Don't be afraid to investigate all the mysteries in Enigma of Fear.
THE GAME
Enigma of Fear is an investigation game developed by Dumativa and Cellbit and distributed by Dumativa and Nuuvem Inc. Mia and her faithful dog Lupi are on a mission: to find Veríssimo, Mia's father. His last known location was an abandoned and very macabre mansion. Accompanied by the hacker Samuel and the occultist Agatha, our protagonist goes in search of answers about where her father is, trusting that he is still alive. You will encounter all kinds of threats, from zombies to paranormal activity, all wrapped up in a macabre and frightening atmosphere.
MY IMPRESSIONS
Many good ideas together don't always produce a good result. Enigma of Fear is great as an investigation game. Puzzles with a good level of difficulty, making you explore files, clues and scenarios, interactions between characters that help you advance, all of this is done very well. If the game were limited to just that, it would be perfect. However, we have threats like zombies, for example, that force you to engage in combat. And that's where the game suffers. In the case of zombies, you can still defeat them stealthily, but another problem appears and I'll get into that shortly. It seems to be a mania of game developers to want to cram combat into games that clearly don't need it to stand out. All of the countless investigation mechanics are overshadowed by this need for battles against enemies, with blocks at the right time and the need for precise movements. Perhaps all of this would go unnoticed if the controls and gameplay weren't so detrimental to the game. Characters with heavy movement, precise movements at times when the controls don't help, and some interface issues are just some of the problems that make the experience exhausting.
The story is interesting, always leaving you wanting to know where all this mystery will take you, even though the extremely boring combats try hard to demotivate you. The game is in Brazilian Portuguese, as it is made by Brazilian developers. In addition, they did a great job of including dubbing in Brazilian Portuguese, with extremely famous voice actors in Brazil. It seems that it is becoming a recurring feature and that makes me very happy. The game's art, both pixel art and 3D scenarios, are very well done and their combination has good synergy. Despite some optimization and control issues, it is a challenging game, but it is disappointing in some aspects.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Most of the achievements are tied to the game's main story, meaning that as you progress, you'll naturally get most of them. Some others will require you to solve puzzles separately to find new story items. In short, you'll have a lot of exploration and investigation to do if you want to complete 100% of the achievements.
CONCLUSION
I really like games developed by Brazilians because they almost always break the mold and are extremely creative. In Enigma of Fear, we have that too, but it seems that, for some reason, some decisions were made to make the game more appealing in their view, and it's something I see a lot in the gaming industry. If there's no combat, it's not appealing to the public. Even if that were true, I like developers who are bold and deliver experiences that are different from the usual. We could have that here, a game wrapped in mystery and investigation without having to stop everything for a combat sequence that doesn't work, whether due to gameplay or controls. Unfortunately, it had a lot of potential that was wasted, even though its creativity with puzzles shines.
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