Enigma of Fear - PC Review

Official key art for the game Enigma of Fear. The background of the image shows a cloudy sky, with the silhouette of a mansion below it with two windows; the left window is dark, and the right is lit up. Right of the mansion are various shadowy game characters From left to right; a young woman looks to her right put pointing her off-screen hands to the left, as if holding something in both of them. Next to her is a worried-looking dog. At the very front of the image is an odd symbol, with the text Enigma Of Fear next to it.

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What is the fear? Well, thanks to both Dumativa and Cellbit, we’ll find out soon enough. My job is to find out what paranormal events have been occurring in a place called the Perimeter. As I play Mia and her loyal four-legged companion, Lupi. We will solve puzzles and try to crack the code in Enigma of Fear. The game is available on Steam for £20.99, and was released late November. Played it already, what’s your thoughts?

Why can’t it be Enigma of Baked Goods?

Lupi is growling or cowering away from a ghostly appiration. The ghost is sat near a piano. There are tentacles coming from the corners of the screen. — what is it boy?

Gameplay

You play as Mia, a woman part of an organisation named the Order who track down, study and contains paranormal entities and situations. Alongside her pup Lupi, occult specialist Agatha, and tech whiz Samuel, the four of you are looking for the Order’s leader and Mia’s father, Verity. His last location was the Strach family mansion, where your investigation begins.

The mental map in the game. it is highly detailed and shows all the area I have explored/found. The white area to the left is meant to represent fog. — Wish my mind was this detailed.

Enigma Of Fear has the player mainly exploring the environments and solving puzzles. You have a Mental Map, which functions as a regular map but with an extra helpful twist. Once you’ve discovered a note, image or item, you can click its symbol on the map to look at it again, regardless of where you are. This is a feature I’ve never seen before, but it was immensely useful, saving time on lots of mind numbing treks that often come with puzzle heavy games. Even more so since some puzzles you don’t revisit until much later on. However, only on Normal (one of two difficulty modes) do you have access to tutorials and the Mental Map. In contrast when playing Detective mode, you would need to take notes and photos in real life and remember where to go alone. My only gripe is that I wish there was a marker to show where you currently were on the map.

Your Gear

Not everything is visible to the naked eye, and this is where your flashlight will help you. While the standard mode is for navigating in the dark as typical, the UV light allows you to see hidden messages written in invisible ink. It doesn’t provide illumination like the ordinary flashlight, so you’ll have to switch between them regularly.

A message is shown on a wall thanks to the use of my UV torch function. The words on the wall say "The God of Fear is Watching" — Creeps.

You also have a portable radio, which shows you a blue arrow pointing toward the nearest communication unit, which allows you to talk to Agatha and Samuel and ask them questions. As Agatha is the occult specialist, you speak to her about creatures you find, and she will give advice or hints on how to deal with them. Samuel, in a similar vein, gives hints on puzzles and advice on environmental obstacles.

Samuel and Agatha aren’t the only helpful ones. Occasionally, Lupi may need to crawl through a small space to retrieve something, or to chase an enemy to another location. You can also discuss things with Lupi, but only when near a radio. Just like most dogs in real life, petting Lupi restores your sanity.

Combat

While Enigma Of Fear is puzzle heavy, it’s not to say that you’re alone (or safe). You’re armed with a crowbar and a gun, which you need to find ammo for around the map. Lupi will whimper if an enemy is active nearby. Blood Zombies and other enemies stalk around waiting to strike. You deal with enemies differently, depending on the type. Blood Zombies are only killable via the gun, unless you sneak behind them without them noticing. Even though they’re blind, they can hear you and detect you if you get too close while you’re not crouched. If you get hurt, you can use a medkit. I found I needed to use these sparingly too as you have to find them across the map, and they seem slightly rarer than the ammo. It also takes a few seconds to use the medkit, so you have to be cautious when choosing to heal.

Mia & Lupi are hiding from a large monster with green crystals protruding from its back. The whole camera has a warp effect to show a different perspective compared to the games usual style. — This shot makes it look like I’m safe, but that thing can still see me.

Graphics & Audio

Enigma Of Fear presents itself beautifully. The unique style of 3D environments and 2D pixel character models stood out to me from the get-go. It’s something I’ve never seen before, but it looked great. The game’s artists deserve a huge amount of praise for their sketches—they’re *chefs’ kiss. I would love to see some of these drawings placed in a bestiary-style/book. I would definitely purchase a book with this art style!

A book with an illustration of a silhouetted child being surrounded by various monsters. Some look demos other spectres. The right is Mia look at the book with Lupi looking over her shoulder. — Just look at this art!

Music really helps set the mood for each area, whether it’s soft and calm, mysterious, or downright eerie. Use of colour themes for each area is both helpful and easy on the eye. For example one area having a red theme like the Spiral Castle and another having a purple theme. The audio is also very clear and concise, which is vital for keeping your guard up or navigating certain puzzles.

Longevity

Seven and half hours in and I’ve still so much more to do in Enigma of Fear. The puzzles take so major brain power (or maybe I’m not as brainy as I thought), but when you solve them, boy, does the dopamine hit. Back tracking is something you will be doing frequently, which takes a good chunk of time when not using the underground shortcuts.

Final Thoughts

Since starting Enigma of Fear, I just haven’t put it down. The levels are well designed, back-tracking does become annoying, but with the amount of fun I had, it’s easily forgiven. I love the puzzles in the game that really challenged me, such as the statues. Lupi is adorable, and the cast is great. Although I’m not a huge fan of Agatha’s voice. The music fits the scene and really helps set the tone. The game is just so interesting and captivating. Enigma of Fear is going into my replay pile, right with Crow Country.

Gameplay is fun and engaging, but I do wish there were less notes. I understand developers use them for world building, but I wish they would try other ways. Such as videos or just another cinematic. I appreciate this is more a pet peeve of mine with games in general rather than just this one though.

The teams at Dumativa, and Cellbit achieved something great here. Now, honestly, the only thing mystery I have is, why isn’t anyone playing or talking about Enigma of Fear more?

Enigma of Fear is fully deserving of the Thumb Culture Platinum Award.

Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.

About Author

Kyle McGrath

I’ve enjoyed video games for as long as I remember and I don’t think there isn’t a game I wouldn’t play. For reviews, I try my best to make them simple and easy to understand. With so many games released daily, I attempt to play them all.

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Enigma of Fear – PC Review