Enslaved Review
Enslaved puts you in the shoes of a prisoner by the name of Monkey, and shortly after the opening cinematics its painfully obvious why he's named that. You'll be spending a very large portion of the game jumping from pole to hand hold, to ledge, and more. You'll also be doing all of this for a girl named Trip. She's sort of this technology hacker who just wants to get home. You will be battling tons of different robots, which they call Mechs in the game. Will you be able to survive all that stands in your path to get Trip safely home?
Graphically this game is stunning. It is very well done, I really enjoy the post-apocalyptic look of New York, and now much nature has reclaimed what is left of the world. The character models are also very well done, well for the main characters, there's a couple of interactions with people outside of Monkey, Trip, and a very rotund individual named Pigsy, and they could have used the same level of polish the rest of the game got.
The music and sounds were just perfect in the game. There wasn't too much repetition where you just want to shut up an individual, but there was a lot of character behind the voices and you could tell what type of role they were going for.
The controls were for the most part well mapped out. There was a couple of issues with trying to control the camera in certain parts of the game, but as an ex-programmer I know why some of the control was taken out (so some of the flaws couldn't be so easily seen in certain sections). Trying to pull off the counter attack was a chore, but I think that was more about my timing and not that of the game trying to interpret when I was hitting the B button.
Now some might be curious as to why the game is called Enslaved. Well the story goes that there was this huge war between the humans and the Mechs and there rose this organization called Pyramid that would pluck people up and control/enslave them to do what they wanted. They were all controlled by a crown, and to make sure that Trip gets home safely she decides to control a crown that she places on Monkey. If she were to ever die Monkey would suffer the same fate. As I previously mentioned you're going to be spending a lot of time doing what monkeys do best and that's climbing and swinging from spot to spot. The mechanics, for the most part, were beyond solid in this department. In my opinion if this portion of the game wasn't close to perfection the game would be a complete waste of space. There are a couple of times where you'll find yourself jumping to one position and then accidentally jumping back to the previous because of the sometimes not as precise as you'd like directions mess things up. You will be picking up red orbs, called tech orbs, which can be turned into upgrades for your character to enhance his ability to survive as well as kill more efficiently. You'll also find that you're stick can be used, when you have the ammo, to act almost like a bazooka of sorts.
Overall this game is a solid piece of work, and one that I have to say was really hard to put down. I really hated the fact that the game had to end, but I can only hope for a sequel now. Of course with the quick drop in price for this game, the outlook isn't all that good, but at least this game is worth the adventure. This game gets a 8.9 out of 10.