Enclave Preview

When it was originally released for the Xbox, Enclave was praised for its detailed environments, complex character models, and sharp textures, but the hack-and-slash-style gameplay was somewhat hampered by unforgiving controls and the lack of a helpful save feature. Recognizing these problems, the development team at Starbreeze has not only tweaked the controls for the PC version of the game, but has also added a helpful checkpoint save feature so that you won't have to start at the beginning of a level if your character happens to die.

You can select from both the light and dark campaign at the beginning of the game.

Enclave begins by telling the story of a great battle that was fought over a magical world. Seeking this world for himself, the demon Vatar sends his massive army into the magic lands, where it is met by fierce resistance from the inhabitants. Vatar's forces come close to winning the battle until the wizard Zale strikes his staff into the ground, causing Vatar to fall into a massive rift that forms beneath his feet. The magic lands are saved, and the city of Celenheim is established. However, as years pass, the rift starts to close in some areas, allowing the remnants of Vatar's forces, known as the Dreg'atar, to cross back into the magic lands and lay siege to Celenheim. The city raises its taxes to provide funds for its defense, which causes many of its inhabitants to start uprisings within the city itself. Your journey begins as an angry citizen of Celenheim who has been thrown into jail.

The game is split into two different campaigns--light and dark--and unlike in the Xbox version of Enclave, you can select from these two campaigns from the very start of the game. The first character you'll play as in the light campaign is the knight, who initially has no weapons or any other means of attack because his weapons were confiscated after he was thrown into Celenheim's dungeon. But after a massive fireball strikes the walls of the dungeon, you're able to free yourself from the prison. Naturally, the knight is more adept at melee combat than any of the other characters in Enclave. That doesn't necessarily mean that he's quicker with a blade or that he even inflicts more damage on enemies, but later on in the game, he'll have access to incredibly powerful melee weapons, like morning stars, while the other characters will be restricted to daggers and other small blades. In addition, the knight can use shields, which become incredibly valuable as enemies become faster and stronger.

Boss battles aren't quite as difficult, thanks in large part to a first-person-shooter-style control scheme.

Melee combat in Enclave can be a little tricky at first, but the switch to a first-person-shooter-style control scheme that uses both the mouse and the keyboard certainly makes it much friendlier. All the characters have a variety of slashes to use, depending on how they're moving around while engaging an enemy, but these slashes won't automatically make contact--you have to constantly move your character around to ensure that you'll actually hit an enemy. This is made even more complicated by the fact that some weapons are slower than others, making it difficult to get adjusted to the timing of an attack. However, the same rule applies to the enemies in the game, so you can move in, hit the enemy, and then move back or sidestep to avoid the attack. In fact, if you don't use that stick-and-move strategy in Enclave, you'll find that your character won't last very long. Switching to the first-person perspective may help you feel a little more comfortable with the combat, especially with the new control scheme.

Another big improvement for the PC version of Enclave is the new save system. At various points in a level, you'll find a checkpoint area where you can save your progress, which makes it possible to start at that point after you die. However, you will always have to fork over a little gold whenever you save, so if you don't have enough, you can't use the checkpoint.