Gaspar de Guzmán y Pimentel, 1st Duke of Sanlúcar, 3rd Count of Olivares, known to history as the Count-Duke of Olivares, is one of those historical figures who really deserves a video game made them. Not a video game that sees them as the hero, of course, but as the terrifying, grasping, mercurial villain. The Count-Duke was the favourite of Spain’s Philip IV. In paintings from the era he fairly radiates malice and self-interest. He was huge and powerful, the epitome of the power behind the throne.
En Garde! reviewPublisher: Fireplace GamesDeveloper: Fireplace GamesPlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Out now on PC.
And I’m pretty sure he’s the model for the villain in En Garde!, a spry and witty swashbuckling game set in Spain’s golden age. The Count-Duke is everywhere in this game, even when he isn’t dominating boss fights: he glowers from the walls in paintings that reference works of Velazquez and – at one point – El Greco. His scheming notes are scattered around waiting to be found. He’s planning something – something big and terrible. Like the real Count-Duke in the court of Philip IV, his presence in this world is inescapable.
Fans of Spanish history will enjoy stuff like this, I think, but the delights of En Garde! are so generous, so freewheeling that there’s something for everyone. This is a third-person action game with a brilliant heroine, brisk, breezy platforming and rapier combat inspired by the likes of the Arkham games. It’s a colourful journey across a bunch of lovely, intricate maps. It’s a bit of a treat in every way.
Let’s look at the platforming first. It’s made of simple bits and pieces – bar swings, mantling, bounce-pads, ropes – but it’s handled with confidence and quick restarts for moments where you miss a jump. Playing as a swashbuckler, it was inevitable that you’d end up bouncing around the place, scaling the outside walls of villas and churches, rushing along battlements and hopping over the covered stalls of market squares. All of this allows En Garde! to bend its simple action-adventure agenda into lovely wriggly shapes. Some of my happiest moments here involve simply dancing through platforming gauntlets from one battle to the next, storming a country house at night in one moment, working my way up towards the promise of a lighted window shining out against the night sky, only to pick a path through a garden maze the next.