I am seriously jonesing for some Dark Messiah right now. Ubisoft's upcoming first-person spin-off from the world of Might and Magic, feels a lot like a finely honed upgrade to Hexen.

The game is split into two sides, the humans and the undead. Both have the same character classes, each with unique abilities that seem to offset each other.

I got a chance to play some multiplayer in the PAX exhibit hall as a warrior, archer and assassin.

They controls were fairly intuitive. As a warrior you could either click to slash at an enemy or hold in the mouse button to charge up for a more powerful attack.

Up close the warrior can't really be beaten. If he runs into another warrior their attacks can actually parry each other, so it becomes more of a game of cat-and-mouse.

The assassin's basic moves involves a charged backstab and a stealth move that makes him nearly invisible for a set time limit or until he attacks.

The archer is great at distance attacks, but it felt like it takes a lot of sniper-like finesse to make the character work. I couldn't quite get the distance down for shots.

One of the really cool things about the game is that your characters gain experience during the lengthy rounds. This experience can be used to upgrade attacks, unlock new spells or weapons.

For instance, an upgrade for the archer could mean a double shot arrow, which is essentially like a shotgun blast, or an arrow that binds and slows an enemy down with vines. One of the upgrades for the assassin was a poisoned knife. It's a pretty cool system. Though it sorta sucks that you loose it at the end of the game.

The mode we were playing required one team to capture and hold four points on the map. I'm not sure what other modes will be included in multiplay when it launches.

I think I would be fairly OK with just the typical multiplayer modes, but it would be nice if they came up with some unique modes for the game.

The only other problem I see with the game is that it could get a little tedious not being about to select your weapons like you can in a shooter. It would have been nice if they offered each class the ability to choose from a variety of weapons or spells when they start and then make the upgrades unique to their choices.

Even without that though, I can see me spending a lot of time on this game. Brian Crecente