Review by Matt_B on 15 Feb 2009 (Rating: 5)
After the success of Shadowfire, it was inevitable that Denton Designs would create a sequel. However, instead of just re-using the same game engine they decided to improve and adapt it to provide something that would also appeal to the action gamers. Four of the original Enigma Team return, the other two presumably having been lost in a crash at the beginning, and your enemy is once again the renegade General Zoff.
Some of the changes are fairly straightforward: Rather than have to hunt through a series of screens to find the icon you wanted, you could just scroll the bottom half of the screen to get to it more quickly. The main difference was that rather than the rather cryptic status display of the original, you get to see the action played out on the screen in front of you. There's even a mind probe icon that allows you to directly control one of the team.
The downside of the mind probe is that it effectively just turns the game into a shoot 'em up allowing casual players to bypass the strategy elements that made Shadowfire so enthralling. Given that the game is also a fair bit smaller and proceeds at a much faster pace, this makes it rather easy to complete in such a fashion. If you can resist the temptation to use it, however, the game offers a much sterner challenge.
All in all, it's not quite what it could have been and in some ways it's lesser to Shadowfire despite all the supposed improvements. However, it's still a great piece of graphical adventuring and the extra attention to detail from Denton Designs, including some memorable music from Fred Gray, just about keeps it in the top drawer.
The follow on Shadowfire. Enigma Force is now down to four members. The android and birdman, both awkward to animate, have conveniently died off.
Yes, animation. Unlike the static displays of Shadowfire, the current location is shown as the action take place. Once some enemy soldiers enter your location, a gun fight will ensue. It makes a change from watching anxiously as your force's strength goes down, followed by flashing warning lights. Now you can see what the position really is.
Although the icon control is still in place, this time you can take direct mind control of one of your team members. And here lies possibly a slight problem with the game. The controlled member can move much faster and fight better under your control than under computer control. When a member reports to be under attack, you cannot afford not to take direct control rather than let them get on with it. Similarly if the force wants to move over several rooms, it is much quicker to move each individual manually rather than giving orders and wait as the member dawdle along under their own steam. It would have been nice that the ordering system from Shadowfire was still useful, but the manual control unbalances it.
Also lacking from the original game is the characterisation. Sevrina still has her door opening toolkit, Maul is slow, and thats it. Fighting ability seems to be the same.
Rather than being a static world, the game offers a few good twists. Instead of the whole world being against you, there are two warring sides which inhabit the sewer system where the action takes place. If the two enter the same location, they will quite happily forget about fighting you and start attacking each other. Near to the start is a spawning room for one of the sides. Entering this, under heavy gunfire, will announce that they are now your friends and you'll be left alone. On the far side of the map is the enemy spawn room, and Zoff. They'll fight you until Zoff surrenders to you, and then you can sit in perfect peace and watch the two sides go back and forth. Its a neat touch.
The game is can be easily finished, but it has kept the same polished sound and graphics from the original.
As a final asides, with the talk about respawning insect soldiers endlessly fighting in underground tunnels during a forgotten war, theres a recent Doctor Who story very similar to this...
