Games PC MESSIAH User Manual

When I sleep I dream the same dream.

I dream I’m dying. Every night I watch

myself die as if I’m the killer, and as I kill
myself I experience happiness and joy, but
as I die I scream in horror and fear. Every

night I dream the same thing, and as the

nights go on I get scared. I really

shouldn’t have any fear of dying for I dwell

within the nirvana of Heaven and I’ve

walked in the valley of death. But maybe

this isn’t a dream...

- Bob

1

Interplay Productions

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PROLOGUE 3
INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS 4
STARTING THE GAME 4

PLAY GAME 4
OPTIONS 4
INTRO 4

DIFFICULTY MODES 5

EASY - "Disciple" 5
NORMAL - "Prophet" 5
DIFFICULT - "Messiah" 5

SAVING AND LOADING 6

STANDARD SAVE AND LOAD 6
QUICK SAVE AND LOAD 6

MISSION OBJECTIVE FROM GOD 6
BOB'S BASIC ABILITIES 7

RUNNING 7
WALKING 7
CRAWLING 7
GRABBING LEDGES 7
STRAFING 7
LOOKING AROUND 8
ACTION 8

BOB'S SPECIAL ABILITIES 9

POSSESSION 9
FLIGHT 11

POSSESSED CHARACTER'S ABILITIES 11

GENERAL COMBAT 11
GRABBING AND DROPPING WEAPONS 11
WEAPON BASED COMBAT 12
TARGETING IN WEAPON BASED COMBAT 12
TARGETING IN SNIPER MODE 12
SECONDARY WEAPONS 13
HAND TO HAND COMBAT 13

POSSESSED CHARACTER'S SPECIAL ABILITIES 13
WEAPONRY 14

STANDARD WEAPONS 14
SECONDARY WEAPONS 15

CLASSES OF CHARACTERS 16
HELPFUL HINTS 25
CREDITS 26
SOUNDTRACK 34
MESSIAH ON THE INTERNET 35

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Interplay Productions

PROLOGUE

Earth has changed. It smells bad and looks worse than it smells. The law has a new doctrine
of moral and physical brutality, inspired by a new regime of money, technology, and myth. The
leaders of the Earth no longer care about the people; Even knowledge and personality are just a
dollar symbol away. Life is a cheap commodity, and after hundreds of years the people have
sadly adopted this philosophy as their religion and government.

Science breathes a new life in this world. Computers crackle their optical and biological
nerves to serve their creators, unlocking the world’s mysteries. All of this new information is
pumped directly in the minds of the dictators they serve giving them superhuman intellect. Here
they are born into a new state of mind and life. “Give me mankind’s greatest thoughts and I will
crush them.” These words spoken from Earth’s new leader, informally known as Father Prime.
These minds no longer serve the people; people that they could design and manufacture
themselves. Like those given too much power, they serve only themselves by seeking
knowledge beyond science itself, into scientific myth. It is in this new study that they focus
their greatest energies. The quest has driven them deep into the universe beyond, leading to the
undeniable proof of the existence of Heaven, God, and Hell. Which one do you think they want to
try to control first? Hence our story.

Somewhere on the dark side of the moon is a facility built by the Fathers. There, they’ve
constructed a portal leading to Hell and to Satan himself. The Fathers have theorized that God is
too powerful and won’t easily be bargained with therefore leaving Satan who should prove an
easier subject to aquatint with and to study. If you can control Satan, you can control God; or so
they postulate. They also ponder the following. If you can control both Heaven and Hell where
does that put you? Just like anything scientific, immortal beings also are bound by the laws of
the universe, those laws that God has made for himself. These laws are the weakness that the
Fathers intend to exploit.

Of course God knows of the Father’s intentions. God’s defense is conceived and put forth...

Bob.

Bob is taken to Earth and given a soul, and has not a clue about what is really going on. God’s
creations - the infinity of the universe, life and souls - those are the tools God has been using
since the beginning of time and his gift of a soul, usually devoid in angels, is all he needs to

give Bob. This is how God works.... The Fathers know that God plans destiny. What God doesn’t

know is that the Fathers know through their technology what God has destined, thus making it
easy for them to work out their own strategy and plan for God’s destiny.

This leaves Bob in an unfamiliar world. His only defense is that not only does he have a
human soul, but he is also an angel and a spirit. This state allows him to enter the organic
bodies of the living and control them. Destiny is planned, for only God knows your true fate,
including Bob’s.

Bob will serve God’s need, conveyed through his given soul. Despite God’s guidance, Bob
follows his own path, directed by his freewill and assisted by his soul. God plans to acquire
knowledge about the Fathers; knowledge that they have learned to keep secret from Him. Little
does God know that his plan has already been anticipated by the Fathers who have taken steps
to guide Bob’s destiny towards their own goals. So God is doomed to lose to a new order of life,
and we all know you can’t change destiny...right?

Right Bob?

We shall see...

MESSIAH™

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INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

Place the Messiah disc into your CD-ROM drive. If autoplay is enabled, the installation
process will begin automatically. If the disc does not autoplay, go to your Start menu and select
Run. Click on Browse and select your CD-ROM drive. Select setup.exe and click Open and then
OK.

Follow the on-screen Install Shield prompts to install the game. When the game is finished
being copied onto your hard drive, you will have the option to launch the readme file, launch
Messiah, or finish and return to Windows.

STARTING THE GAME

Upon launching Messiah, the game will load the Main Menu. From here, you can choose to
Play Game, change your Options such as Control, Video, and Sound Settings, or watch the
Introduction to the game. When navigating the menus, the up and down arrow keys will change
which option is highlighted and pressing the Enter key will select the highlighted option. Press
the ESC key to go back to the previous screen.

PLAY GAME

After choosing Play Game, Messiah will ask if you would like to start a New Game or Load a
Game. Choosing New Game will allow you to choose a Difficulty setting at which point your
game will begin.

OPTIONS

When selecting the Control Setup in Options, you are able to change the default control keys
to play Messiah. In the Control Setup you will also be able to choose joystick control, adjust
mouse sensitivity, or reset to the default control configuration. Press ESC to save your changes
and return to the previous menu.

When selecting Video Settings, you will be able to configure your video device including the
adjustment of screen resolution. The game defaults to w depthbuffering. If while playing
Messiah you experience problems with parts of the game levels flickering or if objects appear in
front of behind others which they shouldn’t, try switching the depthbuffering setting to z.
In the Sound Settings area of Options, you will have the ability to turn CD music on and off and
adjust the CD and sound effects volume.

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INTRO

Selecting this will play the introduction of the game. Note that the introduction will also play
any time the player chooses to start a new game.

Interplay Productions

EXPLANATION OF EASY - DIFFICULT
GAMEPLAY MODES

There are three difficulty modes in Messiah: Easy, Normal, and Difficult. Messiah initially
defaults to Normal difficulty when you start the game and cannot be changed once a new game
has already begun.

EASY-(Disciple)

• Cone of possession is wide, the player can even

possess characters from the front (see fig. 1).

• If possessed character is killed, Bob pops out

automatically.

• Enemies are less patient if the player hides with a

short attention span.

• Enemies more often than not choose head on

confrontation instead of taking cover during combat.

• Enemies use grenades in a limited fashion.

• Enemies take 25% more damage from grenades than Normal difficulty mode.

• Bullets falloff 25% later than Normal difficulty mode.

NORMAL-(Prophet)

• Cone of possession is a bit narrower than Easy
difficulty mode. Characters can only be possessed from
the sides or back (see fig. 2).

• If possessed character is killed, Bob pops out
automatically.

• Enemies are patient and will wait if the player hides
during combat.

• Enemies will take cover during combat instead of
choosing head on confrontation.

• Enemies use grenades during combat.

• Enemies in guard mode can enter Sniper Mode and target the player.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

DIFFICULT-(Messiah)

• Cone of possession is narrow, characters can only be
possessed from the back (see fig. 3).

• If possessed character is killed, Bob is killed as well.

• Characters are very patient if the player hides with a
long attention span.

• Enemies take 25% less damage from grenades than
Normal difficulty mode.

• Enemies use grenades liberally during combat.

• Bullets falloff 25% faster than Normal difficulty mode.

MESSIAH™

Fig. 3

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SAVING AND LOADING

While playing Messiah there are two ways to save and load your progress.

STANDARD SAVE AND LOAD

Pressing the F2 key will bring up a listing of blank save slots. Choose a slot in which you
wish to save and press ENTER. At this time you may enter a description for your save game.
After entering a description, press ENTER again to return to the game.

If you press the F3 key, the list of saved games will appear. When the list appears, use the up
and down arrow keys to select a game to load. Once highlighted, press the ENTER key and the
game will load.

QUICK SAVE AND LOAD

Pressing the F6 key will Quicksave your game. When the F6 key is pressed, the game will
pause momentarily while the game saves and then the action will immediately continue.

If the F9 key is pressed, the game will load the last Quicksave and then the game will
continue.

MISSION OBJECTIVE FROM GOD

All right, Bob, here’s the low down. The Fathers, in line with their ultimate plan of ruling
Heaven and Hell, have through the use of technology created a portal into the spiritual realm.
Faking alliance, the Fathers have tricked Satan into traversing the portal. Once through, Satan
was imprisoned and is being held for study and questioning. Find the Fathers and see what you
can do to bring a stop to their heinous experiments. At last look, the Fathers were watching the
Satan experiments from their lair at the entrance to Main City. Work your way through Old Town
and see what you can do to gather more intelligence on the Fathers’ activities.

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Interplay Productions

BOB’S BASIC ABILITIES

RUNNING

When you press either the “Forward Movement Key” or
the “Backward Movement Key” you will by default run in
that particular direction. Your speed is faster than most
creatures on Earth, and in combination with your quick
turns, you are very agile compared to the clumsy humans.
Use your running ability for those sticky situations where
a quick escape is necessary.

WALKING

Pressing the “Forward” or “Backward Movement Keys” in combination with the “Walk Key” will
cause you to slowly creep forward at a much less hectic speed than your run. This is especially
useful for traversing small ledges where one false step will cause an untimely demise. Also
keep in mind that when you walk your footsteps will be silent, allowing you to sneak up on your
foes undetected.

CRAWLING

Pressing the “Forward” or “Backward Movement Keys”
in combination with the “Crawl/Crouch Key” will allow you
to drop down close to the floor and crawl around. This
ability is useful when trying to hide behind an object
without being seen or when trying to move underneath an
object which is too low to walk under.

GRABBING LEDGES

If you press the “Flap/Jump Key” while also pressing
the “Forward Movement Key” and get close to the edge of
a ledge, you will be able to grab hold of the ledge and
hang from it. Pressing the “Forward Movement Key” again
will pull you up to the next level. This is great for moving
up to another area which is normally too high to simply fly
up to. Pressing the “Backward Movement Key” will cause
you to drop back down to the next lower area.

While hanging on a ledge, you can use the “Left” and “Right Turn Keys” to move side to side
on the ledge in a hand over hand motion. This skill will undoubtedly be required during your
travels.

STRAFING

While running and turning is often sufficient for evading
most foes and simply traversing around the environment,
using the “Strafe Left” and “Strafe Right” keys will allow
you to move around the environment while still
maintaining focus on a desired target. This can be
especially useful while running around your enemies
while still keeping your eyes focused on them.

MESSIAH™

7

LOOKING AROUND

There are three ways to get a better look at your surroundings while moving about the

different Cities.

While in third person perspective, pressing and holding the “Look Around Key” will allow you
to use the Mouse to scroll around you and get a better look at your surroundings. While in this
Third Person Look Around Mode, you will still be able to move which makes this action
especially useful for peeking around corners. Releasing the “Look Around Key” will return you
to normal movement mode.

Another way to get a look at your surroundings is to press the “Enter/Zoom Sniper Mode” key
to go into a first person perspective. Once in this mode, you can use the Mouse to move the
camera around and take a look at areas you might want to examine. While in this Sniper Mode
View, you cannot move or turn but can strafe left and right as well as crouch. Strafing while in
this mode allows you to hide behind boxes and the like and just peek your head around the
corner to get a look. To exit the Sniper Mode View, press the “Quick Sniper Mode Exit Key.”

Finally, if you want to get a look behind you quickly, press the “Quick Look Back Key” to move
the camera quickly from behind your body to the front of it. This can be useful while being
pursued or simply seeing who has snuck up behind you. Pressing the key again reverts the
camera to its normal position.

ACTION

When you move around the environment, there are a number of items in the world in which
you can interact with. When you are in another creature, there are many more possibilities, but
more on that later.

In the bottom right corner of the screen

there is an icon called the Action Icon which

Fig. 1

(see fig. 1). However, there are instances in which you as
Bob can interact with certain world elements.

Fig. 2

at the center of a door while facing it.

Fig. 3

consoles or switches in the environment. Examples of
low-tech devices are on/off buttons and elevator switches.
An example of a high-tech device is a computer terminal.
Those high-tech devices with keyboards will require a
possessed character trained in their usage to activate

will change depending on the context of the
situation you are in. Normally, the icon
appears signifying there is no current action

One such instance is when you need to
open a door. When you see the Action Icon
for open door (see fig. 2), you can press the
“Action Key” to open the door. This open door
icon will only appear when you are standing

Another instance where you can interact
with the environment while outside of a
possessed character is to activate certain
electronic buttons and consoles. As a rule of
thumb, Bob can activate any low-tech

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Interplay Productions

them. When a low-tech device can be interacted with, a use icon will appear in the bottom right
corner of the screen (see fig. 3).

When an elevator can be activated, the

elevator icon (see fig. 4) will be displayed

Fig. 4

“Action Key” in combination with the “Forward” or
“Backward Movement Key.” Pressing “Forward” in
combination with the “Action Key” will cause the elevator
to travel up, while the “Backward Key” in combination with
the “Action Key” will cause the elevator to go down.

which means that the player must not only
activate the elevator but also tell it which
direction to travel. To do so, press the

BOB’S SPECIAL ABILITIES

POSSESSION

Some of the natives of Earth will not be receptive to your presence while others will be
merely curious about you. Take care, if you are spotted you may come under attack. To help
achieve your goals, you have been granted the ability of possession. You may possess any
entity in City Faktur as long as they are organic in composition. Any creatures that are
mechanical in nature are immune to your power of possession and thus must be dealt with
carefully.

The inhabitants of Earth are a great many things. Though they may initially seem to be just
getting in the way of achieving your goals, City Faktur’s residents open up many possibilities.

Armor

When Bob possesses a character in the game, the character becomes armor. Since Bob is

very fragile and can be killed relatively easily, it is in Bob’s best interest to possess a

character and use it like armor, absorbing any damage that is inflicted upon him. Once the

possessed character has taken significant damage, Bob can depossess and find another

character to absorb damage. Bob himself cannot be damaged while in possession of a

creature.

Keys

Many areas in the City are only accessible to certain characters, just as in real life. A

Security Facility, for instance, is not open for prostitutes to explore. In order to take a peek

inside, Bob must first possess a Cop who can then reasonably move freely around the facility

without arousing suspicion.

Camouflage

When Bob possesses a character in Messiah, he must then effectively be the character. Once

in a worker for instance, Bob can’t just go traipsing around a Security Facility at his leisure.

After all, he is a worker. Once in a character’s body Bob will have to act like the character or

his cover will be blown. When the whistle blows and the Cops all head out for their lunch

break, Bob better go too or the Cops will surely get suspicious.

Health

When Bob is running low on health, he can replenish his own body by jumping into another

creature. When Bob is damaged and he possesses another creature he will take health from

his host in proportion to the amount he has already been damaged.

MESSIAH™

9

If you happen upon a creature of organic make up, you can possess their bodies by carefully
catching them defenseless from behind. This is important. City Faktur’s Dwellers can usually
only be possessed from behind and not from the front or sides. Once a creature sees you either
in front of them or out of their peripheral vision they will become tense and defensive thus
resistant to your possession attempt.

Here’s a step by step example of how to possess your prey.

- Try to stay out of sight until you have a good opportunity

to possess a creature from behind.

- Once your opportunity presents itself, make haste to

overtake the subject from behind.

- While running up behind your prey, flap your wings once

or twice and sping toward the target’s shoulder blades.

10

- If all goes as planned, you will dive into the creature’s
back and thus into their spirit and consciousness. When you
have possessed a character, you will see a halo over the
creature’s head indicating to you which creature you are in
control of. Other creatures in the world will not see the halo,
it is merely there for your benefit to help you easily pick
which creature you are controlling even if you’re in a crowd.
You now have complete control of this entity and will possess

all of their individual strengths, weaknesses, and special abilities until they are killed or you
choose to depossess.

While stealth is your best strategy in possession situations, you may at times be spotted
before you have a chance to find a new host. If this happens, you must either find a good place
to hide until the situation cools off or make a break for it and try to get behind a creature for
another possession attempt.

You can depossess a creature at any time by simply pressing the “Depossess Key.” Once you
depossess a creature they will be stunned for a moment or two while they try to get their
bearings again. During those few moments that the creature is disconcerted, you must either
find a place to hide or find a new host. Once those few moments have passed and the subject
regains its senses, the creature will begin to return to their normal behavior and can again
pose a threat if you are spotted.

Interplay Productions