Enclave

Gather round and listen to the tale of a very good game that was all but ruined by one Bad Thing.

All it takes is the presence of one Bad Thing to suck a potentially very enjoyable game into a frustrating pocket of anti-fun. The Bad Thing that thwarts the otherwise very fine Enclave comes in the form of a high frustration factor, embodied mostly by "Surprise! Pit of instant killer spikes!" and "Whoa, bet ya didn't expect that wall to fall on your head!" cheap instant deaths. This wouldn't be a problem if some sort of mid-game save or checkpoint system were implemented; but no, every time you die, you're sent straight back to the beginning of the lengthy, difficult mission to start from scratch.

Otherwise, Enclave is a cool, if a bit simple and linear, third-person action/adventure with a few limited RPG-style options thrown in for good measure?you can buy some new weapons and armor in between levels, and earn different character classes (Huntress, Druid, Fighter, etc.) as you go along. The graphics are exceedingly sharp with impressively detailed environments (little touches like walls collapsing around you during fortress raids are especially convincing) and nifty-looking enemies. The sound is topnotch, too, with rousing fantasy music, rich and rumbling surround-sound effects, above-par voice-acting, and convincingly monstrous enemy grunts. Though the controls aren't the best (your natural human tendency will be to swing the camera over your head in any panic situation; and some sort of zoom would be nice; and 3D platform-jumping is frustrating as hell with the dual-analog scheme), there are great blocking and missile weapons targeting systems, and combat is fun and varied. There?s even a Dark Campaign to play through after you play through the good guys? quest. Too bad the Bad Thing had to go and muck it up.

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