Earlier than PAX West, I acquired an e mail that described a recreation as “a Souls-like ARPG that embraces the Italian flavour.” Regardless of my final title, I’m not as in contact with my Italian roots, however I needed to preview Enotria: The Final Track and discover out what that meant.
Jyamma Video games, the studio behind Enotria, relies in Milan, Italy, which explains the Italian taste you’ll discover within the recreation. After taking part in it for about 20 minutes, it’s clear that this can be a Soulsborne recreation that appears not like every other.
My largest takeaway is the sheer fantastic thing about the landscapes right here. Numerous video games on this style depend on darkish, gritty, grim fantasy tropes. Fort partitions and darkish caves are a dime a dozen, however additionally they make one thing just like the Erdtree stand out in its starkly totally different magnificence.
Enotria: The Final Track basks in that magnificence. It hits you with brightly lit coastlines throughout sundown, with the daylight gleaming off clear blue waters. The demo greeted me with sunflower fields, and reaching a cliffside rewarded me with a serene view of the sky and sea assembly on the horizon.
Additional into the demo, I got here throughout an Italian village that was bursting with romantic appeal. There have been no pleasant NPCs on the town, nevertheless it was throughout a competition. Reside music was taking part in, and everybody there was dancing.
It created this old-world, pleasant environment that I wished to enjoy extra. It’s not one thing you see in a number of Soulslikes, however in fact, Enotria nonetheless lives as much as its style. After I approached a dancing NPC, they instantly turned hostile.
Sadly, the fight isn’t fairly as spectacular because the artwork course right here, however that is additionally an early alpha construct. It’s not dangerous or something, nevertheless it does really feel just a little floaty. If you land an assault, some enemies don’t fairly promote that they’ve been hit.
What Enotria’s fight does have going for it, nevertheless, is its masks system. The sport permits you to equip as much as three loadouts, and you may swap between them at any time. It provides some versatility on the fly, so you would have entry to a heavy maul and a fast rapier in a single go.
The swap takes just a few seconds, so you need to decide to the change when you’re mid-fight. I can think about it being helpful when you’ve gotten just a few weapons that work for various situations. For instance, one construct may be nice for crowd management, whereas one other is ideal for single-target boss fights.
Certain, there are many video games on the market with breathtaking vistas ready to be found, however Enotria: The Final Track’s use of colour and environment felt contemporary and vibrant. Whereas the fight didn’t fairly grip me as a lot as Lords of the Fallen, I solely performed an alpha construct, and I hope to see extra from it sooner or later.
I previewed Enotria: The Final Track throughout PAX West 2023, taking part in a demo construct for roughly 20 minutes.
