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The graphics, while good, are nothing much to be impressed by. One of the nice features of the game, and also one of the reasons why the Messiah engine has been so exalted over its two-and-a-half year development cycle, is its ability to custom tailor itself to your PC. By doing this, the game can exploit all of the resources of your computer and provide the best graphics possible. You even have the option of setting the number of desired frames per second, and your computer will then automatically scale down the number of polygons on the screen, as well as texture depth, in order to ensure that the minimum FPS are achieved. On my overclocked Celeron 415 with a TNT2 Ultra, I was able to run the game at a decent 800x600 with the majority of the graphics settings on high, and still maintain a minimum of 30 FPS. The occasional slowdown did occur, especially when there were a large number of enemies on the screen all running around and firing madly at each other. For the most part, though, the game ran fluidly, even in wide-open spaces when I was using one of the massive gun turrets.

Sound

The sound in Messiah was not bad, but it pales in comparison to the now legendary Half Life. A nice little feature that the programmers have added is a speech function that is employed in the other characters when you pass near them. Generally, the response differs from character to character, depending on their class, but the clichéd “You want a part of me?” is, of course, used for the rough and tumble characters of the game. For the most part, the other humanoids simply tell you to get back to work if you are trying to maintain character and are acting normally. There is not much music in the game to speak of but it includes a second CD, which contains a score of atmospheric songs. Since the game never once asked me to insert this second CD, I really fail to see the point of including it. The group Fear Factory has contributed some scores, and these pieces of music tend to fade in at the beginning of a large firefight, adding to the ambient feeling of frantic carnage.