Messiah is a 3D action game in which the player controls an angel named Bob from the third person. Bob has the ability to possess the bodies of other characters, which serves as a mechanic for progression through the game. When a character is possessed, a halo floats over their head. Bob is able to abandon these bodies, but if spotted, will be attacked by enemies.[3]
Plot
The player controls Bob, an angel sent by God to remove the corruption and sin on Earth. The dictator of Earth, Father Prime, is conducting experiments into other dimensions on the dark side of the Moon. Soon after landing on Earth, Bob's existence is deemed illegal and he finds himself hunted by police, along with the military. Meanwhile, Father Prime's experiments succeed in bringing Satan into the mortal plane. After making his way through the cyberpunk city of Faktur, Bob confronts and defeats Father Prime. Bob is then asked to return by God, telling him that if humans are prepared to tamper with His creations, there is no place for Him on Earth and leave them to their own devices. Bob refuses, and this turns out to be a ruse by Satan to lead the cherub astray.
After making his way through the industrial parts of the city, Bob infiltrates a nuclear power station and transports himself to the facility on the dark side of the Moon, ultimately confronting and banishing Satan, which destroys the facility. The ensuing explosion launches Bob onto a barren part of the Moon. Bob repeatedly implores God to take him home but is met with silence.
Development
Lead designer David Perry intended Messiah to be targeted towards adults, in contrast to Shiny's previous games such as Earthworm Jim,[4] and predominantly towards males.[5] The game was developed by 10 people.[6] The development team heavily touted the game's tessellation technology, which they said could reduce or increase the number of polygons displayed in real time based on the hardware running the game, thereby maximizing the level of detail possible on any given hardware setup, stabilizing the frame rate, and enabling real-time interpolation and volumetric lighting.[4][7][8] In a 1997 interview Perry said Shiny had filed for a patent on the technology.[9] The character models were built in 3D Studio[4] and were all animated using motion capture, with a person with dwarfism serving as the motion capture actor for Bob.[4][8]
In February 1998, a couple years before Messiah was released, the Los Angeles Times reported a public outcry over the title. Perry explained, "It's crazy that all these people are already upset and they haven't even seen the game." Jeff Green of Computer Gaming World stated, "You can't use the word 'messiah' and not know you're going to tweak the sensibilities of the religious community." The developers received upset responses from many Christian organizations as well as consumers, including one that commented, "The word 'messiah' is such a powerful word, I just can't ignore it or its connotations. I know there are a lot of things out there that already tarnish religious imagery. But I just can't support a company that would throw around that word so lightly."[5]
In August 1999, Interplay recorded several promotional commercials with Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf from The Howard Stern Radio Show. Hank would don an angel costume and wandered the streets of various cities with a sign to publicly promote the game.[10] Songs by the band Fear Factory are used in the game's soundtrack[3] and the game makes use of sound effects by composers Tommy Tallarico and Joey Kuras.[11]
The game received "average" reviews according to the review aggregation website GameRankings.[12] The earliest review came from Edge, which gave it a score of seven out of ten, nearly two months before the game itself was released in North America, and over two months before its European release date.[17]Computer Gaming World declared the title "truly repellent - I don't even like to think of the sort of sadist who would enjoy it." The review detailed that beside "a level of sexism that goes beyond the usual demeaning stereotypes" and "adolescent edginess" that "there's a general atmosphere of cruelty, of enjoying violence not for the adrenaline rush of the action or even for the fun of cartoonish bloodshed - but for the realistic pain it causes."[16] Jim Preston of NextGen said, "If you can get past some technical glitches, awkward controls, and routine gameplay, Messiah will deliver – for a little while."[24]
According to author Erik Bethke, Messiah was a commercial flop, with "fewer than 10,000 units sold in its first three months".[26] The game was nominated for GameSpot's 2000 "Most Disappointing Game" award, which went to Star Wars: Force Commander.[27]
Legacy
Throughout the game, the main character makes a sound (referred to as "oof"), which would later be used in the popular game Roblox as a sound effect for when a character dies.[28] There was a subsequent legal dispute[29] over the use of the "oof" sound, which led to a compensation agreement between Roblox Corporation and Tommy Tallarico, who worked on the soundtrack of Messiah. On July 26, 2022, the original sound was removed from Roblox and replaced with another.[30][31] The sound effect later returned to Roblox in 2025.[32]
↑ Asher, Mark (April 21, 2000). "Messiah". Gamecenter. CNET. Archived from the original on August 16, 2000. Retrieved December 5, 2021.
↑ Bauman, Steve (April 28, 2000). "Messiah". Computer Games Strategy Plus. Strategy Plus, Inc. Archived from the original on May 25, 2003. Retrieved July 23, 2020.
↑ Wolpaw, Erik (April 7, 2000). "Messiah Review". GameSpot. Red Ventures. Archived from the original on March 12, 2016. Retrieved August 31, 2016.
↑ Lally, Will (April 6, 2000). "Messiah". GameSpy. IGN Entertainment. Archived from the original on April 2, 2002. Retrieved August 31, 2016.
↑ Lopez, Vincent (April 7, 2000). "Messiah". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on September 21, 2016. Retrieved August 31, 2016.
1 2 Preston, Jim (June 2000). "Messiah". NextGen. No.66. Imagine Media. p.102. Retrieved July 23, 2020.
↑ Poole, Stephen (July 2000). "Messiah". PC Gamer. Vol.7, no.7. Imagine Media. Archived from the original on March 15, 2006. Retrieved August 31, 2016.
↑ Bethke, Erik (January 25, 2003). Game Development and Production. Wordware Publishing. p.16. ISBN1556229518.
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