Enclave Demo

Although they might not be real role-playing games, hack and slash titles can be just as good and atmospheric as classic AD&D games, as long as they manage to tell an interesting story and make progress fun. Many such CRPGs got the formula right throughout the years, while others came very close to being considered a classic in the genre.

Enclave could have easily been one of the games that everyone remembered and respected, but it made some bad turns along the way, which kind of caused it to fall into obscurity. It is still a rather popular title, but it could have achieved much more if the developers took their time with it for a while longer and had enough patience to polish everything in equal measure.

In essence, there are two campaigns to choose from: one for the light side, and one for the dark side. As it happens the game world is split into two by a great rift in the ground, which makes it rather impossible for the two forces to reach each other. However, as the gap begins to close for whatever reason, the two worlds make contact and a full-blown war erupts between them, one in which you too have a role to play.

Although you cannot customize your character in the beginning, it is possible to choose from quite a large variety of pre-built ones, including warriors, assassins, rangers, and wizards. Not only that, but you can change them in between the missions, in order to better tackle whatever obstacles happen to block your way. Plenty of different weapons and armors are available as well, all of which come in handy when things get hairy.

There are some problems with the game as well, which is why it cannot really be considered a masterpiece. To start off, the combat is a tad tricky and the mechanics do not always work, mostly because there are some issues with the collision system. Hence, even if the underlying idea behind the free combat system is indeed great, the technical problems make it difficult to appreciate properly.

With all these being said, Enclave is definitely worthy of a few playthroughs, especially since every character is different and there are multiple ways to tackle the same problems. However, some of the issues might get annoying after a while, even if not enough so to make you throw the game away.