Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
Release Date: October 5th, 2010
Developer: Ninja Theory
Game Type: Hack-n-Slash Platformer
Price Paid: $35
Graphics: 9
Enslaved is one truly good looking game. It may be the best looking game to use the unreal engine. Most games that use the post apocalyptic setting have crumbled buildings that were the only evidence of a once huge city, use very dark colors, and have very contained signs of life. Enslaved breaks away from those rules and creates a wonderful world just waiting to be played in. America was left lifeless and the cities have once again become a jungle with plant life anywhere and everywhere. Bright colors such as red and green dominate the screen and it looks wonderful. Not up to par, but it reminded me a lot of Uncharted.
That wasn’t the only way Enslaved was similar to Uncharted. Not since Nathan Drake and Elena Fisher have you seen motion capturing look this good. Monkey looks exactly like his name, shirtless and with a belt that looks like a tail and Trip constantly has her emotions shown upon herself as if you were watching as movie. Andy Serkis, the one recognizable voice actor in the game, plays Monkey and what is great about that is you can see part of Andy’s face recreated into Monkeys. It’s truly a great and underappreciated achievement in the scheme of the actual game.
That is to say the game is not with its flaws though. While playing I encounter two things that effected my time with the game. The first thing that annoyed me was during some cutscenes, Monkey would become frozen and not move yet the cutscene would continue as if nothing was wrong, taking away anything the scene tried to accomplish. The other was the world itself. It was great, but by game’s end we only got to play in four different environments, so it felt like a waste we didn’t get to actually see more of this world.
Sound: 10
The voice acting is some of the best in the business. They stuck with Andy Serkis, who voiced King Bohan in Heavenly Sword, and once again he was great. Monkey, by sheer default, should have been a boring character. Instead, he brought emotions to Monkey. His screams put you in a state of worry and he’s actually pretty funny in a doesn’t know he actually is type of way. His enslaver, Trip, pulled you in even more. Her fear is expressed through her voice. She screams, breathes heavily, and struggles to speak when something goes wrong, and because it’s so well done, you actually want to protect her. The only other true character, Pigsy, is good. Through his name, he has a deep voice, snorts like a pig, and cracks jokes that put him in awkward situations. Only three characters in the game, but they find the right voices for all three of them.
The other great thing is the soundtrack. Before you even start the game, a nice melody starts playing that gets you rolling to play the game. They do a nice job of playing the right music to set up the tone of the scene. It creates a wonderful atmosphere that makes you want to move forward to the next chapter.
Gameplay: 8
The story of Enslaved is good; nothing truly ground breaking, but good none the less. You play as Monkey, a lone scrapper, who ends up being Enslaved through a mechanical headband put on by a scared survivor, Trip. She didn’t want to have to do it, but it was the only way she could make it back home alive. It starts off with the two bickering and being mistrustful of each other, but as the game goes on you realize it’s not about the story it’s about the characters.
Monkey and Trip are two wonderful characters because they are stuck together and complete opposites of each other. Monkey is a smart fighter, taking down mechs with his staff. Trip on the other hand, relies on technology and tries to outsmart the mechs with that skill of hers. The two alone aren’t a threat, but together they can take down anything. It takes awhile for them to figure that out, but when they do, things start clicking.
The combat in the game is stripped down to the most basic hack-n-slash. You have a heavy attack, a quick one, a stunned, and a charged attack. You use different attacks no different mechs, but it’s all very simple. You can ask Trip to upgrade them, but never do you get into any real trouble. Alone with the hand to hand, you can shoot “sticks” for ranged attacks, but they are limited supply and can only get them when they want you to use them.
You can upgrade your weapons/health by collecting mini orbs spread throughout the game or when killing enemies. It’s Enslaved’s version of a collection trophy, and they can are very easy to find, but I can see you overlooking a few that are put in areas where you have to go out of your way to find. I wish they would have had some sort of tracker to help you see how close you are, but unfortunately they do not.
The enemies you faced were a bit repetitive. In a world full of mechs you only had 4-5 total types actually come attack you. I would have loved to see more diversity in them. Towards the end I got bored of fighting them. The boss fights were well done, but they were more bark then bite. It’s hard to imagine Monkey was the first one to kill a dog. The last boss fight was great, but it was rinse and repeat three times, annoying me into thinking when I would actually kill it.
A few instances where the game seemed glitchy was when you needed to have Trip move something through the computer for you. A lot of times she wouldn’t move it when I commanded and it took several times to get the game to register that I commanded her. It was very annoying. The other was when the camera would go through a wall accidentally and the screen would get stuck causing you to have to restart from a checkpoint.
Regards to the ending
Lasting Appeal: 5
Hours Played: 9
Game Difficulty: 5
Trophy Difficulty: 7
Enslaved is a very short game. Did its length downgrade the story and quality? No, but it does make you wonder if it’s worth your cash. The campaign will run you at most 10 hours, but if you fly through it, it could be done in 5 hours. Even if you replay the campaign, it won’t last very long. The one thing the game has going for it was the orb collecting, but even those will be hard to track down because there is no way of telling how many you have missed or where they are, unless you have an internet guide. The difficulty is way too easy for its length. At least if they made it harder, it would have made the game a longer experience. Hopefully the DLC comes at a good length and price because the game needs it for two reasons, its length and the world needs to be explored more.
Final Comments:
Enslaved was easily one of my most anticipated games of the year. Unfortunately with those high expectations came disappointment. By no means was it a bad game, but it wasn’t the game I expected. They built something that could be great if they fix some of there mistakes if they happen to make a sequel, but if this is all there will be, it will never be what it could have been.
Right to the point:
+ The story
+ The characters
+ The basic gameplay
- The enemies
- The replay value
- The difficulty
Final Score: 7.5/10
Recommended Price: $35