This indie action RPG looks like Minecraft but plays like Dark Messiah, letting you boot enemies off ledges and body slam them into walls of spikes

The player fends off a bomb-chucking goblin with a broom. — (Image credit: Stephane Le Roy)

I consider it my sworn duty to keep you informed of games that channel the energy of noughties fantasy swashbuckling sim Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, and there are a surprising number of upcoming projects that borrow from the game with the best boot in the business. There's Alkahest, which has caught my eye on multiple occasions with its incredibly slick trailers (perhaps too slick, at points), and there's also Fatekeeper, which is a bit heavier on its feet than Alkahest, but nonetheless takes clear inspiration from Arkane's licensed warmup to Dishonored.

Now, a third game has entered the Dark Messiah wannabe chat. The Adventures of Sir Kicksalot is nowhere near as slick and glossy as either Fatekeeper or Alkahest. In fact, it doesn't really look like Dark Messiah at all. Despite this, it's trying the hardest to embrace the spirit of Arkane's games, and beats the other two in the fact you can actually play it.

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And The Adventures of Sir Kicksalot lets you do far more than boot foes into sharp objects. It offers the three-pronged roleplaying approach of fighter, mage, and sneaky bastard, but within that trinity are a whole bunch of more specific abilities and possibilities. As the trailer shows, you can cast ice spells on the ground to make enemies slip off ledges, zap them with electrified swords, throw objects at enemies, or throw enemies at objects. You can even pull an enemy spear out of your own body and throw it back.

The Adventures Of Sir Kicksalot - Trailer - YouTube

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Of course, a big question with games like this is "how does it feel beneath the fingers?" I wasn't convinced by Sir Kicksalot's trailer on this point, so I downloaded the demo and gave it a quick spin. And you know what? It's more satisfying than the trailer suggests. Combat obviously isn't as nuanced or physical as Dark Messiah, but there's enough complexity in the systems and thwack to your attacks to conjure that sense of swashbuckling. I killed a man with a lute. I kicked a lady off a ledge, and I set a pirate captain on fire by pulling a torch off a wall and throwing it at him.

For the price of $10 (£8.50), it veers close enough to the Dark Messiah fantasy to get a thumbs up from me. It also has a pretty funny script and zombies that you can chop all the limbs off without killing them, which earns it the Rick Lane sicko award for in-game actions that make your parents concerned.

Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.