All views are that of the creator and usually are not influenced by any copies of video games offered by publishers for assessment functions. En Garde! releases completely on Steam on August sixteenth.
En Garde! is a third-person swashbuckler recreation that permits you to use your surroundings to face off towards guards and enemies in fast-paced fencing motion. A debut for Fire Video games, who developed and revealed the sport, En Garde! swings into motion and instantly turns into vital this summer time.
En Garde! has one of the vital distinctive gameplays I’ve seen in a online game shortly as you are taking Adalia on a fencing journey in contrast to some other. The fencing mechanic is clean and, coupled with parrying, blocking and dodging, feels immensely satisfying when battling a number of guards directly. The schwing sounds of your fencing sword clanging along with your enemies’ weapons is rewarding to the eyes and the ears in a method I could not have predicted, and it led me down a harmful path of swinging every part and everybody that comes my method. That is made much more pleasing once you get extra particular combos, most of which it’s important to time fairly properly, and use your surroundings rigorously and rapidly to trick, stun or watch your enemies get crushed by a chandelier. It is swashbuckling enjoyable!
The sport itself performs like a simple theatrical journey divided into 4 essential “episodes”, every of that are self-contained and distinctive in their very own method. There are numerous and colourful characters that Adalia de Volador meets (and bickers with) alongside the way in which in addition to set items and places when you attempt to cease the Depend-Duke from his tyrannical regime. Zaida, specifically, is a standout character you meet all through the sport, typically even labeled as “Definitely Not Your Crush” which crammed this participant’s queer coronary heart with pleasure. Adalia, our fabulous bisexual Spanish protagonist, has sufficient quips and witty dialogue to maintain you entertained for hours—round 6-8 hours complete, in my expertise. Typically, it is enjoyable to cease round and take within the new places as an alternative of following the markers that help you in finishing the present quest. Doing so can reward you with secrets and techniques and backstory scattered round every episode, including a pleasant contact to an already wealthy lore.
Other than the principle storyline, En Garde! additionally comprises an Enviornment Mode, which is a novel strategy to maintain gamers coming again for extra Adalia and fencing enjoyable. I am personally all the time searching for extra replay worth in video games these days after coming off of months of Hades runs, and the Enviornment Mode appears like the proper mixture of randomized fight, waves of enemies, and gorgeous locales—and it’s extremely addictive. It permits gamers to decide on between 3 constructive modifiers in between arenas that parry a gameplay modifier used to buff enemies. This was undeniably certainly one of my favourite issues about En Garde! because the unpredictability saved me coming again for extra swashbuckling—plus, I actually needed to kick extra crates and barrels in the direction of the guards.
There is a slight issue curve within the recreation that I wasn’t too ready for, notably after the second stage/episode, however the brand new particular talents you be taught as you progress actually assist counter {that a} bit. It is slightly jarring after the fast-paced motion of the primary half of the sport and virtually Souls-like, however En Garde! actually needs you to strategize in real-time and make the most of every part round you whereas making ready on your enemies’ subsequent strikes. This issue is, nevertheless, all forgotten once you notice which you could pet the chickens!
The cartoonish environments are completely gorgeous to take a look at. Whether or not you are in the midst of a battle area surrounded by colourful and wealthy locales or swinging from a rope atop the placing ocean, there’s all the time one thing breathtaking round you in En Garde!. Fire Video games additionally cleverly hold the environments from being repetitive by making every episode stand out by itself. It is actually a visible delight.
En Garde! has a ridiculously enjoyable soundtrack that feels proper at dwelling with the environments you are in. The orchestral and instrumental music by composer Jean-Claude Charlier appears like an NPC at instances, and it was one thing that I saved coming again to on YouTube lengthy after the tip credit completed rolling.
The sport runs very properly with little to no hiccups all through the totally different episodes, and it is value noting how exceptionally quick the loading screens are. In the event you additionally end up leaping into the water for enjoyable—the place are my chaotic players?—then the sport reloads at your final pre-jump place virtually instantaneously, which is fairly spectacular.
Utilizing a recreation controller made the gameplay rather a lot smoother a lot that I performed most of En Garde! each on the Steam Deck and the Asus ROG Ally. It is positively the form of recreation that is much more enjoyable on-the-go!
The sport options a number of customary accessibility options, together with subtitles which have been on by default, a pleasant and much-needed contact. It was notably cool to see the digital camera zoom in on the characters that have been talking and the subtitles together with their names as an alternative of simply the voiceover.
Other than the default Medium setting, gamers can set the issue to Simple or Onerous (the previous of which is useful) in addition to Invincibility Mode and Computerized Parrying, if gamers needed a extra relaxed and story-driven journey.
En Garde! is the swashbuckling journey you did not notice you wanted this summer time. The fencing mechanic provides a novel gameplay to a theatrical story jam-packed with enjoyable characters, wealthy and colourful environments, and real-time dodging and parrying. An Enviornment Mode will hold you coming again for extra, however the issue curve is unquestionably one thing to look out for.
