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‘A witch (from Old English masculine wicca, feminine wicce, see Witch (etymology) is a practitioner of witchcraft. [...]While mythological witches are often supernatural creatures, historically many people have been accused of witchcraft, or have claimed to be witches...’
In ‘Curse of Enchantia’ poor Brad gets involved with a most evil kind of that species. To extend her natural lifetime, she has to prepare a magic brew. The main ingredient for this treat is a male child – Brad...
Witchcraft...
Using a magic spell, the witch teleports the unfortunate boy into the fairyland of Enchantia – straight into the dungeon of her castle. First of all he has to get rid of the chains that bound him headlong to the wall. To do so, the player makes use of an icon driven user guidance. Unfortunately this user interface is very hard to handle – an example...
After clicking the right mouse button, an icon bar appears:
1. By clicking on the speech bubble icon (‘Talk’) a submenu opens: choose ‘Help!’ to call for the guard. Now the guard opens the wooden door, enters the room, slips and falls down on the clammy floor – thereby he loses a key...
2. After he has left the uncomfortable prison cell, you pick up that essential item: click on the ‘Get’ icon – a further submenu appears. Here you’ll see a small picture of the key – click on it and the key is yours...
3. Now select the ‘Hand’ icon – again a submenu appears. Choose the ‘Keyhole’ icon (‘Open doors’ etc.). Next choose the ‘Bag’ icon (‘Inventory’) – first select the key, then the small picture of the chains...
At last Brad is able to move around freely...
As you can see, the user guidance of this adventure is very complex – and very difficult to control. Also the main character has to stand right in front of an object to interact with it. By clicking on the ‘Eye’ icon (‘Look’), you’ll only see the items in your proximity...
Exasperating...
But it’s not only the uncomfortable user guidance which drives the player insane – the puzzles are the real trouble! For example you’ve to escape a cavern – to do so Brad must find a helmet, because just before the saving exit a rockfall blocks the way. Sooner or later you’ll discover a coin as well as the corresponding wishing well – however, that is broken! ‘Cause Brad isn’t able to repair it; he spends time on other things. So you solve bizarre riddles, get strange items, use them with each other and finally obtain a kind of mask – consisting of mud, branches and foliage. What is that supposed to achieve? Thus you wander around aimlessly until you discover that the well had been repaired miraculously...
Now you throw the coin into it and as a result of that a host appears! He presents three different ‘prizes’: money, a full-bosomed woman and... the essential hardhat. Certainly our hero decides for the latter (nevertheless you should try the money and the woman for fun, too) and walks to the exit. Next you put on the helmet and leave the caves – well protected against the falling rocks...
After that Brad finds himself in a well shaft. At the bottom stands a large wooden bucket which is tied up on a rope. Behind it there are two drawings engraved in the brickwork – a normal face (‘no’) and a face covered with a mask (‘yes’). At last the apparently needless piece of equipment can be used! Right after Brad had put on the mask; he’s able to climb into the bucket – and up he goes. Very realistic...
These specific situations, in which you do the second step before the first one, recur throughout the whole game many a time. There’s always the feeling that the player hadn’t noticed an important fact. Fortunately the adventure is subdivided in several sections - therefore it’s impossible to reach a blind alley, because you’d overlooked a fundamental object. That’s very laudable! Nevertheless the player will be confused constantly...
There’s also the fact that you can’t clearly identify some of the inventory items – but sadly an adequate description via text isn’t available...
Magical Enchantia...
In stark contrast to the most average gameplay, the graphics of the program are absolutely impressive: at once you realize that ‘Curse of Enchantia’ was designed especially for the Amiga. The several sceneries look wonderful – the full spectrum of colours (32 colour mode) was used very well. The graphical style reminds of Sierra On-Line’s later ‘King’s Quest’ adventures...
The animations are lovely, too: reflections on the water surface, birds which fly far overhead, cartoon-like acts if Brad is shocked by electricity or crushed by a huge hammer. But don’t worry, you can’t die in that game – somehow Brad always gets off with a slap on the wrist...
However, playing the game is no real fun! Although ‘Curse of Enchantia’ is a typical ‘point and click’ adventure, the gameplay is very abnormal. Also conversations bear no resemblance to e.g. ‘The Secret of Monkey Island’. Instead of that Brad will learn different words like ‘Hi!’ or ‘Help!’ to communicate with other people. Nevertheless this is no adequate alternative for traditionally multiple choice chit-chat...
Esbat...
One more point of criticism is the poor storyline: of course the main task of the adventure is to get back to your own universe. But during the whole game you haven’t a clue how to do that! So you solve puzzles, walk aimlessly through the area – but you have no firm goal. At last you meet the evil witch inside an ice palace – however, the following conflict is such extraneous that you seriously think about to turn off the computer...
Okay, ‘Curse of Enchantia’ was Core Designs very first attempt to create a 'point and click' adventure. Technically the guys of that company had made a very good job – but in terms of user guidance, storyline and logic they’d blow it. It’s too bad about the really exquisite graphics...
‘Curse of Enchantia’ is like a beautiful soap bubble which bursts the moment a finger touches it...
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The magnificent and colourful graphics are the definitively highlight of the program. Same regards to the amazing animations. Also the different ‘manners of death’ are funny to watch. Only point of criticism is the jerky scrolling...
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The title theme is very good – both compositional and technically. In the game itself you can hear only sound-fxs. Brad’s vocal utterances had been digitized...
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A far too complicated user interface, illogical puzzles and a shallow storyline – altogether this doesn’t generate a good ambience! Also the loading times are quite long – though the computer loads several rooms into the memory. Sadly there’s no option to install the program to hard drive (fortunately there’s ‘WHDLoad’)...
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| ‘Curse of Enchantia’ is by no means a complete failure – but the adventure portfolio of the competitors is far better. Little Brad is no real match for Guybrush Threepwood or Dr. Jones... |
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