PS3 Review - Enslaved: Odyssey to the West Review

Alex Tretrop Nov 2, 2010 Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Us Gaming, Okay Geek game review, Reviews

Story: Enslaved takes a well known Chinese folk tale, Journey to the West, and adds its own flavor to make it even more original and compelling than it already is. I mean, a monkey who flies on a cloud with a power pole is already quite unique without altering anything. Regardless, in Enslaved You play as Monkey, an extremely nimble character who finds himself stuck on a slave ship. Right after the events of the opening you’ll encounter Trip, our female lead who is the exact opposite of Monkey, that is to say she’s technologically gifted but doesn’t have much of a taste for combat. After Monkey is forced into helping her through a headband in which if he takes off he dies, the two form an unlikely alliance that is the basis for what makes the story so fantastic. There are only three speaking characters in the game -No, seriously three. And they’re all extremely well characterized with some of the most believable problems and personalities, that you’ll be hard pressed to tear yourself away from the screen.

Gameplay: Taking queues from God of War and Prince of Persia, Enslaved prides itself with fast paced and flashy combat, only breaking from it to offer some climbing and jumping platforming here and there. The only problem is that climbing offers no challenge whatsoever, as you can never die and the game always clearly points to the one and only wall hold you can get to. Needless to say, it gets old very fast because your just hitting A (Or X) in one direction, then another, then another and… well, you get the idea. Thankfully, the combat is much better; it has a heavy focus on combos and it gives you sense of power as a result, particularly due to some excellent camera work. Outside of combat, Trip also proves to be a useful ally, bringing her technologically advanced skills to the table, allowing you to distract enemies and heal your wounds as you go about trying to solve various puzzles. Like I mentioned before though, she’s very weak and you’ll often need to protect her from whatever monster your fighting. 

While this game is an action adventure game, it also has a bit of RPG features in it as well, namely the money/level up system. As you go about each stage, you no doubt will notice a lot of randomly placed orange balls. These balls of light once gathered make up the currency that allows the player to buy up new skills as well as increase your health and shield strength. It’s pretty straight forward without much room in terms of strategy.  

Visuals/Audio: Enslaved really does look fantastic. Since it’s set in a post apocalyptic world that hasn’t been ravaged by war, it’s nice to see a game that isn’t filled with the greys and browns of the genre. It also has a sense of scale that’s off the charts and really helps reinforce the fact that you’re on a long and arduous journey to the west. My only complaint is that it’s running off the Unreal Engine, which forces a ton of texture pop-in to be seen after loading screens and during transitions between areas.

In terms of audio - wow, it’s really been a while since I’ve heard dialogue that’s sounded this good. Part of the reason is that you spend so much time with just two relatable characters in which their voices are pulled off so spectacularly. Andy Serkis, of Lord of the Rings’ Golem fame, plays Monkey, and alongside Lindsey Shaw, who plays Trip, they both pull off some of the most sincere sounding dialogue heard in gaming this entire year, putting the quality of its actors right up there with games created by Bioware or Bethesda. And the amazing thing about it is that the game seriously only uses 3 characters, whereas other games rely on a huge ensemble to get the point across. 

Difficulty: The range of difficulty found in Enslaved is all over the place. The climbing portions of the game are all really easy and the game holds your hand each time you navigate through one, which is a little disappointing. But in contrast, its offset by the satisfying and fast paced combat which can get sufficiently challenging in certain areas. Not to mention all the areas where you’ll have to use your brain to figure out some of the puzzles, which aren’t too complex but at least switch it up from the usual hack and slash gameplay. 

Hours to Complete: 8 to 10 hours. It’s a very short game and while there is almost no incentive to replay it, those 8 to 10 hours were some of the most enjoyable hours I’ve spent with a game this year. 

 

Opinion: I really enjoyed my time with Enslaved and that’s mostly because of how different and how effectively the story was presented. Using very simple yet complex and layered characters, the overall mystery of the game is kept secret and the characters are what lured me to continue investing more time with the game. The gameplay itself is fairly good as well, but nothing out of this world. While I didn’t care much for most of the hand holding in the climbing sections, I enjoyed the combat sequences, even if you only fight 4 to 5 enemies in the entire game. In other words, this is more of a game built fully on its story with the overall gameplay taking the back seat. Although the game does look pretty - I mean very pretty - it doesn’t do much for the gameplay as a whole.

Play or Pass: I would heartily recommended anyone to play this game based solely on the story alone, but for those who need something more, the quick paced action will wet any gamer’s whistle - although it is very bare. There are a few problems like texture pop in’s, hand holding gameplay that never really disappears throughout the game, and basically zero replayability which will be the deciding factor when it comes to recommending people buying or renting the game. However, that being said, regardless of how you end up getting your hands on Enslaved, you really owe it to yourself to at least experience this unique tale.