Enclave

"Two Thumbs Up!"

This game just goes to show that you can't trust ''professional'' reviewers with a game that can't be beaten on the first try. The difficulty is nowhere near as extreme as people would have you think. If you've played Gran Turismo 3, and managed to get three or more licenses, then you have more than enough patience to get through this game because it's easier than that.

Gameplay: 8
The controls are adequate, it's standard action game controls. Left analog to move, right analog to aim (note: this is not an FPS, though you do make great use of ranged weapons). The other buttons are for blocking, attacking, switching weapons, switching different weapons of the same type, and drinking potions. You won't find the combat revolutionnary, but I liked it. The gameplay consists of fighting and puzzle-solving your way through a level for various reasons (usually ''find item X'' or ''kill boss Y''), all the while avoiding the traps the enemies or environment lay for you. Like I said, standard action game, but it DOES have its own style.

You start out as a knight, but you can rescue other characters throughout the game. The characters can all be great or horrible depending on your playing style. If you suck at aiming in console FPS', you'll hate the Huntress/Assassin (ie, archers) and the magic classes, and go for the melee classes instead. However they're different enough to create an entirely different experience, and some are better-suited for certain levels than others, so limiting yourself to one character type will definitely bump up the difficulty level.

On that note, the difficulty IS hard, but not as hard as people make it out to be. Seems that the main problem they're facing is that dying makes you restart the level. However the levels themselves are pretty easy once you've played through them once or twice, and I'm talking about the hard ones here, the easier ones can be completed on 1st or at most 2nd try. The ''cheap deaths'' involve changes in the environment, ie bombs exploding the road you're walking on, or a bridge collapsing as you traverse it...however if you simply WALK instead of running, you'll easily avoid death on your 1st try. And since those events are scripted rather than random, you will obviously not be caught unaware on your 2nd try if you had died to them previously. The bosses are hard however there's a checkpoint near them.
So the game is harder than the average next-gen game but not harder than your average 8/16-bit games. If a casual gamer like me could get this far in it, so can you.

You collect gold throughout the level that can be used to purchase equipment, though the shop system is different than in other games: once you've found, say, 500gp, it's PERMANENTLY in your funds across all characters. That means you can equip a 200gp shield, and a 300gp sword, and then if you die at the level and want to change your equipment for a different playing style, you can change to a 150gp crossbow, a 200gp axe, and a 150gp health potion, without any gold penalty. I like.

Graphics: 10
This is why you bought an Xbox. This is easily the best-looking Xbox game since DOA3, and certainly the best-looking western console game ever made. A great amount of detail, coupled with the best lighting ever seen, makes looking at the walls with a torch in your hand an orgasmic experience. The image is crystal clean with no sign of aliasing (zig zags) anywhere, and this adds a lot to the overall look and atmosphere. The character models are fantastic, especially the knight at first, he looks very detailed. Every item has its own model, and believe me there's plenty of items. The Heavy Armor is especially sweet-looking, it has that gorgeous shiny look you rarely see in game character clothes.

It's surprising how a small-time company no one has ever heard of, and probably working on a small budget, was capable of programming something like this.

Audio: 8
The music is great, but there's too few tracks. The type is what you'd expect from a game with a medieval theme, ie epic semi-classical music. The theme that plays on the world map is the high point here, and is remixed in some of the levels. If you're a fan of videogame music (ie, you collect mp3s...dork!) you'll appreciate what this game has to offer. If not, then you'll only find it adequate.

Unlike music, I don't really pay attention to sound so I can't comment on this properly. Like every other videogame I've played sound is standard. Woosh, clang, pow, pok, etc.

Story: 6
Thousands of years ago, a battle between a magician of light fighting against the Evil Demon (tm) ended with the mage killing the demon using a spell so powerful that it created a rift that divided the continent. Back to the present day, the Dreg'Atar (hereafter referred to as ''meanies'') are marching on the City of Light once again. When the game starts, the meanies are bombarding the fortress in which you are imprisoned for resisting tax collectors. A stray cannonball hits your cell's wall, and you can imagine where it goes from here (he fixes the cable?). You set out on a quest to save the city of light in exchange for a pardon. The story is good on paper but it's only there to guide you to the next area. You get a small cutscene before and after a mission but that's it.

Replay Value: 7
You unlock the Dark campaign after beating the Light campaign (which itself takes over 10 hours...if you're good). That's entirely new missions with an entirely different story perspective. The characters are different, however it's still the same gameplay: melee classes, archers, and magic users. Some missions use the same maps as the Light campaign, but the rest are original. If you're one of those masochists who try to complete every game 100%, then you can try collecting all the gold to unlock an extra character in each campaign.

Conclusion:
Try to rent it and see how you like it. Maybe I was more eager to like it because everyone else hated it (people are more defiant of overhyped games, but the opposite is true), but I don't think that's it. When you think about it the only reason the game gets knocked is because of lack of save points in the middle of the levels, so ask yourself, wouldn't all those mags and websites have given it 8.5+ if it had them?

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/04/02, Updated 08/17/02