Enigma: Rising Tide Gold Edition Review

One heck of a fun naval combat and command simulation, Enigma: Rising Tide Gold, to borrow a line from Othello, takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master.

Enigma puts you on the bridge, in the cupola, and in the AA defenses of several different and authentic WWII-era ships. With the click of a mouse you'll slip into the skin of any of your defending sailors or control your ship directly. As you complete missions you'll gain rank and notoriety while your control expands to the point of owning your own fleet.

Enigma puts you at the helm of several submarines as well, and while every ship or boat has the same interface, each handles a bit differently and has separate strengths and weaknesses that must be accounted for as you skipper them into combat.

Gameplay: 9 Simple, streamlined, and fun. Enigma has a simple control scheme but it doesn't make it any easier. With the click of the mouse you can command your entire ship or take a battle station at any of your ship's weapon stations. Your standard view is the ship's bridge, with a 360-degree field of vision. Simple key-presses or mouse-drags effectively steer and accelerate your vessel. No game could bill itself as a command simulation with the captain handling the throttle and rudder himself, and as such, Enigma incorporates the use of a microphone (not included) and voice recognition to allow the player to issue orders the crew will follow to a tee. Much more than a gimmick, microphone-based gameplay is definitely the way to experience Enigma.

A German Bomber hit by AA flak begins its crash into the Atlantic

"Simple, streamlined, and fun."

A friendly opens fire onto a surfaced submarine wolfpack

The voice command recognition is superb and never missed a command. Soon you will be driving anyone within hearing distance crazy with shouts of “ALL AHEAD FULL”, “HARD TO PORT” or “RIG FOR DIVE”! The microphone is exceptionally useful in immersing you in the game world. Other than using the mouse for occasional scanning of your surroundings, the entire game can be played while screaming furiously with your arms crossed. This approach seriously adds to the tension, especially while commanding a surface ship trying to outmaneuver several torpedoes while simultaneously trying to identify exactly where they're coming from.

During one particularly harrowing moment in Enigma, the AI set up a trap with perfect precision. An enemy submarine launched a torpedo that was easily maneuvered, but swinging the bow around to avoid the first shot placed me in the direct path of three oncoming torpedoes. These torpedoes would have been easily avoided by not turning to meet the enemy that shot the first, and the AI was smart enough to decoy the player into a fatal move.

"…the entire game can be played while screaming furiously with your arms crossed."

A successful hit with the deck guns

This level of AI treachery and skill can make Enigma nearly impossible at times. The one major drawback in the gameplay area is that Enigma can feel a bit unbalanced. You'll breeze through some missions that, while harrowing, are overcome without a lot of trouble. Then you'll hit a brick wall of a mission that will require outstanding skill and a little luck to successfully complete. Enigma can be extremely challenging, especially in the early get-go when the player is still feeling his way around commanding a ship. To counteract, the player's crew tends to be very efficient, and while the player can take any battle station on the ship, the crew will generally make better combatants. The good captain should stay on the bridge.

The environment must also be taken into consideration in each battle. It can be very embarrassing to be in a toe-to-toe deckgun slugfest with an enemy, have your crew ready a shot, and then miss the target because your ship was cresting over a wave at the moment you hit the FIRE button. Enigma incorporates the sea in a wonderful way, and your ship will pitch with the wave action and changes in your heading, modeled correctly if you are traveling parallel or perpendicular to the waves.

All in all this is game is easily as fun as one can find, especially if naval combat is something one is interested in.

Graphics: 7
The graphics in this game are bi-polar. Smoke, fog, the ocean, and fire effects are well done. The ships are authentic and accurately modeled. After several hours of playing Enigma you'll be able to tell friend from foe from primary targets, just by looking at them through the binoculars.

"The graphics in this game are bi-polar ."

The textures, however, are bad. Up-close the textures of your ship are strangely shaded and lighting effects are non-existent. It can be a bit jarring that the sea and combatants are so good looking but the bridge and guns of your own ship are so average. The graphics are clean, however, and there are no glitches or broken textures, though the immediate world could use a bit of gloss.

Targeting a tender with the fore deck gun

You'll encounter all sorts of weather and environments in Enigma

A surface merchant is sunk

Sound: 10
The music is wonderfully stirring and omnipresent. It contributes to the atmosphere greatly while never feeling out of place.

"The best sound, or worst depending on perspective, is when a torpedo blows steel off of your ship"

The different AA guns sound sufficiently powerful and each caliber has a different sound associated with it, like the eerie sound of a bomber approaching your convoy to unleash hell. The massive deck guns sound great, but the best sound, or worst depending on perspective, is when a torpedo blows steel off of your ship. The sound really makes the grade in Enigma.

Multiplayer: N/A

Replay Value: 8
Enigma has a campaign and skirmish mode, and the battles will never play the same twice. The game is immensely playable and re-playable, guaranteeing the player a new experience each time the game is played.

The Good:
Enigma is an exceedingly original concept that's executed very well. It is fun, immersive, and addictive. The inclusion of the microphone voice-command mode could have been a gimmick, but instead its execution adds to the game's atmosphere and gameplay ten-fold.

The Bad:
The copy-protection scheme is buggy, and the game refused to run with the original disk in the drive on many occasions, on more than one machine. The menus are decidedly low-res, and the maximum resolution the game will run in is 1280x1024. The in-game tutorials can be difficult to follow at first until the learning curve is conquered by the player.

Knocking bombers out of the sky will take skill and an eye on the ammo

The “big tactical” map gives you all the data you need at a glance, and will help you communicate with friendly vessels

THREE TORPEDOES? This can't be good