All views are that of the creator and are usually not influenced by any copies of video games offered by publishers for assessment functions. En Garde! releases solely on Steam on August sixteenth.
En Garde! is a third-person swashbuckler sport that lets you use your surroundings to face off in opposition to 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 distinctive gameplays I’ve seen in a online game shortly as you’re taking Adalia on a fencing journey in contrast to some other. The fencing mechanic is easy and, coupled with parrying, blocking and dodging, feels immensely satisfying when battling a number of guards without delay. The schwing sounds of your fencing sword clanging together with your enemies’ weapons is rewarding to the eyes and the ears in a manner I could not have predicted, and it led me down a harmful path of swinging the whole lot and everybody that comes my manner. That is made much more gratifying whenever you get extra particular combos, most of which it’s a must to time fairly nicely, and use your surroundings fastidiously and shortly 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 predominant “episodes”, every of that are self-contained and distinctive in their very own manner. There are numerous and colourful characters that Adalia de Volador meets (and bickers with) alongside the best way in addition to set items and areas when you attempt to cease the Rely-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. Generally, it is enjoyable to cease round and take within the new areas as a substitute 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.
Aside from the principle storyline, En Garde! additionally accommodates an Area Mode, which is a novel method to maintain gamers coming again for extra Adalia and fencing enjoyable. I am personally at all times searching for extra replay worth in video games currently after coming off of months of Hades runs, and the Area Mode seems like the right mixture of randomized fight, waves of enemies, and gorgeous locales—and it’s extremely addictive. It permits gamers to decide on between 3 optimistic modifiers in between arenas that parry a gameplay modifier used to buff enemies. This was undeniably considered 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 direction of the guards.
There is a slight issue curve within the sport that I wasn’t too ready for, significantly after the second stage/episode, however the brand new particular skills you be taught as you progress actually assist counter {that a} bit. It is a bit of 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 the whole lot round you whereas getting ready in your enemies’ subsequent strikes. This issue is, nevertheless, all forgotten whenever you notice which you can pet the chickens!
The cartoonish environments are completely gorgeous to have a look at. Whether or not you are in the midst of a battle enviornment surrounded by colourful and wealthy locales or swinging from a rope atop the putting ocean, there’s at all times one thing breathtaking round you in En Garde!. Fire Video games additionally cleverly maintain 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 residence with the environments you are in. The orchestral and instrumental music by composer Jean-Claude Charlier seems 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 nicely with little to no hiccups all through the completely different episodes, and it is price noting how exceptionally quick the loading screens are. If you happen to additionally end up leaping into the water for enjoyable—the place are my chaotic avid gamers?—then the sport reloads at your final pre-jump place virtually instantaneously, which is fairly spectacular.
Utilizing a sport controller made the gameplay so much smoother a lot that I performed most of En Garde! each on the Steam Deck and the Asus ROG Ally. It is undoubtedly the form of sport that is much more enjoyable on-the-go!
The sport options a number of commonplace accessibility options, together with subtitles which have been on by default, a pleasant and much-needed contact. It was significantly cool to see the digital camera zoom in on the characters that have been talking and the subtitles together with their names as a substitute of simply the voiceover.
Aside from the default Medium setting, gamers can set the problem to Straightforward or Exhausting (the previous of which is useful) in addition to Invincibility Mode and Automated 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 Area Mode will maintain you coming again for extra, however the issue curve is certainly one thing to look out for.
