Content review for this game:
Pertaining to the ESRB rating.

Full content re-review coming soon...

Blood and gore: The blood spurts in large droplets and moderate amounts when you shoot or hit an enemy. Blood does lingers in puddles, splatters on walls/floors, stains enemy clothing, and your weapon. Dispatched bodies do linger, and you will see many dead, bloodied, (some hanged) human and monster bodies scattered throughout. You can lop off enemies' heads with certain attacks—moderate amounts of blood spurting from their necks inluded; when they're down you can impale them with your weapon; you can kick enemies into walls of spikes (skewering them), resulting in heavy blood splatter; and undead have a grotesque appearance, with rotting flesh and muscle and skeletal system visible. There is no option to turn blood off.

Specific scenes of blood & gore:

The introduction (CG) shows a large character garbed in full body armor, who then throws a bloodied skull into a deep well, revealing his freshly cut hand.
After you heavily injure a giant cyclops with a mounted ballista, an allies shoves his sword in its eye, causing a heavy amount blood to spilling from its wound.
You see a ghoul stab an injured, bloodied man (with blood smeared on the floor around his body) in the throat with its claws, causing moderate blood splatter.
While trying to infiltrate a ruined temple, the main male, female and a side character see a giant enemy dragon in the sky. The dragon then swoops down and kills the side character with its claws, resulting in moderate blood splatter.
In one area you see a severed pig's head lying on a table—in moderate detail.
Sareth (protagonist) has a vision; he sees a woman impaled by a large spike.
In a later area you see a large, bloodied (undetailed) pile of dead goblin bodies.
One area shows ghouls (who look and were once human) hanging on a dungeon wall. Their hands are pinned above their heads, and they're missing the entirety of their lower body (navel down), with entrails hanging to the floor and their blood heavily staining the walls—they arre still conscious, and weakly wriggling.
In one of the later levels you see strange, archaic decor in an enemy facility; fully wrapped mummies hanging in cages attached to the wall, and miniature mummies with spikes in their middle, their blood lightly running down the wall.
A readable books explains that ghouls are unwilling spirits forced into bodies of the dead by necromancers, and have an insatiable urge to feed on human flesh.
Later on, you come upon the enemy necromancer's lab, with blood smeared all over the walls and peppered on almost every inch of the floor. You see many dead, rotted human bodies on experimentation tables, and many more of the half bodied (and conscious) ghouls hanging on the lab walls. You can also sneak under the lab by going through the drain pipes, which are full of blood (instead of water) of the victims, and several rotting bodies.

Intense violence: One thousand years ago, a wizard, the Seventh Dragon, sacrificed his life to seal away an evil demon and bring peace to the world. In present time, a young man named Sareth has been trained by his mentor as a warrior and mage, for the purpose he has yet to know. When Sareth is sent to help his mentor's old friend and retrieve a magic skull that once belonged to the Seventh Dragon, he finds many things (and people) not quite what he thought them to be...

At the beginning you can pick between four classes (this is a pseudo-RPG), with your choices being the Warrior, who's specialty is the sword; the Archer, who's best with bow & arrow; the Mage, who deals in magic such as lightning, fire, telekinesis, etc.; and the Assassin, armed with dual daggers, and the only one who can commit sneak kills on the enemy. And the base gameplay consists of exploring levels and using your weapons and/or magic to fight through the waves of enemies, while you solve minor puzzles, scale high places with your rope bow, collect hidden items, jump from platform to platform, and defeat the occasional boss.

You'll encounter a variety of enemies; fully armored humans, necromancers, ghouls, goblins, orcs, giant spiders, cyclopes, dragons, zombies, floating cyclops octopus; and later in, newly transformed zombies (who look fully human); depending on what class you choose, you'll be fighting them with staves, bow & arrow, swords, dual daggers and magic. The combat system is moderately brutal and violent, with you being able to kick enemies into walls of spikes, crush them with heavy objects (like chandeliers, etc.), and push them off high places. If you're equipped with a sword you can charge your attacker, and plunge it into the enemy's chest, or sweep it across their neck (often) beheading them. If you're a Mage, you can set enemies ablaze, causing them to scream in a haunting tone as they burn alive, or shock them with lighting and cause a similar reaction. If you're an Assassin, you can sneak in on unsuspecting enemies and stick your dagger into their necks, or at long range, you can throw your daggers for the same effect. After wearing an enemy down enough, they'll try to slowly limp off and scream for help, only for you to finish them off.

Last of all, the game has a strict policy on killing your allies, and if you hit Leanna, civilians or allied soldiers, it will immediately start you from your last save. The story has an occult (albeit fantasy) overtone; mutilated human bodies being reanimated by necromancers, strange and macabre decor, bloodthirsty and bizarre enemies, and a main character who is possessed by a demon. And a little more than halfway through, you find out that Sareth is the game's namesake, Dark Messiah (the main villain's son) brought about to free his demon father and rule the world. You'll then gain the option to go into your demon form and feed on enemies' energy. This introduces a few moral choices later in. The small choices consist of whether to kill or leave innocent workers be in the necromancers' lair; fight the leader of the orcs fairly by using only melee weapons, or cheating and using magic—the rest are listed below.

Moral choice:

Specific scenes of intense violence:

Partial nudity: Sareth has a vision where Xana appears nude and on all fours before possessing his body. However, although she is in the female form, she isn't human; there aren't any secondary details, the shot is extremely brief and her chest is mostly covered by her long hair. Later, Sareth has a second vision of Xana, and this time you see a full-frontal view of her for about 30 seconds, with both her breasts (no nipples) and "groin" (no genitales, just skin) visible.

Suggestive themes: (The ESRB didn't mention this in their rating) This category is made up almost entirely of your female companion Xana, who has the need to say everything in a sexual, sensuous and seductive tone.

The two main female characters, Leanna and Xana, are both very busty, and the few times you see Xana dressed she appears in a cleavage revealing dress.
When you come upon your targets house, it Xana prompts to state, "You know what they say about the size of a man's front gate. That must be his house."
After you walk into a tavern, a waitress asks if she can help you with anything, causing Xana to suggestively say, "They seem to sell more than just 'ale' here."
Early in, when you discover a secret tower with a small bedroom, Xana notices and states, "This is a nice quiet place. Oh, too bad we have other things to do!"
After having a disturbing and questionable vision about Xana, Sareth asks her about it. She then states, "I'm a friend, an ally. And I could even be...more."
While fighting some enemies and putting yourself in harm's way, Xana says, "Be careful with this body, Sareth. I've got uses in for it in mind, you know?"
After you save Leanna, she thanks you and gets back to work, prompting Xana to say, "You know, if it'd been me, I would have thanked you...properly."
After the main character gains a boost in his powers, Xana states, "Oh, can you feel me in your blood like fire?! Oh yes my prince, we'll be together forever!"
After escaping the enemy and retriving his equipment, Sareth says, "I felt naked without this!" Xana replies, "There's nothing wrong with feeling naked, Dear."
While fighting a certain enemy, Xana says, "Mindless vermin! All they do is eat! But there are better ways to have fun...aren't there?"

Mild language: (The ESRB didn't mention this in their rating, although it's mild.) There are three or under uses of bastard, d*mn and b*tch in the main script. Other than the main script, there is one use of "damned" in one of the game's—optional—readable letters, and one—in context—use of "damned" in load screen text, which explains the current mission. There is no option to turn language off.

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