Enclave

The Good
The graphics were top notch and the system performance was excellent. Professional sounding score, although of limited variety.

Wide assortment of character classes, weaponry and items.

Replay value to try and win levels with different character classes.

The Bad
Apparently, there is a glitch in level 7 of the dark campaign where your heads-up displays do not appear; I had to fight through that level blindly.

There's a storyline, but it's so abstract and delivered so blandly that you don't really care about it.

The game looks like an RPG but is nowhere near that; it's just an action fighting game; deceptive advertising!

No characters are developed enough in the game, so you don't really care about anyone. They're all just mindless drones to hack up.

The Bottom Line
This is a fantasy 3-D hack and slash action game. Long ago, there was a battle between humans/elves and the demon lord Vatar and his orcs, which engulfed the world. A human wizard cast a spell and shattered the land in half, separating the humans/elves from the orcs in their own Enclave. But now, over time, the rift has narrowed and the orcs are threatening again. You must protect the Enclave from Vatar and his orc hordes. You can play both sides in this one. You start in the light campaign (elves, humans, etc.) Once you win that game, you can do the dark campaign where you take on the role of the orcs.

The game finishes with some cliffhangers to carry on into a second game. The game is fun, but empty-feeling. Even after winning it, you don't feel like you accomplished anything.

Final verdict, you could try it for an hour or two, but I wouldn't recommend this one.

The Good
The best thing about Enclave is graphics. The game is probably the best looking action game as of today (June 2003, before Half-Life 2 and Doom 3). In a stark constrast with Vice City that I just finished, characters actually have fingers, not some pitiful stumps. Females look especially great with great models and fluid animation.

Levels are varied and well-designed. The style reminds very much of castles from Unreal and sometimes of hell levels from Doom2, but these old ideas are implemented on the top level. Water is realistic, trees are extremely realistic (the best trees I ever saw in a game). Everything is very eye-pleasing.

Gameplay is fun. Admittedly it is extremely simple, being just another variation of kill-them-all, but it is fun and engaging anyway.

There are two campaigns (with a pretty decent storylines), many characters, lots of weapons. Enemies are smart enough and look great.

The Bad
An activity of questionable interest is collecting pots of gold, this time reminding of Wolfenstain 3D. This time though, the gold is used to equip your character with bigger and better weapons.

The Bottom Line
Overall, Enclave is a very good-looking action game, the concept is not very original, but implemented very well. The game also has a lot of replay value because of well-balanced different characters.

The Good
Enclave's high points are its stellar graphics and sound effects. The game is intricately detailed and special effects such as bump mapping help make it all the more pretty; the player character and enemies are smoothly animated and cast pristine, smooth shadows.

Sound is crisp, visceral, atmospheric; everything it should be in a game. It carries the dark gothic fantasy atmosphere effectively.

The Bad
Everything about the gameplay in Enclave is awful. It seems as if the team that made it is comprised of good programmers and artists, and nobody on the team has a clue how to actually design a fun game. There is nothing to it but hacking at enemies.

Similar action games have suffered because their combat wasn't detailed enough, but Enclave makes them look like masterpieces: There is no system of timing, combination attacks, dodging, etc; it's just a matter of hitting the attack key as much as you can.

AI is similarly awful. Enemies can't even get the whole run-and-gun thing straight, as they'll often freeze or backtrack for no particular reason. If this was supposed to simulate more advanced behavior such as retreating or finding cover, it fails miserably.

The Bottom Line
There is really no depth at all to Enclave. It gets no better as it goes along. I found it to be completely unbearable; perhaps those who enjoy the fancy graphics more or prefer very simple games will be able to play it through, but for anyone looking for a game with substance to it, Enclave will be a disappointment.