a horse, but it's hard to tell if horses will be a major part of gameplay. There's also a screenshot that shows Sareth picking a lock, the video interview mentions the creation of custom items, and Romain de Waubert de Genlis describes the game's skill system. Based on these revelations, I can't help but feel like Dark Messiah, despite its action game label and its focus on combat, might be as much of a RPG as Deus Ex, Dungeon Siege or Diablo.