Curse of Enchantia
Game developer: Core Design
Game publisher: Core Design, Virgin Games
Game release date: 1992 year
Game status: Released
Ah point and click adventure games, they were practically the only type of games available when I first got a PC and you basically had a few developers who specialized in the genre. Sometimes a stranger set it's sight on such a game and Curse of Enchantia is such a product. Produced by Core, who usually made action games, the game features practically no text at all and even the interface in completely icon based. You play the part of Brad who has been taken from earth into the land of Enchantia by an evil which and who wants to use you as part of her evil scheme. Obviously you are not too happy about that and set your sights on taking care of the evil witch.
You start the game in quite an unpromising position namely hung upside down from chains inside a prison. With a little help from the stupid guard you can get out of them easily but getting out of the cell and the castle will be your next priority. You'll meet weird blob like guards and statues that will keep you from getting out but eventually you will. Things don't get easier though as you end up at the bottom of a sea which you need to get across and then you'll still have to stop the evil witch from succeeding in her plans. The first thing you'll notice is of course that there is no text in the game and all your actions have to be done with icons representing things like pick up, look, fight etc. Once you click on them though you are often represented with more icons which can sometimes run several levels deep and can become confusing. This wouldn't be too bad in itself but the mere fact that items which are part of the scenery and backgrounds can only be used when you actually stand close to the item in question. This can become extremely annoying as some items are stuck behind pillars and such making it necessary for you to walk around a single screen more than I'd really want to.
The graphics are a plus as they use the old VGA 256-color mode with great hand drawn pictures. There is little animation in them but sometimes you get funny animations especially when you do something wrong but luckily you can't get killed so you can actually try out all sorts of things. Occasionally you will have to fight which can be tricky as you can't just click fight and that's it but you have to click the icon at the right moment. Of all pluses I can think of is that there is no maze like in so many other adventure games, too bad the screen searching routine takes up a lot of time though.
I have really mixes feelings about the game as the idea is good with an all icon based game which can be understood by everyone. The execution of the interface isn't all that great though since often you just keep pressing icons till the correct action you want is done. This isn't helped by timing issues while fighting and the fact you have to be near objects to interact with them. Graphically it's pretty good but you know what they say graphics don't make a game even though some people make you think otherwise. If you're looking for a change in adventure style you can check it out but I found the interface a tad too annoying.
Game genre: Adventures
Platform/System: MS-DOS Games, Amiga Games
Curse of Enchantia : Is it worth playing?
