Games PC MESSIAH User Manual

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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

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Interplay Productions

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

3

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

4

STARTING THE GAME

4

PLAY GAME

4

OPTIONS

4

INTRO

4

DIFFICULTY MODES

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EASY - "Disciple"

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NORMAL - "Prophet"

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DIFFICULT - "Messiah"

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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

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TARGETING IN WEAPON BASED COMBAT

12

TARGETING IN SNIPER MODE

12

SECONDARY WEAPONS

13

HAND TO HAND COMBAT

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POSSESSED CHARACTER'S SPECIAL ABILITIES

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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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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.

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.

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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

Fig. 1

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.

Fig. 2

• 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.

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.

Fig. 3

Enemies use grenades liberally during combat.

Bullets falloff 25% faster than Normal difficulty mode.

MESSIAH

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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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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

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Fig. 3
Fig. 2
Fig. 1

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

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

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

at the center of a door while facing it.

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

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

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Fig. 4

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

“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.

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.

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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.

-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

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pose a threat if you are spotted.

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