Curse of Enchantia
| Developer: Core | Graphics: |
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| Publisher: Core | Sound: |
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| Year: 1992 | Difficulty: |
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| Genre: Adventure | Lastability: |
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| Number of players: 1 | Rating: |
6/10 | |
Once upon a time, in the land of Enchantia, a wicked witch sought eternal youth. She kidnapped a boy, Brad, intending to use him as the secret ingredient in her rejuvenation potion (the specifics are left, mercifully, unclear).
This is a classic point-and-click adventure where you solve puzzles by interacting with the scenery and clicking on icons. The tone is humorous, and the interface is relatively straightforward to grasp and use (though I find the number of icons excessive). Items you encounter aren’t always recognisable, and there’s no helpful description to guide you, so you’re left trying random combinations, unsure of what you’re doing or why. Moreover, the lack of dialogue undermines the atmosphere. You’re solving puzzles on autopilot, without feeling invested.
Apart from constantly getting stuck (inherent to this type of game), there’s no time limit or risk of death. That’s a relief. Its linear progression might appeal to beginners—provided they’ve got a taste for the bizarre.
My main gripe is the sheer number of actions required to handle items: around ten! I think they could have grouped them all into a single button that I would have naively called “use an object”. I remained stuck for hours at the beginning of the game, in a cellar, and the solution revealed that I needed to place an object in a hole in a wall, something I had vainly tried to accomplish by clicking the “Insert” icon. Seems logical? Well, no—the game demanded the “Throw” action instead (this is the puzzle for retrieving the spool of thread, if you’re curious).
Another sign of lacklustre testing is the “Sound” button, which is supposed to let you adjust audio options—it doesn’t work. You’ll need to play the PC version to hear the music. Bonus: it also supports more colours.
Its “almost sequel” was released in 1994 on PC-DOS and Amiga under the title Universe.
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