Game Informer (8.5/10): "Peripheral fluff like picking up collectibles aside, Dark Messiah’s gameplay revolves around finding creative ways to dispatch your enemies. Coming up with and executing a plan of attack tailored to your abilities and the situation stays fresh and entertaining throughout the game."

TeamXbox (6/10): "The framerate in Dark Messiah is all over the place. In some areas, things move as smooth as silk, and in these spots the game truly shines. In other places though, the game slows to a crawl, chugging along sporadically with all the grace of a pregnant yak."

Eurogamer (6/10): "For everything that's good about the combat intensity, the flexibility of the skill system, the quality of the puzzles and the brooding, engaging atmosphere, it's undone by massive technical problems. After such a long wait, the last thing we expected was for it to be even more of a buggy, unoptimised mess than it was the first time around. But it is."

We had some good words for the PC version of the game in 2006, but now we can only recommend you avoid the Xbox version. Your money will be better spent elsewhere.