Enigma: Rising Tide
Action collides with strategy in this naval warfare title. Does it sail or sink?
Tags: Enigma: Rising Tide Categories: PC Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Ludwig on Nov 7th, 2003
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Enigma: Rising Tide (title page) | |||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
“No! You sunk my battleship!”
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It’s true that the classic board game, Battleships, is not the most accurate simulation of naval combat to be experienced. The random firing of brightly colored plastic torpedoes into an opponent’s area until a target is located and the awfully polite manner of taking turns results in combat that fails to be quite as exciting as the real deal. Aiming to immerse players into the salty world of ships and submarines, Enigma: Rising Tide provides a good mix of strategic thinking and direct action, regardless of whether or not you can tell your port from your starboard.
Taking the alternate history route, the story emerges during the late 1930’s in a world torn between three military factions. After pledging allegiance to the United States, the German Empire or the League of Free Nations (an alliance between Japan and England), you’re given command of a ship and plunged into an extensive mission campaign that spans the four moist corners of the earth. Escorting vulnerable convoys, scouting enemy-infested areas and the old-fashioned annihilation of everything on the radar screen are some of the objectives you’ll encounter and attempt to achieve. Not entirely original predicaments, but varied enough to keep things flowing along at a brisk pace. The campaign is fairly dynamic, so a less than stellar performance (see also: you screwed up) won’t slam your progress into the familiar game over barrier reef. Of course, your superiors aren’t best pleased by miserable failure and are thus unlikely to reward you with a raise in rank.
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As your military stature improves, the number of vessels under your command will increase. The lowly captain has only a single ship to shunt around, though it’s a starting point that seems simpler than it really is. Deciding on whether to rely on your ship’s loyal crew or to simply take matters into your own hands is just the first step on a variety of paths that may lead you to victory. Apart from manipulating direction and speed, you’re able to assign targets via the radar screen or a handy pair of binoculars and then issue consequent orders to the large array of weapons onboard the ship.
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If you feel that your crew is doing more damage to innocent sea creatures than to the opposition, it’s possible to leap into any piece of artillery and blast away from a first-person viewpoint. It injects some frenetic and hands-on action into the engagements, though it can be entirely avoided if your play style is more cognitive than commando.
The game boasts quite a large armada of water-bound vehicles, including corvettes, destroyers, torpedo boats and submarines. Models are detailed and realistic, though some sub-par textures are barnacles on an otherwise good-looking graphics engine. Often forming an unexpected foe, the real-time weather and water effects add a great deal to the atmosphere.
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The greatest contributor to this area, however, is the completely convincing sound. The powerful cannon blasts; swooping planes and unmistakable submarine sonar pings all come together to root the battles in realism. It’s this sort of presentation that makes even the most mundane missions compelling. When you start fretting about the oxygen supply and the pressure as your underwater vessel stealthily tries to avoid depth charges, the game has completely drawn you in – hook, line and sinker.
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Just as in pure strategy titles, knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each ship at your disposal is vital when formulating attack plans. Thankfully, the efficient in-game interface makes carrying out your schemes effortless. Stemming from the multi-purpose radar screen, the well laid-out command window allows one to plot courses, form escorts and balk out various other commands quickly and efficiently. It’s a system that’s easy to learn, which is just as well – The included tutorial missions are about as helpful as a submarine made out of Swiss cheese. Deluging the inexperienced player with blocks of text amidst the bombardment of enemy aircraft, the game’s limp guiding hand will prompt you to either figure it out for yourself or to send the title to Davey Jones’ recycle bin.
Another iceberg to consider is the obscene lack of multiplayer. Enigma supports voice communication, so having a bunch of people screaming “DIVE DIVE DIVE” whilst launching torpedoes at one another seems like a wasted opportunity. Consistent online warfare is promised for download in December, but it’s an integral feature that should have been included right out of the box.
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If you’re willing to ride out these few waves, you’ll find Enigma: Rising Tide to be a solid and deep naval combat experience. Be it managing a single ship or an entire fleet, the exhaustive amount of options available to you makes for some great strategic gameplay. If your trigger finger needs a workout, the game caters for that too. Whether you can recite Connery’s dialogue from The Hunt For Red October or just the lyrics from In The Navy (which is an extremely disturbing talent), this one’s well worth a look.
FINAL PUN SCORE: 3840000
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Excellent and realistic presentation of naval combat + Multi-faceted strategy blends well with instant action + Intuitive and efficient interface |
7.5 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Useless tutorials - Distinct lack of multiplayer options |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| A fine combination of action and strategy wrapped within abundant authenticity and atmosphere. Enigma: Rising Tide will addict desktop generals and appeal to nautical newbies. | |
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Tags: Enigma: Rising Tide
Posted by Ludwig on Nov 7th, 2003 and is filed under PC Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
