Dishonored studio's Skyrim-like RPG getting massive free update later this year

One of Arkane Studios’ earlier RPGs is making a comeback in the form of a new re-release hitting Steam in the future.

You may know the name Arkane Studios from its more recent roster of stealth immersive sim games like Prey, Dishonored, or Deathloop, which have each become critical darlings over the past 15 years.

But prior to its rise in popularity, Arkane had also developed a couple of RPGs that have since become cult classics, even if they’re not too well known.

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic is one example, an RPG which blended high challenge gameplay with fun combat and excellent visuals. Among the immersive sim crowd, it’s a pretty popular game.

While Arkane tries to find a buyer to take on publishing duties for its upcoming Blade stealth game, a re-release of Dark Messiah of Might & Magic has cropped up on Steam created in collaboration with modding team wiltOS Technologies.

Arkane Studios' Dark Messiah of Might & Magic is a must-play for Dishonored fans

Dark Messiah of Might & Magic: Community Edition brings a huge update to the original game to help it become playable on modern hardware, with lots of fixes and improvements made under the hood to make the 2006 title more approachable.

It restores cut content, adding new gameplay mechanics like sliding, new spells, new weapons, and new transformations, as well as lots of content that was previously exclusive to the console version.

Most importantly, this version of the game also has a load of new game modes. New Game Plus is now a thing for players who want to take their upgrades into a fresh save, and the brand new co-op mode gives you a reason to team up with friends to take on the game’s challenging combat.

Read More: Devs Say They "Did Not Want To" Call Their Game 'Prey', But Were Forced To

Not hard enough? wiltOS has also introduced a new challenge runes system which makes things more difficult for you.

This is on top of other things the mod is doing, such as providing much-needed engine upgrades, as well as controller support, achievements, and Steam Workshop for extra mods to be added.

It’s worth noting that most of the features in Dark Messiah of Might & Magic: Community Edition were previously available as mods, but this re-release at least collects it all into one place for those who want an easy way to access the game, and would rather not contend with the original Steam version which is a little iffy to get working on modern hardware.

The re-release has also had approval from Ubisoft and Valve to go ahead, making this the definitive version of the game to check out if you ever fancied doing so. You can even disable most of the extra content if you want an experience that is a little closer to the original release.

Dark Messiah of Might & Magic: Community Edition is coming out later this year as a free expansion on Steam, so long as you own the original game. You can wishlist it now on Steam.