En Garde! review – Princesa of Panache

Here’s a question: when did action adventures become so serious? This isn’t to say the high-profile games of this genre aren’t entertaining, and incredibly well made, but from Tomb Raider to Assassin’s Creed and God of War, things have tended to become rather grim and gory in recent years. The stakes are high, the finishers are brutal, and smiles from the heroes can typically be counted on your fingers alone.

Which makes En Garde!, from Fireplace Games, such a breath of fresh air. Swinging in on a chandelier, evidently out of nowhere, is this colourful throwback actioner that places the emphasis squarely on flamboyant fun. Players assume the role of 17^th Century swordswoman Adalia de Volador, a swashbuckling hero who repeatedly steps up to thwart the dastardly Count-Duke and his various hench-people, all of whom are out to exploit the common people.

Acrobatic Adalia vaults over tables; taunts her opponents; drops jugs, roast chickens and cauldrons on their heads; unbalances enemies by kicking barrels in their direction; squashes them under weapon racks; and lights the occasional gunpowder trail… that leads to a cannon of course.

It’s surprising that players have never been treated to a game like En Garde! before – at least to my knowledge – which delivers Zorro-esque wish fulfilment in spades. But its classic adventure subject matter and stylings, which also call to mind the likes of The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Three Musketeers, aren’t the only way that En Garde! surprises. It’s actually pretty challenging from a gameplay perspective too.

After completing the first chapter, I was fully prepared to label En Garde! a candyfloss game – amusing, but featherlight, and easy to consume. Given the easiness of the first episode, I was certain I was going to breeze through the game in a few hours. Especially since there are achievements for completing each of the four serial-style story chapters in under 30 minutes.

However, after that first tutorial centred segment, the difficulty curve of En Garde! becomes a lot more pronounced. If you think you’re going to brute force your way through the game, you’re about to get schooled by the challenges thrown your way. En Garde! insists you master its duelling system of perfectly timed attacks, parries and dodges. You also must improvise, using your environment to stun and neutralise the enemy hordes so that you can focus on fencing a single opponent. This results in highly dynamic fight scenes, which have the additional effect of earning you Panache. Translation: by showing flair in combat, you charge up the meter for your three special ability attacks, which are key to overcoming the increasingly tough bosses. By the way, if you fall during one of the later phases of these drawn-out battles, you return to the very start. How old school.

For players concerned about difficulty, you can always head back to the game’s main menu to change your setting (between Easy, Medium and Hard), and take advantage of the growing number of tweakable accessibility options to blunt the toughness of the battles. There’s also a Tips & Tricks Menu, which serves as a reminder of all the options available to you in battle.

Now, I don’t want to oversell En Garde! Its platforming component is extremely simple, and almost across the board there’s a sense of the game being stripped down to basics. Probably my biggest gripe, though, is the lack of lip syncing on the character models. En Garde! features non-lethal, bloodless combat, and conversation continues between you and opponents once you’ve defeated them. That’s great, except for the fact it’s impossible to identify who is talking from the stiff bodies lying on the ground. When everything else about the game is so high-energy and vibrant, such lifelessness – which extends to city streets devoid of people – stands out.

I’m not going to complain about the length of En Garde! for the record. The game is reasonably priced for a four- to six-hour story experience, and the shortness encourages replayability. Plus, there’s an extra Arena Mode, where players must attempt to survive wave after wave of villains in changing settings. Here you get to choose modifiers that enhance your play style, but you’re also afflicted with a random negative effect that disadvantages you. With four Arenas – Cadet, Master, Hero, Legend – of increasing difficulty to tick off, that’s going to keep you occupied for quite some time.

For all its obvious flaws, I still love En Garde! It’s consistently fun, without feeling forced, overlaying its consciously cartoonish action with sharp banter and, in quieter exploratory moments, revelling in self-awareness. Adalia finds books that reference her genre predecessors. She pets the local… chickens. And she even quips that everything is in order when she uncovers a treasure trove behind a waterfall. En Garde! is that kind of game.

As for Adalia herself, the fourth wall-breaking character is cosplay catnip. Our hero comes across as a Spanish-sounding Sandra Bullock by way of Kassandra in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey – right down to the awkward, queer lady flirting. Yes, En Garde! includes LGBT+ themes too, as Adalia spars verbally and physically with WOC pirate Zaida, a crush who operates with her own roguish agenda. How frequently do you see that particular dynamic (think Batman and Catwoman) between women in a video game, or entertainment in general?

Every so often you encounter a game that feels like it was made specifically for you. En Garde! is that for me. Here’s hoping that it migrates to console in future, so that more people can relish one of the biggest, and most surprising, gaming delights of the year so far. Also, sequels would be very welcome.

Released on 16 August, En Garde! is out now for PC. Buy it through Steam here.