Old-School gameplay? This game had and still has one of the most original gameplay ever. It features an awesome game design and atmophere. Brilliant graphics for the time and a pumping soundtrack.
Absolutely one of the best games from Shiny, in par with MDK and under certain aspects even more original.
The only flaws are know problems with Windows XP \ Vista, but there are workarounds and the game is fully playable, or will be not on GOG.

modern gamer? what does that even mean.... you try finding a game as original as this in today's market...or maybe just go back to your 'modern games' lol and have fun playing another generic fps without story atmosphere or just any real food for thought.
oh wait, sorry i just figured out what modern gamer meant, you want everything handed to you on a silver platter :P

This is an early third-person 3d game, and as such, the controls are clunky and imprecise. If you are used to modern games with smoother controls, this could be a major turn-off. I'm all for difficult games, but fighting against the controls is something I abhor.

Yup. This is what Aland was getting at. The game is still very playable to this day but it's kinda sloppy.

Go play Call of Duty XXII then and you´ll get all the modern gaming you expect.

I loved this game back in the day, and I still enjoy it now. Still, I enjoy it for the originality of the stealth gameplay and the intriguing story. Bob was a memorable character.

However, it is also very true that, when I play again now, I would enjoy it much more if the action was more... how was it put? Modern? When it comes to shootings, it has a lot of room for improvement. I'm not asking for a Max Payne-like 3rd person shooter, but mechanics from something combining action and stealth like Hitman would be a very welcomed addition.

I think Messiah is supposed to be more of a strategic game where you get lost in the atmosphere; the combat system is pretty clunky and seems a little unfinished. A little more interactivity would have been great though, but it would have spoiled some of the comedy factor.

So... is there anything like Messiah recently? One with stealth and possessions? Note: this is a serious question.

Closest thing that I know of is the fairly lackluster (and extremely easy) Dishonored. It has stealth and you can possess people, though Corvo is the opposite of Bob in that regard (he's a badass in his normal form but a punk in others).

I have been playing Dishonored on my friend's PC since April or so this year (see my avatar) :-)

The characters in Dishonored were so unmemorable to me that I didn't recognize him. All I remember about them is that everyone, except Corvo, liked to go on really high-handed & ham fisted rants about morality. Even the (self-admitted) lowly boatman sanctimoniously lectures Corvo on morality. Ridiculous.

...come to think, I never used the Possession ability on any person in the game.

Though Dishonored was more easily and intuitively controlled than Messiah, so it has that over Messiah. I guess I can see the point of this thread as I've had the same problem with Messiah: it is clunky and unintuitive. It also lacked some "future-proof" coding. If only it had been modernized somehow.

Say, how are you still playing Dishonored? It, sadly, wasn't the world's longest game.

So far I do not remember myself using that ability either in Dishonored, not even on rats. I rely so much more on Blink and just stealth like in Thief games.

That is only because I play it on my friend's PC.

I am not keen on having Steam on mine, as the computer on which I download the games and one on which I play them are two different ones, and that in the one I use to play games I very rarely have internet connection. So GOG has served me fine in this aspect.

My friend on the other hand has no problems with Steam and his internet connection is also way superior than mine. But since I have limited time to play games these days, I only play like half an hour or so when I visit my friend. That's why it takes so long for me to finish a game that does not come from GOG.

Ah. I can support that, Steam is nothing but headaches for me. Sadly I wound up with it when I was just getting back into PC gaming and found out that my "free" Deus Ex: HR required it. In Dishonored, Blink really does break the game (albeit in a fun way) as it creates impressive shortcuts through what would otherwise be long-ish and tedious levels. I like the game (though I feel cheated by how they're doing the DLC) but I wish it had been more.

If only more modern-ish games were on GOG. If only there were more bona fide coop games on PC.

If only some game had taken the cool concept of Messiah and put it into a game that wasn't as adversely affected by a clunky control scheme, bugs and the realities of modern hardware (eg:widescreen monitors, the demise of 3dfx).

Second Sight and Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy have this mind control power that I like, but it is more like an option to take rather than the mandatory thing to do like in Messiah.