21.5 hours played
Written 6 days ago
Enigma of Fear focuses on the journey of Mia, a paranormal investigator for an organization known as "The Order," and her trusted companion, Lupi the Dog. Mia, Lupi, and a pair of other investigators have tracked down the whereabouts of Mia's father, Verity, who leads The Order. Verity's last known location was the mysterious Strach mansion, which has been abandoned for decades. Once the site of a great tragedy, which cost the lives of several members of The Order to investigate, Mia and Lupi must find Verity and save him before it's too late. However, their arrival at the Strach Mansion has set into motion paranormal forces beyond which any have encountered before.
The narrative of Enigma of Fear plays out through a combination of notes/recordings which grant Mia insight into the past history of the Strach mansion and surrounding areas, as well as voiced scenes which play out over the course of the story. Without revealing too much, themes at play are interesting enough to keep the player engaged, as the narrative begins to intertwine with aspects of gameplay later in the story. Themes such as predetermined fate, and eldritch horror are at play as the narrative is told from the view points of several other characters at various moments in the game. It's revealed quite early on that the Strach family has been something of a generational cult seeking the true nature of fear, with the final generation achieving a ritual decades in the making. However, the outcome of this ritual lead not only to the downfall of the Strach, but also suffused the region with powerful paranormal distortions, which lead to the later investigations by The Order. However, the player is left to their own devices to learn what happened to The Order investigators who came to study the phenomenon, as well as the darker history of the Strach. The voice acting and small talk could've used some reworking for the English translation of the game; however, I did enjoy learning about the lore of the game as I progressed. One aspect I enjoyed was the art direction for this project, which featured 2D sprites set in a 3D world from an isometric perspective, with a cohesive art style which nicely compliments the game.
The gameplay of Enigma of Fear is largely driven by puzzles, though there are some fairly simple combat sections of the game. When Mia arrives at the mansion, she's equipped only with her flashlight (with toggleable UV light), though she quickly acquires a crowbar and firearm. There are a few varieties of enemies in the game, which I mean literally three or so, which Mia can attempt to combat using her weapons either by sneaking up to get the jump on an opponent, or by unloading bullets into them until they go down. The combat is mind-numbingly easy, with stealth being so effective you could go through the entire game barely ever touching the gun. Thus, the gameplay focus is on the puzzles which are overall well designed. Generally speaking, most of the puzzles around the mansion and surrounding zones can be solved without a guide or outside resources, with many focusing on puzzles using symbols or deriving meaning from a shape or pattern. While many puzzles are self-contained within the zone they're encountered, there are some puzzles which may require Mia to have acquired an item or clue from another zone first. In this aspect, my biggest complaint with the game rears its head which was the run backs. I lost dozens of minutes, possibly hours, going through a zone and encountering puzzle which I ought to have been able to solve, only to realize the solution after having moved to another zone. While the characters have a "run" function, the areas are quite spread apart, and one zone requires Mia to run through it in a specific manner, which can be time consuming if done many times. While Mia and Lupi can swap between one another, I felt that Lupi was generally underutilized for puzzles, which was a bit disappointing. Enigma of Fear also features puzzles which are tied to collectibles in the game. While this is a fun concept, it was a bit disappointing to learn that each of these was effectively a cryptology question one might get in Comp Sci class, or from a puzzle book, with the clues usually just instructing the player on which cipher to use to solve the puzzles. However, I did appreciate the process to arrive at the solution to some of these, which made a good utilization of what a PC game can do, in regards to messing with folders, files, and file manipulation.
Overall, I enjoyed my experience with Enigma of Fear, though I feel that it will appeal more to the sort who enjoy cipher puzzles, than those who enjoy things like Resident Evil/Silent Hill. It does feature some aspects of horror, though its overall art direction and presentation keeps it from feeling like a full blown horror game. I'd feel good recommending the game to fans of puzzles, provided they've got the patience to deal with some slightly annoying running back and forth, or replaying segments.
