The Dark Messiah review at The Game Chair is yet another hit to the first-person RPG, giving it a 2 out of 4. The Game Chair usually publishes in dept and multi-parts reviews of game, but in that case they gave up after their initial play. Besides, they called the game misogynistic, and later provided an explanation in the RPGWatch forum:

"I feel that the distinction here between Dark Messiah and "Misogynist Light" games like God of War or Prey is this. In God of War, female characters are being treated as objects by another character. In Dark Messiah, female characters exist solely for the purpose of sexual innuendo. They have no other life or purpose outside of this. The primary distinction is one of character. In God of War, it's a character treating women badly. In Dark Messiah, it's the author that's mistreating women. I feel like this is a very important distinction. Also, just because lines are crossed all the time in gaming, doesn't mean we should stand for it."

I admit that Leanna and Xana are just embarrassing at times -- anyone who is entertained by their lines should consider getting out of the house more. Yet, I felt that so much more could have been done with the Xana character, instead of merely the evil side of Sareth's conscience. It seems that Arkane and Ubisoft knew the audience of an action-RPG is made of men mostly and took advantage of that.