The weird, angelic shooter Messiah is now on Steam

Originally released in 2000, Messiah is a bizarre third-person action game starring Bob, "a working-class angel" who's been ordered to clean up the grotesque mess that is the future of humanity. As a Cherub, he's not much of a fighter, so instead he relies on the power of possession to take control of any person or animal in the game in order to do what needs to be done.   

It didn't quite live up to its "play by your own rules" ambitions, but as we said in our review—which you can still read thanks to the magic of the Wayback Machine—it was "a fun ride," with "wonderfully detailed scenery, a good array of weapons, and plenty of opportunities for battling against combat-savvy enemies." And now, very quietly and without warning, it has arrived on Steam

As you might expect, the Steam release of the game doesn't require much in the way of a PC to run: Windows XP, a 1 GHz CPU, 256MB RAM, and a DirectX 7-compatible graphics card will get the job done. The listing warns, however, "that Windows 10 operating system will receive frequent hardware driver and software updates following its release; this may affect game compatibility."   

The Steam release seems relatively bare-bones as these things go, with no listing for things like Steam achievements (although as someone noted in the forum, just getting it to run will be an achievement for some people), trading cards, or controller support. Somewhat oddly, it's also more expensive than the version on GOG, which also includes wallpapers, two separate soundtracks, and a forum avatar. It lists for $10, while the Steam release carries a regular price of $15/£11/€15—although it's available for 15 percent off until January 23.

Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

Latest in Third Person Shooter
Marvel Rivals characters - Hulk with his hands out as if he's grabbing the camera.
Marvel Rivals' growing roster of heroes scares me, but the game's director seems sure that all is under control: 'Everything is progressing smoothly'
Titus in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 3 reveal promo image
Praise be to the Omnissiah! Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 3 is officially in development
Marvel Rivals characters - Captain America running towards the camera.
All Marvel Rivals characters - current and upcoming heroes
Marvel Rivals Human Torch
Marvel Rivals is carrying on the tradition of chaotic patches after buffing two of the most annoying heroes, but I main one of them, so I'm not complaining
Mech in dry dock with person standing on catwalk underneath
How long can a live service game last? Theoretically, 'forever,' says Mecha Break developer: 'The last game I was in charge of has been alive and well for 16 years'
A player character with an ominous mask
The Forever Winter, my favourite extraction shooter, just overhauled its most contentious feature for the second time: 'It was a hell of a rollercoaster to make the adjustment'
Latest in News
Sony RGB LED panel tech
Sony's fixing the wrong panel problems while showing off its new 'RGB LED' backlight tech with outrageous colours and brightness
Super Mario World
Super Nintendo consoles appear to be running ever-so-slightly faster as they age and speedrunning detectives are hot on the case
A photo of an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor surrounded by DDR5 memory sticks from Corsair, Kingston, and Lexar
Fresh leak suggests Intel's on-again-off-again Arrow Lake CPU refresh is back on the menu (boys)
A Colorful RTX 5080 and its box
Three lucky folks in India can win the dubious honour of buying an RTX 5080 GPU at Nvidia MSRP
The Facebook 'Like' emoji logo is seen in this photo illustration on 22 August, 2023 in Warsaw, Poland. (Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Get ready to argue with your weird Uncle on Facebook again. Meta is rolling out its new fact checking solution to it's 190 million users in the United States
Gabe Newell in a Valve promotional video, on a yacht.
Go ahead and complain the discounts aren't as steep as they used to be, but Steam just had its biggest year ever for seasonal sales