General Information
If you couldn't tell already, this game is a Soulslike set in a theatrical Italian setting. Everything about it is stylised accordingly and everything about it is completely new to me, as this is my first ever foray into a soulslike! I first noticed how far from the regular dingy, dirty, dark and dismal settings of most Soulslike/Soulsborne games present themselves. The game looks incredible, though I opted for performance over graphic fidelity and removed motion blur before I even started. This way I could appreciate the game at full pelt!
Slow Paced Yet Intriguing
The game begins with you looking somewhat like a mannequin, faceless, voiceless, and ready to be shaped into the warrior you need to be. You are given a nice tutorial section that explains the main premise and how you must defeat your foes using a specific set of skills, guarding, parrying, and attacking.
Quinta serves as the first chapter to explore, though all paths lead to the same endpoint, it does feel like you can take different routes to make your journey less repetitive if you "Morte" repeatedly as I did, initially. Throughout the game, you explore four chapters including Falesia Magna, Litumnia, and Strale Velata; each one increasingly more visually interesting and more difficult than the last.
The story's premise is essentially that the characters you encounter are stuck acting out parts of various characters in a play choreographed by the Authors. These characters have become stagnant and have largely gone insane in a world that has been all but forgotten about.
As you encounter each enemy you learn techniques to destroy them, and the main way is to identify their buff type and match it with the opposing element. It's as simple as looking at the colour they're glowing, or which symbol they have above their health bar.
Just like a game of rock, paper, scissors, you have Vis defeating Malanno, Malanno beats Gratia, Gratia beats Fatuo, and finally, Fatuo bests Vis. Once you have this ingrained in your psyche you can work your way around the world, solving minor puzzles by way of switches and tricky platforming, until you meet a boss-type character, whereby you need to use all you have learned up to that point to best them in combat.
The initial weaponry is extremely low level, just enough to take down basic enemies in a swipe or three, but gradually you learn new techniques, find and obtain new weapons and apply buffs and nerfs that have to be used in key ways to succeed in Enotria. There are, however, better-than-average weapons hidden here and there.
For instance, early on I discovered the Juniper Sword, which scales with Ardore (can be charged up) and deals high levels of unravelling. This means that enemies are un-shielded and entirely vulnerable to attack damage and finishers. Later on, in Monastery of Maja, I found the Funeral Flamberge which deals massive elemental damage. This colossal sword saw me well for a long stretch of the game, dishing out major damage, unravelling, healing and Ardore all in one big old sword. This was perfect for my "brute" build and it truly felt great smashing enemies to pieces.
Cumbersome Combat
The combat in Enotria is pretty basic and so is the controller layout. This is a good thing for beginners like me because it means I'm not continuously hunting through options to find out what button does what, but equally experienced players may find it overly simplified.
You get weapons of various sizes and swing them with R1 or lollop them around with R2 with a stronger attack. You can cycle through weapons with D-Pad up, switch tools with D-Pad Left and Right, and cycle your current loadouts with D-Pad Down. Parrying is performed with L1, and Ardore (power move modifier) is on the L2 button.
It has to be said that the window for parrying is extremely forgiving but perfectly parrying uses excessive amounts of stamina. I found that starting a battle with a well-timed parry, followed by a flourish of attacks and then resuming ready to parry meant the cooldown time didn't feel half as long.
Combatting enemies throughout Enotria requires a vague understanding of the elemental system at play, but using an opposing power will have effects on both the player and the enemies at the same time making for some tricky confrontations. Regardless, you can parry pretty much anything and chip away at their health bars, with even the most basic of weapons, until you've ground them down to death.
The quicker and less arduous way is to increase your Ardore and thwart them with bigger, badder, and more buffed weapons. Each weapon type has its basic variety and colossal oversized varieties as well as special versions. There are also region-specific weapons such as the Glassmakers' blowpipe which add tactical range to thwarting your foes.
You have your mask, slots for elemental powers and your perk skill tree at your disposal. Throughout the game, you have to upgrade your perks and buff your weapons with your obtained elements. You can also change your loadout between three settings, and interestingly as you decimate a boss or mini-boss, you inherit their looks and weapons if they drop their mask.
Gorgeous but Flawed
Ultimately Enotria looks beautiful. The environments and textures, lighting and puzzle elements draw you into this madness-inducing, stagnant world. The waterways of Venice, the sun-basked architecture of Rome, and the swathes of vegetation in Quinta all serve as a stupendous backdrop to something I felt was barely average in gameplay.
I never had to think about the style or perks of my character, and I went all-out brute with minimal magic. I didn't struggle as much as I thought I might, perhaps because I cheesed the weapons I found that were overpowered, paired with the Danza De Spada perk.
Every weapon has its buffs and nerfs, and each boss has their patterns and weaknesses. However, as mentioned earlier, Enotria lets you block or parry everything, which instantly takes away a lot of the challenge in defeating tricky bosses. Even harder than average grunts were trivial to get past, providing you don't get swamped by masses of them.
I enjoyed the collecting element of the game, with well over 100 weapons to unlock, and more than 30 masks to collect. Collecting masks is simple in some cases (bosses drop them) and more labored in others. For example, you have to collect mask shards, by mass murdering specific enemy types over and over to collect enough shards to form their mask.
There are also some neat little puzzles and NPC side quests to partake in, some of which require a little backtracking to complete properly with items you discover later on playing a part in the earlier chapters.
The boss fights were also nicely varied and challenging (for me), but by and large, I am still not a huge fan of this game genre, it's a matter of preference and this format of fighting and dying is simply not fun enough for me, though I could see the appeal to fans of this style of game.
I think anyone into Bloodborne or Dark Souls 2 might get a kick out of this variation on the torrent of Soulslike games sweeping the gaming landscape. The gorgeous scenery and oddly compelling storyline are a breath of fresh air in comparison. But if you're after something gritty and truly challenging, then Enotria is a little lacking in that department; in my humble opinion anyway.
