En Garde!

It's a good amount of content for it's current 1.99 price. There are some issues here and there but overall nothing really overstays it's welcome. Pick it up on sale and just have a nice indie action game for the price of a bean burrito at taco bell.

En Garde! is a single-player, indie action-adventure game which combines fast-paced swordplay with third person platforming and an engaging, stylised story containing many comedic elements. This is defined by a strong, charismatic female protagonist (Adalia de Volador!) and inspirational themes throughout its campaign. The game is suitable for all ages; you can make it as easy as you want with its curated accessibility options, or you can make it genuinely challenging by selecting Hard mode and keeping these additional options disabled. The main game is a collection of four individual episodes and an arena mode that takes place across four difficulty-scaling levels. Each episode of the expedition takes you across a vividly and colourfully imagined 17th century Spain: from the late evening streets of the city, to private villas and palaces with sun-drenched, lavish gardens and to a picturesque yet secretive, swashbuckling coastal island. The arena mode is a high-stakes challenge, made up of four adapted areas from the episodes of the main game and will definitely be a thorough challenge to most players. Overall, the level design is consistently excellent, combining a streamlined linear experience with natural exploration and a selection of very well-hidden secrets. En Garde! is easy to pick-up and play whilst remaining curious and nostalgic, in a golden age PS3 or Xbox 360 era sort of way. Sometimes it is just nice to play a game that plays out in a direct and linear fashion, whilst still allowing time for discovery and exploration. The fighting action itself is satisfying and precise, with a nice range of sword attacks, focusing on a fencing style with lots of parrying and ripostes. Throughout the game there are satisfying combos, kicks and taunts to utilise plus three special moves to learn, as well as many creative and unorthodox ways to use your surroundings to your advantage. Think kicking crates and tables, to barrels of gunpowder and exploding cannons, to crashing chandeliers, to throwing lutes, head-covering wooden buckets and unfortunate turkeys. Another highlight of the game is its extensive voice acting; you will hear lots of it and it will feel like you will rarely hear repeated lines. Adalia in particular is fantastically voiced and it is some of the best I have heard in any game. Where the game does fall-short in places is its repetition in gameplay. Occasionally the game can put you in situations that are somewhat frustrating or annoying: such as being surrounded by bomb throwing enemies, which sometimes feels uncoordinated with the primary style of fast-paced sword fighting. However, if you enjoy one episode you are likely to enjoy the whole game just as much. For the more casual among us, you probably could blast through it in a few hours or an afternoon: but that is not what the game has in mind with its design. Playing through this myself, I was much more interested in exploring all the locations, uncovering all the secrets on offer and hearing as much of the fantastic and amusing dialogue as possible. It is worth noting that unless you are particularly lucky and adept, you will likely have to use a guide to find at least some of the games one hundred plus Points of Interest. In conclusion: a fantastic game with charming characters, lush environments, atmospheric soundtrack and a colonial, European come Iberian ambiance throughout. I was kindly gifted this game and would not have felt short-changed if I had purchased this at full price. As stated, many reviews declare that this is a short game: it is definitely on the shorter side, and there are achievements to complete each of the four episodes within thirty minutes each. However, if you wish to really explore and complete all its challenges you are looking at somewhere between fifteen and twenty hours. This may be wishful thinking, but I would love to see more of Adalia de Volador and her colourful world in the future! Do not forget to pet the chickens. 😊

TLDR: I would recommend if it's on sale. Gameplay is fun, everything else is pretty meh. It's very short, which is fine since the gameplay is good. However, the gameplay is pretty much the saving grace of the game. The story is pretty much nonexistent, stuff just kind of happens and you have to assume it had build up somewhere else. The art style is good for the landscape and some of the characters, Adalia looks pretty bad though. The music is fine, it works for the setting but I'm not going to really remember anything after playing it. I really felt nothing for the characters themselves either. They all have pretty generic personalities. It's fun and goofy and will entertain you for a few hours.