There is a solid and fairly enteraining review of Dark Messiah at Four Fat Chicks. It makes fun of the bad writing, of the clichés (of Menalag's tatoo: "When I turn to evil, as I inevitably will, I'm going to have a bunny tattooed on my forehead. That way no one will suspect me until it's too late.") and of the senseless kicking, but also praises the fun factor, the visuals and the work of Randy Smith (of Thief fame), who's apparently working with Steven Spielberg these days.

"That's not to say that Arkane was somehow second fiddle in its development, just that there's a whole lot of Randy's fingerprints to be seen here. Arkane's previous offering, Arx Fatalis, shares many general similarities but lacks Dark Messiah's energetic, if somewhat ill-fated, attempts to bring physics, stealth and a variety of combat options into the mix of a game that may not live up to all of its potential but still delivers the goods where they count."

The game gets two thumbs up, the equivalent of a 4 out of 5. The author recommends picking up the game once the price drops to $39.