Romier S
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Sep 2, 1999
- Messages
- 3,525
No drops??? Hmmm, not sure if I like that. So the only thing that you actually find is gold and then you use that gold to buy stuff?Yes, but that is actually an enjoyable part of the game. Finding all the gold in each level has become an obesession for me. If I am nearing the end of a level and seem to be low on gold I go back and look for the hidden areas or what I might have missed. (Once you start a level it tells you how much gold is there with a number at the top right ex: 0/400). Its also nice that you can reply *every* level in the game so as to find all the gold pieces.
Also I didn't realize until about the 5th level that the gold you get is spread evenly across your characters. Which means if you collect 500 gold, all of your characters will receive 500 gold. No need to be stingy. Spend! Spend! Spend!.
Heres some updated impressions so far. I have reached level 10 in my game so I'm pretty far into the light campaign. (Level 9 is literally the equivalant of videogame hell!)
-The weapon and armor upgrade aspect of the game is really quite enjoyable. Admittedly its simple and not competing with the thousands of items available in a game like Morrowind. Nonetheless there is something *REALLY* satisfying about loading you halfling with an ax thats twice her size.
Tuning my characters weaponry and armor before a level is one of my favorite things in the game. I'm not even going to mention the arrow and bolt choices you get..I'll leave that as a suprise
-Difficulty has definitely ramped up in the later levels. Im pretty sure the casual gamer will cease playing after level 6 as thats when things start to get really difficult. Personally I have not been horribly frustrated with Enclave.
As stated above level 9 gave me allot of problems. Are there instant death sequences in the game? Oh yeah, there are plenty of them. Is it unfair? Oh yeah
If you hear your controller rumble, be attentive as something may just fall on you. There is a trap in the Deserted Temple level that has the floor crumble underneath you revealing large spikes. Now any attentive gamer will notice that the floor is crumbling since it looks out of place (The tiles appear to falling and loose) and you can even hear the crumbling as you walk closer!! The point is that you can't run through this game fighting and shooting. You have to tread carefully and pay attention.
I would say that level of tension and attentiveness is what Starbreeze was going for and why they didn't add a save anywhere function or a multiple checkpoint system.
Now, Do I agree with this kind of game design? I honestly can't give a yes or no. I appreciate the difficulty and I in no way would want starbreeze to put a save anywhere feature into the game. That would dumb down Enclave far too much for me since the difficulty is something that I am actually enjoying. I do think that one (and only one) mid-level save or checkpoint per level at the cost of some gold (ala the boss checkpoints) may be a good in between. It would allow for a good "sigh of relief" once you reach the middle of the level without killing the difficulty. I also think it would alleviate some of the "cheapness" reviewers complained about.
-A nice little diversion in Enclave is a kind of "Test your might" mini-game in Enclave that sets up different degrees of challenges. Most are based around killing a set number of enemies with the reward being more gold and the unlocking of next highest difficulty mini-game. Its a good diversion that lets you hone your skills against different types of enemies and most importantly lets you measure what kind of a man you really are
-One complaint that I want to mention is the ranged combat in the game and how it evolves. As you move through the game you will notice that at times the ranged combat revolves around just running backwards and shooting. This is frankly unavoidable since you of course need to have enemies that the melee characters have to deal with but its a bit too formulaic.
There are some fantastic sections that you get to play through that let you snipe your enemies from afar and this is exactly what I would have liked to have seen more of throughout the game.
Some added chances to suprise your enemies and a bit more of a stealth focus on the ranged weaponry would have improved the range combat quite a bit.
As you can probably see by now I am still very much enjoying Enclave. I in no way regret buying it and for me its a keeper. I have no doubt there will a split of opinion out there with this one. If you can handle the difficulty and this genre interested you I see no reason not to give it a chance.
As of now right now my original score range still stands. I'll even solidify the score even more with a solid 7.6 (Still subject to change until I beat the game). Once I complete the light campaign I'll update with a final score for that portion of the game.
Thanks for listening.
