IGN Plus: Claim Your Switch Key for Enclave HD, the Remastered Original Xbox Action Game

Enclave HD, the 3rd person action game which originally graced Xbox and PC, has been ported and remastered for modern consoles. Now available with trophies, and a new, remastered soundtrack, you can jump into the Light or Dark campaign and start hacking and slashing. If that sounds fun, you’re in luck; you can grab a copy of the Nintendo Switch version right now as part of IGN Plus.

Plus members – get your Nintendo Switch key for Enclave HD here on its IGN Rewards Page. Not a Plus member? You can easily become one by checking out the IGN Rewards page.

What is Enclave HD?

Enclave was originally developed by Starbreeze Studios (the makers of The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay, The Darkness, Payday 2, Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons, & others) and came to the original Xbox in the early 2000s with twin campaigns; Light and Dark, which pit players on opposite sides of the war. It went to PC the following year, but this is the first time this floppy, old-school 3D (or first-person) slash-em-up is available on Nintendo or PlayStation consoles at all.

Set in the world of Celenheim, Enclave HD is remastered with up-rezzed textures and FMVs, but it’s still absolutely the same game. Swing your sword wildly at little goblins, snotlings (yes, you read that right), orcs, and more as you fight to defend yourself against the armies of the Dreg’Atar in the Light campaign, and fight to conquer Celenheim in the Dark campaign. Unfortunately you can’t jump into the Dark campaign without beating the Light one first, but you’ll gather gold and choose between different unlocked characters before each short level, equipping weapons, armor, and even potions by using that gold.

It’s a genuine throwback to be sure, so beware if you have no appetite for bugs or sixth-generation design decisions, but if you have an affection for gaming history or retro experiences, give it a spin.

Enclave HD Developer Interview

Q: How did the development team get involved with Enclave, & what fueled the decision to bring back this Xbox game?

A: The idea to bring an upgraded version of the original Enclave to modern consoles came about through Ziggurat’s conversations with licensor TopWare Interactive. It was mutually agreed that Enclave would be a great fit for Ziggurat’s goals of preserving and enhancing timeless games from the past, as it has continued to have an active community of players on PC but has been absent from consoles for multiple generations. Ziggurat reached out to the trusted and experienced porting developers at Sickhead Games, who had previously worked with Ziggurat to bring the definitive versions of Real Heroes: Firefighter to PC and Xbox as Real Heroes: Firefighter HD.

Q: Games like this are a rare breed nowadays. What does the team think about what Enclave brings to the table, compared to more modern game structure & mechanics?

A: Enclave is a 3D third-person action RPG, with so much emphasis on the action that it can even be considered a hack-and-slash game. It was a rare breed in its own time, as most other action RPGs from this era were either top-down isometric games in the vein of Diablo, or first-person games in the vein of Ultima Underworld, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, and the Elder Scrolls series. It was not common to see a 3D RPG with a third-person perspective with levels designed to allow for positioning, crouching, and jumping as useful tools in traversal and combat. There are also few action RPGs from that era which increment gameplay in a stage-based rather than quest-based structure (Odin Sphere on PS2 comes to mind, which was released 5 years later than Enclave on Xbox).

Enclave came out nearly a decade before third-person 3D action RPGs like Demon’s Souls, Kingdom of Amalur, and Dragon’s Dogma. FromSoftware games in the vein of Demon’s Souls could be seen to have more in common with Enclave than other Action RPG games from the time of Enclave’s release, since Enclave places greater emphasis on level design, 3D space (short and long-range combat, verticality, platforming, etc.), set pieces, and brutal difficulty than most early 2000s Western RPGs. The combat in Enclave has much more of a hack-and-slash feel than Dark Souls, but it still offers a satisfying experience to those looking to make their way through menacing but beautiful environments with a dark medieval fantasy theme.

The sequencing of the game into dozens of missions allows the story to unfold in a compelling way for first-time players and for convenient revisiting of individual missions to replay them with a different playable character (or for the completionist looking to pick up every bag of gold they might have missed on their first playthrough). Rather than the player controlling a single character with a skill tree that unfolds over time, you can switch at will between six different playable characters with distinct abilities and equip them with the gear of your choice between missions. Progression comes in the form of earning more gold that unlocks better gear for each character, rather than in the form of leveling character attribute points or skills on a skill tree.

Enclave HD – Nintendo Switch Screenshots