Review: Curse of Enchantia (Amiga)
LucasArts set the pace for point and click adventures in the early nineties with the first two Monkey Island games and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis but there were attempts to usurp their throne. In 1992 Core Design looked to derail LucasArts with Curse of Enchantia, applying their own slant to the adventure game. The story sees a teenager, Brad, at a baseball game when he is transported to the world of Enchantia by an evil witch. Brad must find his way home but also take on the role of the reluctant hero and destroy the witch as well.
Visually the game has retained a lot of its charm with a cartoon feel to the adventure and Brad encountering a myriad of weird and wonderful creatures and characters on his journey. He begins as a prisoner of the witch but soon orchestrates an escape and wanders Enchantia in such places as the ocean floor with a goldfish bowl on his head, an ice palace, an underground network of caverns and a graveyard with some bloodthirsty vampires in attendance. As with the usual point and click adventures, Brad has an inventory of items to search through and use to solve some often tricky puzzles. Rather than a list of commands at the bottom of the screen, you have to search through a line of icons to access different commands and use items in a variety of ways. It’s a less friendlier interface than I’ve come across before.
Indeed the interface is a major headache with Curse of Enchantia. While the user had to scroll through a group of items in Monkey Island, all the commands were in one place which made things a lot easier. Curse of Enchantia also lacks dialog with Brad reduced to just a handful of outbursts. There are plenty of sound effects but not really any voice acting and even written exchanges are sadly lacking so the story seems to lose any real depth. This is a shame. The game does look good but it is amusing rather than hilarious and somehow it’s hard to feel completely immersed in the world of Enchantia.
Curse of Enchantia is a brave attempt at competing for the point and click adventure crown but it falls short due to a series of issues. Great graphics are undermined by the lack of dialog and the fiddly interface. Brad’s adventure is an action-packed one but it doesn’t compare to the likes of Monkey Island and Beneath a Steel Sky.
Verdict: 3/5
About the Author:
I was born in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England and have always been a bookworm and enjoyed creative writing at school. In 1999 I created the Elencheran Chronicles and have been writing ever since. My first novel, Fezariu's Epiphany, was published in May 2011. When not writing I'm a lover of films, games, books and blogging. I now live in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, with my wife, Donna, and our six cats - Kain, Razz, Buggles, Charlie, Bilbo and Frodo.
David M. Brown – who has written 847 posts on Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave.
