Ross's Game Dungeon: Messiah

Ross tries to carry out God's will for Christmas.
You can buy Messiah here if you're interested:
af.gog.com/game/messiah?as=16...
www.accursedfarms.com

[@XenoSpyro]

"Earth is in sad shape. I need you to fix it." "I'd rather not..." Probably the truest exchange you will ever hear.

[@monolith94]

Well, angels can’t lie...

[@TiroDvD]

G: It builds character. A: But I have enough already. A fucking plus.

[@BakilAskamrim]

Bob: Satan's out here! God: Yes I see that.

[@planescaped]

Bob is definitely winning most adorable sociopath award.

[@VeryPeeved]

indeed. he certainly would rather not. that statement was 100% factual and accurate. we have no reason to believe he was lying. this comment is rather redundant, therefore.

[@dshadow01]

From now on, instead of saying "amen" I'll end my prayers with the phrase "later, creator"

[@zaikolebolsh5724]

Two word that separate the heretic liers and the true believers DEUS VULT WITH THE BIG FAT CULT

[@espinita.]

I would do the same if I was religious. actually I'm just going to do it anyways

[@willywacker1607]

Gonna say it instead of goodbye to my dad and mom

[@vonFisch]

Don't go to church, it's bad for your anus

[@lvl10cooking]

@@willywacker1607what if you’re adopted tho?

[@Wondertruffle]

"You'd think this would fill the void, but it IS the void." Oh, Christ, he's just described all my leisure activities.

[@UndeadGirlCyber]

I love that the cherub is voice-acted by an actual toddler.

[@Target00smile]

Sounds like a 12 y.o. and it being the early 2000s he’d already be owning land and prolly going through his first divorce. Hardly a toddler; learn your history!

[@pradamik]

@Főfasírozó Errrr... that was obviously a joke, mate.

[@arelr6822]

@Főfasírozó oh fuck off

[@TapKim]

It fascinates me how quickly comment threads devolve into insults and cusswords.

[@arelr6822]

@@TapKim shut up

[@Casanuda]

"We'll see if god has abandoned us or not." -Ross at the end of 2019.

[@MrJavier1223]

Profetic words from the many he has exclaimed. And ones I hoped would not come to pass, at least not so soon.

[@PJKP82]

@@MrJavier1223 He calls himself a Messiah.

[@enoch13th85]

Ya, this is gotta be hell on earth. And this game sounds like it's about CERN. People should look into what those maniacs are doing, trying to open portals to other dimensions which their CEO even called the abyss on some BBC interview. This stuff should not be messed with.

[@lukeduran12]

@@enoch13th85 Nah, all they do is smash particles together at insanely high speeds. Its like hitting two marbles together, only you hit one so hard one turns to antimatter

[@enoch13th85]

@@lukeduran12 lol sure mate.

[@nickitaeagle2742]

"Your laptop is a bluescreen, and you're typing on it like you know what you're doing. You're not doing anything!"

[@dorpth]

Aural 3D is a strange instance of one area of computing technology that's actually REGRESSED as time went on. A3D was a technology that simulated positional 3D audio, and it worked FANTASTICALLY. With just a regular set of stereo headphones, it could simulate horizontal AND vertical sound positions. But then those bastards at Creative Labs (makers of Sound Blaster) bought them up in a frivolous patent lawsuit. Aureal eventually won, but the legal costs involved in the suit burned up their money and they were forced to sell out to Creative, who shitcanned the A3D tech to mainstream their inferior EAX soundcards. Positional audio technology STILL hasn't caught up to where it was back in 2000. Fuck Creative Labs.

[@Piotwor]

Hooray for corporationism.

[@Eltrio2]

That's slap suits for ya. Winning or losing isn't a matter of who's right or wrong, but who has the money to weather the storm.

[@dorpth]

Contrary to common belief about capitalism, it's often not the best product that wins out, but the 2nd or 3rd best product whose company is the most ruthless.

[@Eltrio2]

@@dorpth I'm gonna remember that quote. :)

[@dorpth]

@@Eltrio2 To be fair, I got it from Louis CK.

[@nathanielcrosby2426]

That final scene where Bob tries to talk to God but gets no reply reminds me of an idea, that I believe comes from Orthodoxy, that the true form of Hell is the complete and utter disconnection from God forever, an excommunication from the Big G himself. That it is the worst form of spiritual torment one could ever experience.

[@SPTX.]

Then an awful lot of people are concerned. That reinforces the theory that hell is actually just earth.

[@Xeknos]

I read it as God and Satan are the same entity. By killing Satan, he's also effectively killed God.

[@knate44]

Very close actually, though I think part of it also has to deal with people turning away from God causing it, and also I'm pretty sure Eastern Orthadox Christiany believes you can improve and reconsider even after death, meaning God should still be OK with accepting Bob post Satan murder.

[@GamingDreamer]

@@SPTX. Make sense

[@overlord165]

We have that in Catholicism too, the burning fires represent how it would be without god. Your sinful behaviour is what turned your back towards god and not the other way around.

[@MetalSocks]

I feel like every game should have a "Fear Factory Music: On/Off" option, even despite there not being Fear Factory music in the first place.

[@elGatoDeMar]

especially Plants vs Zombies. yeah

[@VortechBand]

Super Mario on squashing turtles and frogs: "I've got no more goddamn regrets!"

[@Butts666]

But then wouldn't the "on" option be a lie?

[@johnwerner6445]

Ahh! The game that Roblox stole the original "OOF!" sound from!

[@MouseGoat]

which actually would make this a historical important artifact, unles they also tok the sound from somewere else.

[@williamlydon2554]

I noticed that sounded similar.

[@KingLich451]

it's literally a stock sound, geez.

[@felipewerner6670]

OOF

[@keithburke5738]

OOFER GANG

[@grundbuchii974]

Just played the GOG version of the game with the help of dgVoodoo2. The enemies didn't have such an extremely fast reaction time when vsync is enabled and forces the game down to 60 FPS. For example, the friendly NPCs request the player character to take their weapon down before shooting when in combat mode. The extremely fast reaction of the enemies as seen in the video are likely a result of the AI being tied to the frequency rate, enabling vsync gets rid of that issue.

[@mightyNosewings]

I feel like when Ross has massive difficulties in a game, there's often some weird missing detail that would fix it. Except for adventure games, of course. Also: this may be the first time I've ever heard of the AI being tied to the refresh rate. Ah, the shit we used to get away with back when programming was less professionalized.

[@FullHitPoints]

@@mightyNosewings It's not the only time it's happened. For example, Sonic Adventure had the AI of its Leon type enemies tied to the framerate, which worked fine in the Dreamcast original where the framerate was capped at 30. In ports from the Gamecube and onwards, the game had its framerate boosted to 60, which results in broken behavior where it cloaks and uncloaks without attacking.

[@SaintDane]

Ai tied to frequency rate. Christ.

[@xweert711]

@@mightyNosewings I don't know how much it relates, but some bosses in Resident Evil 5 are impossible to beat on FPS's higher than 30. Wesker won't reliably reveal his weak spots and a late-game boss is literally invincible for the same reason unless you set the FPS limit to 30

[@Accursed_Farms]

I played the GOG version with vsync on (I have a 60hz monitor) also.

[@muddyboue]

The "Fear Factory Music" option aged surprisingly well. Nowadays, games with licensed soundtracks are including the option to disable said sountracks to avoid copyright strikes.

[@TheMaabusAdmiral]

Ah a christmas game dungeon, now things are starting to make sense. Merry Christmas everyone!

[@Entropy_91]

So you actually seeing the family, or is that only for special occasions like the imminent destruction of the planet?

[@AwfulWaffle8474]

On behalf of the country, we wish you a merry christmas.

[@TheMaabusAdmiral]

@@Entropy_91 my wife left me

[@DragoonBB]

@@TheMaabusAdmiral probably cause you only saw her when the world was about to end.

[@who3567]

@@TheMaabusAdmiral The plot thickens!

[@hallosx2]

"WIN! The will to live!" is probably one of the funniest fucking things I've ever heard in my life

[@jamestown8398]

The ending was sad. I was hoping that when God asked Bob to return to heaven earlier it was a test of faith to see if Bob would try to save mankind.

[@Fireok73]

God is a jerk. Who would have thought?

[@macrussell78]

Biblically speaking God is pretty petty and vindictive.

[@kgpspyguy]

@@macrussell78 To be fair, I think anyone who was forced to see AND experience 100% of humanities bull***t from the beginning to the end of time would lose patience pretty quickly. And don't give me any of that "he made us this way" nonsense. Every mistake that humanity has ever made was on us. This is especially clear in the original Hebrew translation of the Tora (Old Testament).

[@spinosaurusstriker]

@@kgpspyguy This is like tossing a baby for pissing in his pants, i mean is the creator of the universe gonna ignore millions of innocent lives because a good ammount of other people are a pieces of shit? Most of excuses ive seen ignore the fact that we are talking about an all powerfull being, supposedly, but it sounds more like he is just very powerfull and can manipulate matter, psychologically sounds very human, at least how the bible describes him.

[@willowcdxx3896]

@@spinosaurusstriker couldn't have said it better myself

[@ComradeSeanski]

"you call yourself the messiah? " hits similarly to "where did you learn to drive"

[@winfehler]

And let’s not forget: „Where did you learn to fly ?“

[@HerrFenchel]

@@winfehler thx, otherwise i w'd have posted it. ^^

[@JediEdi]

@@winfehler Every single time you hit something, it says that!

[@noahfessenden6478]

@@winfehler "Where did you learn to be an asshole!?!"

[@winfehler]

@@noahfessenden6478 *angry Jaguar noises

[@Scrubwave]

"I can't tell who are the club girls and who are the prostitutes".Yeah, same.

[@Scrubwave]

Hello.

[@gambucino1260]

lol theyll tell you

[@tenjenk]

What im wondering is why are there topless gals on conveyor belts at 23:46

[@Linkale_]

@Maintenance Renegade The difference is in the details, like the difference between donating a kidney or selling it to a mafia to pay the rent (notice the sarcasm)

[@tenjenk]

@Maintenance Renegade dude seriously. This isn't a platform for your poor self esteem. Especially if you're going to parrot tiresome internet cliche phrases. You're like static in an ocean of mediocrity with a 100k other people parroting the same statements over and over.

[@FightingForceSoulless]

So I hear "OOF" and I'm shocked. Is this where the legend was born? And indeed, it is.

[@alialatrach9788]

And what this even is?

[@joshuastender4871]

The "oof" sound from ROBLOX which has become a meme phrase in the streaming and KZbin communities

[@miwoj]

yeah, noticed that too. messiah came out 5 years before roblox, so as far as we know it this is the original OOF

[@gnostaoticanarchangautand]

@@miwoj its a freesound they copied it in multiple times its in the intro too.

[@kaz998]

@Shiny sylveon M.L.G. Do you have any proof?

[@bitnewt]

"Later Creator" is how I will train my children to say goodbye to me.

[@Dude902]

Worth watching just for the developer's kid voice acting the cutscene saying they'd put their foot up satan's ass.

[@Shamino1]

i haven't played this game in nearly two decades. I really, truly thought that this game was a fever dream when I attempt to remember it. *Really* sad they never attempted this sort of game again in the late 2000's, what a brilliant concept.

[@lepidotos]

Maybe not exactly the same, but Driver: San Francisco does the possession thing.

[@Rad-Dude63andathird]

​@@lepidotosOddworld was from around the same time too, and it has recent remakes that they plan to make new sequels from.

[@Billy-bc8pk]

Omikron: The Nomad Soul was very similar -- it's a one-and-done kind of game that no other game remotely came close to emulating.

[@RelativelyBest]

Fun fact: The biblical cherubim were actually very high-ranking angels (second only to the seraphim) and are described as looking more like Final Fantasy bosses than babies with wings.

[@humanitysucks4025]

It's funny how the Romans associated Cherubim with Cupid. So now cherubs are adorable baby looking atrocities, instead of flying warcrimes.

[@mynameisozymandias7150]

I guess Bayonetta represented them right.

[@lurksnitchtongue8986]

>insert nonsense lyrics to Sepheroth's theme

[@cupriferouscatalyst3708]

Man, I've missed Ross pointing out hi-tech machinery and infrastructure that doesn't make sense/serves no apparent purpose. Brings me back to early Freeman's Mind.

[@evanbradley6169]

It brings back fond memories of the crate smashing room. On a side note, it's always been a bit of a pet peeve for me when industrial levels make no sense, like having crates and barrels that aren't on pallets.

[@roadent217]

@@evanbradley6169 "it's always been a bit of a pet peeve for me when industrial levels make no sense" I guess it's a matter of taste - it doesn't annoy me, and in fact I enjoy when that is used for extra characterization. I just finished Thief 2, and seeing how spacious, careless and inefficient Karras's industrial fortress of Soulforge is only added to the villain's characterization as a lunatic madman who is industrializing for the sake of industrialization. "like having crates and barrels that aren't on pallets." Sure - as long as the game takes place post-WW2. Yahtzee Croshaw made the same point in his video "Yahtzee and Kess Play Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth", hearkening back to Old Man Murray's crate review system... except he's complaining about a game set in 1922. When pallets were just invented, and certainly weren't widespread yet.

[@evanbradley6169]

@@roadent217 I guess I should have specified *modern* industrial levels, since that's what I'm more familiar with irl.

[@alfredhadesworth9253]

@@roadent217 Why..are you breaking down the single sentence that his opinion, like you're writing an English essay?

[@dirtfriend]

@@alfredhadesworth9253 chronic pedantry. i'm afraid it's terminal.

[@PugDungeon]

Fun fact! I played this game all the time as a kid. The possession mechanic really captivated me. But I didn't understand a word of english so I was just blindly fumbling my way through the game, without any understanding of it. As it happens, I never got any further than Father Prime. So I unwittingly gave myself a good ending for Bob! Seeing him abandoned by god at the end honestly upset me a little.

[@hallucy2215]

stfu kid stop lying ur like 12

[@volo870]

Pretty much my experience - completed the thing till the end. Though lack of understanding English stopped me from comprehanding the ending... So I just gawked at explosions. Ladies in showers were also nice.

[@pistolmoth4198]

@@hallucy2215 shut up, dipshit

[@HQ_Default]

Well the good news is it seems like English-speaking players only understood slightly more than you did.

[@lurksnitchtongue8986]

Your English is excellent for learning it as an adult, but you being a furry makes me admire you less.

[@stevena488]

"Ross tries to carry out Gods will for Christmas" .... It's finally happened.

[@Abdega]

He always did know too much about cults

[@Guruc13]

"Ohhhh yeahhh! I've been * _activated_*!

[@AbcDefg-zt8xy]

23:25 - the chainsaw sound hints to the player that you need to possess a bunch of people and drop them into the thing you see on 23:38 . After you kill about 5 people that way, and press some buttons, the container with blood you see on 23:53 will arrive and only then you can fly out of the room. Well, yeah, the puzzle is nonsensical, but it's not completely meaningless! 48:23 - that club is the only place in the game where you can possess the Commander by kissing her as a regular guard. Was pretty amazed seeing that as a kid), too bad you didn't mention that. 55:30 - that energy battery is needed for shits and giggles - you can kill regular guards just by passing near them, since energy bar is radioactive. Thank you for covering the game of my childhood. The game definitely feels like a hazy dream sequence.

[@idontknowman420]

Thank you! You just answered so many of my questions which I thought to remain unanswered.

[@Mezurashii5]

I'm sorry this game was what your childhood was about, but at least it might've positively affected your music taste lol

[@craftyyoungster4528]

If you think that a childhood full of women in skintight bodysuits and cyberpunk bikinis, as well as forbidden-steroid-fueled musclebeasts and sewer-dwelling mutants in cool masks, topped only by power mad dictators wielding the vile magics of hand beams is something to feel sorry for, I, with all due respect, think you are a boorish blighter. No offense, schmuck.

[@balleet210]

Very informative! Thanks for the insight.

[@chinossynthesizer705]

@@Mezurashii5 jesper kyd made the music in this game

[@boner4098]

My headcanon is that at the end cutscene it's implied that...there is no God, actually. Cherub was send by Satan from the start, to kill Father Prime and help Satan to rule the Earth. It was actually revealed that Satan was speaking with Bob the whole time. He even summons cherubs at the final fight. With Satan's death, there's no one to reply to Bob.

[@emilchan5379]

That's actually a pretty good theory. Plus the first credit screen supports it too.

[@redspy6018]

I came back to this video after watching HBomberguy’s video on Tony Tallarico, and it’s insane to think that *this* game is the origin of one of the most iconic sounds in gaming (particularly for younger gamers).

[@johnfrian]

I instantly recognized it because I hate that sound. It's overused as hell and it needs to stop.

[@DecimeCuba]

@@johnfrian no u stop

[@marcellofunhouse1234]

@@DecimeCuba No u

[@nicestoriesnottherealstori3006]

Yeah and did not notice that until I was told today.

[@samredman1401]

First oof at 05:35

[@aruss1]

Oh man, that Interplay spinning globe logo is so nostalgic for me.

[@vicentgalvan70]

Oh yes. That one took me back buying mdk 24 years ago.

[@aruss1]

@@vicentgalvan70 For me it's Fallout 1 and 2 but MDK is great also.

[@saphojuiced6243]

It instantly got me expecting the game to actually be a classic Fallout. The association is hard coded in my mind. Set in stone. I've always thought the old rocket circling a golden globe was Fallout-themed and exclusive to them.

[@Billy-bc8pk]

I loved that sound, especially the original Interplay logo that was laser printed on a marble tablet. I used to love that so much for games like Cyberia and Fatal Racing.

[@louieandtommysdiscountedit3177]

It’s not Christmas until our crazy uncle, Ross, delivers the REAL gift that keeps on giving.

[@SavageGreywolf]

you misspelled 'cool uncle'

[@kabob0077]

Civvie 11 is the Crazy Uncle. The Cook Uncle is Steve1989.

[@vertigo4236]

Gun uncle is Ian or in his case Gun Jesus

[@DragoonBB]

The gift that keeps on giving till we all die of joy.

[@kabob0077]

@@vertigo4236 Indeed.

[@indeimaus]

dad satan is down here wha we gon do about it what u talkin bout we cant just abaNDON EVERYBODY!!!!!

[@Randomeaninglessword]

The voice lines for the protagonist are adorable.

[@maroonstarsface]

Still waiting on the resi 7 dlc video indi

[@truefailure6359]

God sends literal toddler to help humanity

[@RisqueBisquet]

Ross, you gave this to me while I was running a fever. I'm not even sure what's real right now. I'm looking out the window and all I'm seeing are badly textured cyber-pillars.

[@wereallgonnadiefromnukesoonlol]

Watching any Ross's Game Dungeon Episode while sick is a trip

[@EstrangedEstranged]

Messiah really did something interesting with possessing people. There were social effects to it (you couldn't enter the male bathroom if you're a female), but it was also unique in the way you switched perspectives in battle, constantly changing the answer to the question "who am I now". There were some interesting things that weren't shown. For example, prostitutes can kiss clients and vice versa and this "kiss" allows you to travel between the bodies without getting detected. The whole kiss had a very pornographic, abusive feel to it (the client throws the prostitute on the ground and wipes his mouth). Most important of all, the way people were used and abused gave it a very dark, nihilistic vibe. It's pretty significant that one of the first puzzles is putting people in a garbage crusher so that it spits out enough garbage so that you can climb onto it (that is, people are garbage). Or that as a worker in a radiation suit you kill your co-workers with radiation. However, I managed to keep alive almost every human NPC alive (except for 3 cops and 2 scientists) even though the game was constantly trying to make me kill them slowly in terrible ways. I even managed to save NPCs that were supposed to die in scripted scenes. The game is very flexible and you have the tools to accomplish this (and some bugs help, too). I didn't have a choice in the final battle though. In this battle people are literally your "hands" and you have to kill the "hands" you are not using so that the enemy doesn't get to use them. I see Ross had trouble there. You can actually pick a gun with the worker in the final fight so you can both shoot AND press buttons. It's funny that we've been so well trained by the game so far that workers shouldn't use guns that the idea that a worker can pick a shotgun doesn't even enter the mind. Overall I don't remember having problems with the game. I played it on hard (you die when your host dies) and I didn't find it that hard even though save scumming was sometimes necessary. Plus, I had the added self-imposed difficulty of keeping everyone alive! Seeing someone as hardcore and smart as Ross have trouble with it made me reconsider some of my beliefs about game design :(

[@planescaped]

The game had a lot of kinky vibes to it that tells me the devs probably should've rubbed one out before going to work. >__>

[@seigeengine]

Nah. Nothing wrong with sexual themes in a game where the final boss is Satan, and the plot involves God abandoning the Earth to evil.

[@Soridan]

@@planescaped let us not sanitize everything.

[@planescaped]

@@Soridan I remember it made 12 year old me feel quite odd. :P

[@Soridan]

@@planescaped That's nice, but technically you shouldn't have been playing it at that age. It has an ESRB rating of M (17+) for a reason. Ignoring it is asking for it. We don't mess with steaks just because babies can't chew it, and Playboy isn't "written" with children in mind either. :p

[@mcbadrobotvoice8155]

This is a nice Christmas gift

[@ninjacat230]

"if you are having bad migraine headaches and are hearing voices, you shouldn't accept what the voices are saying at face value." words to live by

[@NotHim-vb4bs]

At 19:01 "This is as far as you go, Halflife..." Yeah, THIS game is the half life killer

[@KingLich451]

hahahahah wtf

[@NoriMori1992]

NotHim8888 What's funny is that a lot of the areas in this game look like the bastard child of Black Mesa and the Citadel.

[@SomeKindaSpy]

an actual biblical cherub has four heads, wields flaming swords, and is big enough to consider mountains stepping stones. It would've been way more interesting if when you're booted from the body, you look like a Hieronymus Bosch painting with too many eyes and wings and odd geometric shapes. Edit: yeah, of course. The interesting parts of the bible where the angels are described are left out. of course.

[@demizson576]

Hmm... Big as mountains, too many eyes, odd geometric shapes? So, does that mean that the depiction of the 'angels' in Neon Genesis Evangelion was more accurate than most people think?

[@Insidelemon]

It was probably easier in the early 2000's/2000 to just model a baby that people would recognize than a bunch of polygon heavy objects that most people wouldn't immediately recognize as a cherub... though it would have been cool.

[@kloa4219]

Angels take different forms actually. Ezekiel's description is meant to be bizarre and not taken literally because they were out of this world

[@Abdega]

demizson576 Yes

[@macdeus2601]

Well, the Messiah isn't supposed to be an angel, either. (According to Judaism and Islam, the Messiah is just a human--the last Prophet who appears on Judgment Day to tell everyone whether they're going to Heaven or Hell after the world ends. According to Christianity, Jesus the Messiah is actually just the human form of God himself.) It's almost like they weren't even trying for scriptural accuracy.

[@noway9320]

After some research, I can CONFIDENTLY say that THIS is the video that made the "Roblox Oof Origins" viral, leading to Tommy Tallarico's weird scam lawsuit/erasing of Joey Kuras, and eventually the Hbomberguy video.

[@noway9320]

By including maybe 3 seconds of audio from the end of the game, Ross has managed to create a domino effect which has led to an almighty clusterfuck vaguely inconveniencing one of the largest American game companies, and completely torpedoing the entire faux-career of Tallarico.

[@Radvaldur]

This is a KZbin comment for the almighty algorithm. it contains words like, terrific, outstanding, incredible and brilliant to satiate its hunger for engagement.

[@katiacritten9975]

All hail the algorithm

[@LtSprinkulz]

This should be a trend.

[@earlpipe9713]

Brilliant

[@katiacritten9975]

@@LtSprinkulz I've tried to get it going in other comments sections but people never bite lol

[@nosferadu]

Outstanding. This video makes me want to binge ads all day.

[@OmegaF77]

Fourth award: "You call yourself the Messiah?"

[@mariic2]

Alternatively, "He's a Very Naughty Boy!"

[@qpwoeiruty668]

Oh man, I'm so glad Messiah is getting the recognition it deserves. While heavily flawed, it's certainly way too underappreciated and unknown to the public, and everything about it just screams atmosphere. By the way, a few things you've missed in your coverage: -Those Energy Battery Cells you can take with that special tool thingy? They're highly radioactive. You let those on characters that aren't radiation shielded, and they'll be in a perpetual stunned state until they die of radiation poisoning. Freaky, but it's one way to pass through the red-colored cops without possessing a worker. Funny how the commander can't see you possess the poor guy, even though she's looking through the tinted glass... that's old game design for you. -The door lights turning from red to green on proximity is done on purpose; this is the game's way of telling you you have the right character to pass through a door. If you don't? It'll tell you you can't pass without said character. -If you somehow killed the character necessary to progress (for example, the commander to go to sector 2), the game will after a while spawn another instance of the character so you don't get stuck. Developer's foresight! -Every character you can possess that holds grenades on their own can have unique grenade types: red cops hold your standard grenades, riot cops hold flashbangs that stun enemies, commanders have "grenades" that distort gravity around them, knocking down anyone they pass near (and even killing them if let in the field too long), and a chot variant has a proximity mine that throws flechettes in every direction. I like the commander grenades, they're fun as hell. -Sometimes the game hides small trinkets without telling you they exist, and you have to stumble upon them. In the shower room where you possessed the commander, those small black "closets" hold weapons, iirc, such as a bazooka. Try blowing them up, somehow? -To glide while possessing a human, you need to use the Chot Pak Gun, which on top of shooting "bullets" that slow down enemies slightly (it's a freeze gun hehe), when you hold the jump button it lets you glide down from heights which would normally kill you otherwise (as you've discovered). You can complete platforming sessions very easily while possessing a human this way! I might've missed a lot more, but it's a gist of many things the game just neglects to tell you about. It's a shame it never got the attention it deserved; it could've been as impactful as Deus Ex, but it just fell short. A remake with fixed up graphics and a TON of gameplay refinements and improvements would turn it from a 6 (out of 10) into a 9 or even a 10 very easily. But that's how it has to be sometimes.

[@mlynash]

Shiny entertainment. Balls of steel of game dev business. Each game unique, each with a trippy art style and a weird catch on top of it.

[@edgepixel8467]

I had so much fun uncovering all the details and secrets of this game.

[@DR3ADER1]

If anything, the game deserved to flop because David Perry was a fucking moron who overestimated the capabilities of 3D Accelerator Cards and thought that having his company make 4 games at the same time, with different design documents and skews was an intelligent decision. I listed an archived article from NEXT Generation (the US version of EDGE because Tim hated anyone using the word "Edge" in the US before EA did something that wasn't evil for once and wrecked his arse in a court case in 2008 over Mirror's Edge) in this comments section that demonstrated Perry's arrogance and ego. And how wrong he really was. Very few things make me annoyed, angry and butthurt more than stupid, self-sabotaging game designers with way too much ambition, because the game suffers in the long run while it's being developed. And such behaviour often leads to the developer closing down because the people up top couldn't keep their egos in check and simplify their design pitches.

[@backstreetzero2019]

I don’t remember it being anywhere near as frustrating as it looks here. I also remember you could break the possessed characters legs and they would still crawl about - crazy detail for a game this old.

[@Billy-bc8pk]

@@mlynashLot of games were extremely innovative back in the 90s, such as King's Quest VIII, The Devil Inside, Omikron, Redline, and Viper Racing. For those that don't know, Viper Racing was one of the first games to have physics-based soft-body deformation. Redline was like GTA 3 before GTA 3, combining FPS combat with vehicular traversal in a fully 3D world (at the time, GTA 1, 2 and GTA London were all top-down, 2D games). There was also Codename: Eagle, which was the predecessor for Battlefield, and Hunter Hunted, which was the first game to properly combine 2D action platforming with pseudo-3D parallax exploration. The level builder for Hunter HUnted was awesome too. Really great game with an equally awesome industrial grunge-metal soundtrack.

[@INSOMNIACification]

These old games always seem so dreamlike and strange, perhaps because your mind has to fill in more of the blanks due to the low res graphics?

[@hamedsarhangpour1825]

Good point 👌🏼

[@Ozziw162]

I love these kind of graphics from the early 2000's. It's kind of abstract and hugely imaginative. My favourite example of this kind of style is Anachronox, that game looks totally amazing.

[@theatomiclemon1]

These post ''wild-west'' games from around 2000 are usually the most interesting to dive into. Having said that, I believe that Ross could talk about his favorite wallpaper colors for an hour and I'd still be hooked to the end.

[@bashthelegend]

I love you Ross.

[@user-vu6vf4ev4m]

We all do

[@Renamoose]

3:58 MESSIAH!!!

[@whereammy]

I love him more

[@madscientistshusta]

@@whereammy well I love him *most*

[@TheHeroOfTomorrow]

Ross: "And I love YOU, random citizen!"

[@DawnOfTheOzz]

This game already had me when it had a music option for Fear Factory. Why don't all games have an option for Fear Factory music? Like imagine being able to play Doki Doki Literature Club! with "Dielectric" pounding in the main menu, "Invisible Wounds" playing during the more heavier parts, "Slave Labor" when writing poems and the end credits being Monika singing a cover of "Resurrection".

[@thepickles8833]

Hahaha

[@tommcewan7936]

Descent II had one for Skinny Puppy CD audio.

[@skazwolfman8622]

I know now that I will never know peace and contentment in this world until I hear Jillian Ashcraft singing heavy metal covers as Monika. Damn.

[@Lrr_Of_Omikron]

Best opening for a game ever. God telling a little kid to go fix earth than he throws said kid to earth. 10 out of 10

[@HelloChief117]

There's something about this style of graphics that leave things for the imagination to fill out. You don't get that with games that try to be overly realistic.

[@Accursed_Farms]

I'll be having a stream of Serious Sam tomorrow on Dec 26th where I'll be giving out 20 games to viewers from GOG on twitch.tv/rossbroadcast starting at 5PM UTC, though the giveaway will probably be at least an hour into it.

[@Tanuvein]

Which one? I haven't tried the HD versions

[@eurobeatbandit]

I think I got a christmas game for next year, Ross - Sam & Max season 2 episode 1. I don't think you can do better.

[@AlexanderFrost]

Hey Ross, just to let you know. That ending song was from another ShinY Playstation game called Wild 9 (with Messiah being advertised on the back of the instruction manual no less!). The song in question is from a stage called Drench which, you guessed it, is a water level and your character can't swim and dies if he falls in. (Link to the Manual: www.gamesdatabase.org/Media/SYSTEM/Sony_Playstation//Manual/formated/Wild_9_-_1998_-_Interplay_Productions.pdf )

[@EntaraXia]

It seems pretty serious !

[@xenosuki]

Ross, you can possess someone immediately if you are back to back with someone and leave the body. That would save you from a lot of frustration.

[@firstcooommment3675]

I remember this game. It took a quite a unique turn especially with the futuristic dystopia. But I mainly remember seeing this in old game magazines and how recommended it was for aspiring videogame designers.

[@__-yu8vi]

Something needs to be done about Tony Tallarico

[@jimbo2revengeance]

the spastic overly precise AI could be a result of you running the game at a high frame rate. Remember, a lot of games from this era used to tie AI logic directly to framerate. Good example is Hitman 2, or pretty much any Lithtech game.

[@Halfpipesaur]

>Hitman 2 Is this why I couldn't finish the second level? How am I only finding out about this after like 10 years? The game felt bruttaly hard in comparison to newer Hitmen

[@jimbo2revengeance]

@@Halfpipesaur Yeah, in Hitman 2 it makes the AI almost impossible to avoid. They gain wallhack powers, and also god-like intuition. Playing the game is almost impossible at that point. Not to mention it can also break scripting on a lot of occasions. Just lock the fps to somewhere around 30.

[@jimbo2revengeance]

@BrokenMikrofone not to my knowledge. F.E.A.R came out a long time after this trend stopped. But early lithtech games like Blood 2, AvP 2, Nolf, Shogo, Kiss...

[@SinaelDOverom]

So, this is another episode of Ross making fun of the game for technical issues caused by his own incompetence, huh.

[@SinaelDOverom]

@@Pablencjone I actually played the game just now. I forced VSync in the driver to limit the game down to 60 fps, and didnt have any problems with the AI. Just match the "expected FPS" with your refresh rate, and force VSync. Enemies are much less agressive The enemies you de-posess dont react to your presence until their head stops spinning, and if you posessed another guy during that time, they are completely oblivious. On harder difficulty you can stealthily reposess a different character by positioning your current one so that you smack into the next while deposessing. And so on. And a lot of other things are his fault too. For example the Guard at 24:47 react to him because ANOTHER guard alerted everybody that a strange thing just landed on their buddy. Ross didnt analyse the situation before jumping - he jumped into the guard that was under watch by another guard. Had he walked on the transparent walkway all the way around, he wouldve seen a different guard that is not watched by anyone else and totally safe to jump into. At 29:47? On fixed FPS npcs ask you to stop the agression or they will attack you, and if you dont comply - attack. Since he has his FPS uncapped, that "wait for player response" timer is way off, so they start shooting way faster (almost immediately). And so on and so forth. Most of the time the thing he is complaining about is his own fault.

[@EnordAreven]

ah the origin of the ooof.

[@clonetrooper2505]

"I guess we'll find out if God has abandoned us or not..." Right now, it feels like a yes.

[@warc9]

Three months later, yeah it still feels like that.

[@davidmiller9485]

@@warc9 Yeah well, i would chock that up to the way people behave. I'm sorta getting tired of people complaining about politicians who "won't do anything" when they are the reason that politician is in office. It's not that hard to stop listening to what they say and go look at their voting history (it's public after all). Granted, this applies to everything in life. Maybe i'm expecting people to be smarter than they are capable of being, who knows?!

[@Marcelelias11]

@@davidmiller9485 You are definitely having too much faith in mankind

[@davidmiller9485]

@@Marcelelias11 maybe... but i know for a fact that people are capable. Now, whether they do anything about that is up in the air.

[@antipsychotic451]

@@davidmiller9485 voting does nothing and NO politician actually has societies interests in mind. they exist only to create an illusion of free choice within the public so they can continue to pass policy that makes the rich more rich and powerful

[@genericwhitekidthesecond4330]

15:30 Half-Life 2 is probably the best example of this. You start off in a train station at City 17 and go through random areas of the city before escaping into canals and wondering for hours through marshland opposite of the Citadel, a zombie infested city, abandoned highways along the cliffside, a prison, and then eventually you are at The Citadel which is literally what you were meant to destroy from the start of the game.

[@IsmailofeRegime]

Yeah, it's a clear case of gameplay triumphing against realism since it'd be easy for people to complain about repetitive environments if you had to go through multiple apartment complexes, multiple warehouses, different sections of a large prison, etc.

[@Mozay3D]

To be fair, if you dropped off Gordon Freeman without any gear in the middle of the Citadel, not even his legendary adrenaline-fueled nerd rage could save him

[@kayeplaguedoc9054]

It's a shame this isn't a better game; I really dig the ideas behind it. It's very unique and has a lot of personality.

[@Tiger74147]

"You'd think this would fill the void. But it IS the void." ...damn, shit's deep yo.

[@Psycoticlese]

Idk if I'll ever view this video the same way after hbomberguy's ROBLOX_OOF.mp3 video

[@duuqnd]

But have you found *THE MAGIC* yet?

[@FluffyKedderang]

Find the goddamn magic

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

Find the Magic everyone.

[@CptCPT-dl9lh]

Didn't expect the ending to hit that way from a game like this. I love the concept.

[@_Adie]

This is like Omicron: The Nomad Soul, but funny

[@HC-qc5rp]

Top comment

[@giladpellaeon1691]

I sorta miss this era of graphics too, Ross. Some of it is '90's nostalgia, the other is that it seemed games took more risks and experimented more with concepts then they do now. Although being of similar age maybe it's that looking back and thinking everything was better back then (which has some merit. Merry Christmas and Happy Hogswatch Ross.

[@lehelisbored]

Have a like for the Pratchett reference.

[@DR3ADER1]

It was this risk-taking that LED to games being the way they are today. Because ambitious people are retards and egomaniacs who self-sabotage and self-destruct their "grand plans" all the time. Look at Daikanana and Duke Nukem Forever as examples of heavily-delayed, shitshows led by overly-ambitious and egotistical clowns.

[@GmodPlusWoW]

Fun fact: the developers of this game, Shiny Entertainment, also made such classics as Earthworm Jim, MDK (as nodded to by the flamethrower advert), and Sacrifice. Also, two Shiny alumni went on to form Planet Moon Studios, which was responsible for Armed & Dangerous (not to be confused with Armed & Delirious: Armed With A Squeegee) and Giants: Citizen Kabuto, both of which share similar a comedic atmosphere to Shiny's games, which makes sense.

[@LucasCunhaRocha]

Yeah, Shiny was a great devhouse, they had the craziest ideas for games, and made them with excellent graphics. MDK made my mind blow the first time I played it.

[@OsirisLord]

Okay these guys made MDK that explains a lot.

[@dragonMaster24921]

I'll gladly watch all Christmas themed games die for more of these dumb over the top Christian themed games, first Apocalyptica, now Messiah. Wherever your getting these Ross keep digging these games are oddly enjoyable to watch you review

[@MangasColoradas941]

messiah is more satirical than "christian" especially since you literally play as an angel that defies god and satan is also an angel that defies god

[@planescaped]

Worms Armageddon on a Christmas level would be great... Seems up Ross's alley too. :P

[@UltimatePerfection]

Here's how enemies can detect you through covers: You smell.

[@Jake_Eyes]

This wasn't the first game to use dynamic LOD scaling. Spyro the Dragon came out a year and a half before this, but I don't know if it was the first. The effect was a lot less noticeable at 320x224 resolution and a lot more necessary on the weaker (relative to a year 2000 PC) PS1 hardware.

[@jordanpritchard5226]

Wait a second... don't I know you?

[@nicefloweytheoverseer7632]

...

[@davistoa]

I mean, didn't Mario 64 have it, technically? When the camera moves far enough away, Mario uses a smaller polycount model. But I suppose it needs to be more more seamless to truly count.

[@Jake_Eyes]

@@davistoa How do you get the camera to move far away enough to see it?

[@davistoa]

@@Jake_Eyes When you fight against King Bob-omb, the camera gets locked on the original spot he stood at when the fight begins, if you then move far enough away you can see Mario's model change, like his nose gets smaller, hat more triangular, hands get flat and so on. Tho it only changes when mario is moving around, when he stands still he goes back to normal.

[@paleflame]

You are spoiling us with all this content, please don't stop.

[@Vistalgia]

Merry Christmas Ross and everybody else!

[@PixelPolishTV]

Finally! Someone who recognizes the unmeasurable potential of "half-recognizable" graphics in games. I've touched on the same subject in my semi-recent video - your mind filling the blanks and all that. It made gaming quite surreal, but also - weirdly enough - more real? Yeah, I know, it's convoluted, but it really works.

[@bepisthescienceman4202]

Your mother must be very proud

[@z3r0_35]

Alternative interpretation of the ending: Satan and God are one and the same. Killing one means killing the other. Also, fun fact: this is the game where the Roblox death sound came from.

[@geoffreywilson7008]

I'd lean into Satan being the last cherub he sent down, so we can turn this into a wierd cyclical mess.

[@thepickles8833]

Geoffrey Wilson That’s deep..

[@handsomebrick]

@barnyard I don't think Satan was an angel originally, his angelic status in Christianity seems to be a result of him getting combined with Lucifer, who is a different guy entirely (that old Zoroastrian influence showing up again).

[@KrinkelsNG]

A tremendous christmas gift!!!

[@lordcybercat4968]

Hi guyz

[@-ShiraZen-]

Yoo, Krinkles is a Ross fan.

[@10848]

OOH ! MR KRINKELSSSS ! ✨SECRET FOUND ✨ AND ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED 🏆

[@Scallycowell]

“Later, Creator!” My man

[@Arexion5293]

Seeing what Ross had to say about all of those platforming sections, now I kinda want to see him play American McGee's Alice. It has even more platforming in industrial environments combined with actual trippy visuals and scenarios.

[@Heroofclowns]

As a child, I thought this would be the coolest game ever, and I remember playing I believe a PC Magazine demo for it over and over... But I never got too play the full game.. I was so excited when I saw this video! It is making my Christmas!

[@planescaped]

I played the same demo a ton as well, IIRC it was during the red light district part. I also remember around the same time playing Startopia.

[@Heroofclowns]

@@planescaped Yeah I remember this and the Kingpin demo at around that time that I thought they were both the coolest things ever! Never played either, and I don't think either of them would have ever lived up to my hype for them!

[@Tumoxa89]

R.i.P Shiny Entertainment. You were too good for this world.

[@SomeGuy-fn7in]

Broooooooo up until this very video I was convinced that this game was some fictitious fever dream from my childhood. Thank you for proving, finally, that I am not crazy 😂

[@TheRealFaceyNeck]

What an ambitious project this was! I can see what they were going for. The whole video was kinda non-stop blue-balls, with them non-stop about 80% of the way there. Yeah, a reboot would be incredible. The concept of the game is incredible, well to me anyhow. It's wonderfully blasphemous. Great video Ross.

[@titansjojo1445]

It would be cool to see someone take another shot at this concept. I greatly enjoyed being along for the ride in this game, while being very thankful I wasn't the driver.

[@thefacelessstranger4983]

That Interplay logo almost made me cry.

[@Gcrowan]

I remember having a demo of this as a kid and thinking that the possession mechanic was one of the coolest things ever at the time.

[@hayaokakizaki4463]

"Oh God... I'm a cop." "That's actually what most people say when they become cops"

[@exhortatory2996]

You know, I always suspected god might sound like oney doing a voice with some reverb

[@Assimandeli]

"Later, Creator!"

[@MXOY99]

Love this art direction so much, hell I'd love a full remake (with OBVIOUS changes) with ray tracing...

[@ryancole3058]

52:32 hey that noise sounds familiar, I wonder if there's a youtuber out there who can tell me about it for 2 hours

[@philmcdonald3322]

Oh heck, I remember Santa Claus in Trouble- I played that game a bunch when I was too young and stupid to know what a good game was, and this video brought back all those memories...

[@Guruc13]

Ahaha! Aww! I'm happy for ya, mate!

[@HQ_Default]

14:52 I like how this is almost word-for-word what happens in Dishonored. I mean you don't do that for the actual dictator himself, but you _do_ do that for the head of the religious sect.

[@Morec0]

Corvos' Mind wen?

[@PsychoJosh]

I can't wrap my head around this game. Is it supposed to be comical? Serious? Did they even playtest it and find it fun? Why are there so many drastic tonal shifts? This game leaves my head hurting more than Armed and Delirious.

[@notoverwatch6991]

It's epic.

[@LtSprinkulz]

It has a similar tone to oddworld where the premise is ridiculous but the world itself takes it all seriously.

[@TrojenMonkey]

@@LtSprinkulz Sure, but Oddworld is consistent in its gameplay and image, while this game is...A mishmash of mechanics and inappropriate puzzles that come across as glitchy. It's hard to imagine what exactly they wanted to do with the game, like many 90s games.

[@LtSprinkulz]

@@TrojenMonkey Yeah. Thats why I said tone, and not the entire game. ☺

[@TrojenMonkey]

@@LtSprinkulz Gotcha.

[@DirgeMacBee]

I've been trying to find the title of the movie Real Men for like 15 years. I had vivid memories of seeing part of it on TV and remembered the aliens and the pointing and going bang. I was never able to Google it. I cannot say how happy this has made me today.

[@Darxide23]

This wasn't the first game to use dynamic LOD. It was Tessellation that they pushed really hard in the marketing and reviews. It was one of the first commercial games to use the technology. You can see it whenever you possess someone and the character model starts warping all over the place. They even bragged about how they did it before the guys at iD started looking into using it for the Quake engine.

[@Al1987ac]

Wasn't the bragging true though? I don't remember Quake 3 using tesselation.

[@Darxide23]

​@@Al1987ac Just because Quake 3 didn't use it (I don't know if it did or not) doesn't mean the Quake engine didn't end up supporting it. I have no interest in researching further than my original comment. I just knew Ross was wrong about this being an early example of dynamic LOD because I know that existed much further back and so I wanted to find out what it was he was remembering.

[@Al1987ac]

@@Darxide23 Probably Spyro as many of the comments say. At least it comes to mind first because the technique was handled very well artistically.

[@noobsaibot2255]

my dad got me Messiah and MDK2 for my 8th bday back in 2000 lol

[@Absolynth]

Those shifting textures on the character models was the most unusual looking thing back then. It's the one thing that I remember about this game.

[@potaterjim]

This game honestly looks _fantastic_ for the time, damn

[@goobydntfear]

this game is so fucking amazing, it has one of the most unique art styles, especially the character models are rendered in such an odd way, their whole bodies keep pulsating, its so odd. i love this shit

[@Rob_Kankerboef]

best way to possess someone in this game. Stand back to back with them. Unposses your current guy. You jump out 1 guys back straight into the other guys back

[@DaglessMc]

I think the ending implies that God and the Devil were the same being, and you killed him.

[@NEEDbacon]

Would make sense since the voice in your head was implied to be god, but then the twist that it was the devil happened. And when you get rid of Father Prime God is like "Good job, now come on back and leave earth to the devil". I haven't played Messiah but from what I've seen it seem like you don't get any more messages after the reveal so.

[@kloa4219]

God communicates to you on Earth, not on the moon. So that's likely the gag there.

[@LucasCunhaRocha]

damn, makes sense, also when you are near the behemoth area it's the devil that keeps talking to you on those moments where you have the headache thing.

[@planescaped]

I didn't think of that... and if that is what they intended that's actually really neat. Though I have a feeling that wasn't the intent.

[@ricardobelogeneralplastro1319]

Ross, pretty sure you can order cops around as a Commander, I don't remember the key combo off the top of head tho. I remember it's finicky and requires you to press the key as the cop does the salute The Chots use infrared masks, thats their explanation for wallhack vision (according to the manual at least) :P

[@espinita.]

I REALLY wanna see this remade today

[@thepickles8833]

“Turn off Fear Factory”? What madman would do that?!!

[@gabd.5299]

This game was so visionary, it has an option for the streamers of the future!!

[@lovecraftcat]

Funny that, they were huge back in the dark ages of mid 2000s but nowdays only Carmageddon fans even remember the name

[@gambucino1260]

the pickles, do you feel lost now since tbfp broke up?

[@DarkPlague20]

@@gambucino1260 or The Pickles has always existed, and always will, for The Pickles is eternal