This ends the fight immediately.
Often its just for the pleasure of it.
Its a compelling mystery!
From the off, the world is sharply drawn and the stakes made clear.
Wars started all over.
Magicians, even those outside the Enclaves walls, were blamed and reviled.
All this happens in the background, of course.
In practice, what youre doing starts straightforwardly.
You enter a series of large, open levels to perform simple “setting up” tasks.
Get the Enclaves teleportation system back online so you’re able to travel deeper.
Find materials to get your beleaguered band back on track.
Arkons, titanic magical constructs, roam the outskirts.
Theres a dragon in the bog.
These are broadly unrestricted.
Draw ice onto anything.
Make a little bridge.
Pick up an enemy right off the bat and throw them into a lake.
The ice ability, too, acts as a way into the games elemental magic system.
Fair enough, I said.
No skin off my nose.
Freed from having to worry about flames, the fiery boy become a go-to problem solver.
A heavy wooden door I couldnt open?
Pick up the lad with magic and fling him so hard at the obstacle that both exploded.
Thank you for your service, my son.
I wish this magic felt better to use.
The melee combat feels even worse.
Attack combos run long and directionlessly, the lock-on at once too sticky and too inexact.
Doesnt it feel better?"
In actuality, as with so many things, budget plays a major factor.
Its especially admirable when you see what theyve chosen to prioritise.
The Enclaves ruined, labyrinthine environments are stunning, possessing a real character and sense of place.
Dragons burn with teal fire.
Blue-tarnished copper paints the roofs of golden sandstone buildings.
A little underwhelming, given what youve been told about the Enclaves byzantine, sparkling reputation.
Dynevron, the capital of the capital, opens up in the third level and is an absolute delight.
Endless dog-legged streets patrolled by magical constructs.
Whole pathways across rooftops.
Secrets tucked away in half collapsed basements.
And Dynevron continues to grow!
The next levels take you up into its bureaucratic heart, or down into its market district.
As the game continued, the anticipation of what awaited me beyond the next teleportation gate grew.
The engine by which the core mystery (“what happened to the Enclave?")
I really admire this manoeuvre.
These codex entries arent coming from nowhere; Laen is assembling them as a result of your actions.
What do these disparate objects tell us about the history of this place?
What conclusions can be drawn?
Where are we making mistakes?
Though the games worldbuilding and codex writing is nuanced and successful, its moment-to-moment dialogue is much less so.
Theres the nervous quartermaster, stretching herself too thin, who needs to be told to take a break.
Theres the flamboyant, pseudo-chivalric enchanter who the party finds as annoying as he is indispensable.
One nervous scion of a disgraced family.
The narrative voice might be at the root of this problem.
Brynn, the player character, is maybe the worst of all.
Its a shame, but its not the end of the world.
After a few hours, the game hits its stride and everything starts rolling along organically and enjoyably.
You want that fireproof armour?
Youll need to go hunting for a certain component in a certain level that only appears at night.
This is an ambitious, confident debut by a small team that is swinging for the fences.
