Firstly - there is certainly something to be said for not putting a game down and taking a long break away from it. Having had about a month away from Enslaved it was certainly a little more taxing to remember the controls that were once second nature when the game was fresh in my mind. In part we can blame Battlefield 3 and the formation of a platoon for me and my work colleagues that meant many an hour was spent on the hugely addictive multiplayer experience when I probably should have found the time to get Enslaved done and dusted - I really wasn't all that far from the end.

At times I feel Enslaved can be a little harsh on a player. Perhaps it was because I was playing on the hardest difficulty but it certainly felt like any single mistake in certain scenarios and you might as well give up and wait for the game to show the fail cutscene and start it over. Much like before where i found myself having to chase a dog that was chasing Trip. I had the displeasure of having to chase Trip as this time she rode a runaway mechnical animal. Again it was the 'simple' task of flying Monkey's cloud over the blue speed boosts dotted around the track like environment to catch up and save the day. Missing a single one of these - that was it. Start over because you will see the fail animation and yes it's really annoying. What at first feels like a rescue - just becomes a 'for the love of God - let's just get this over with.' Thankfully after a few failed attempts the hurdle was crossed.

Throughout the last 4 chapters that i needed to playthrough - the game play didn't change up much / if at all. So i feel it's kind of beyond the point to go into mechanics of the game now. What you've had for the past several hours - it's business as usual for the 'end game'. There were some interesting environments such as an underwater base in which Monkey, Trip and Pigsy were tasked with stealing a huge mech.

Overall, with the game now completed and a small tick in my 'win column' - I'm left feeling that the story and the character development which had been so strong throughout this game simply started to fade away. Where once i was driven to continue i just felt we were now going through the motions in order to reach the conclusion of the game. Maybe it was the month long break that had this effect but i found myself caring alot less. Cutscenes were shorter - the character development was little to nothing unlike in the first few hours. Everything sort of just dried up.

And as for the ending - if you haven't played the game, spoilers ahead.

The ending just felt very rushed with little to no resolution. We meet Andy Serkis' who has created almost a matrix like environment where humans are plugged into a fake reality one of a single man's memories of the world before whatever apocolytic calamity hit the world to leave it as the wasteland that we find for our game's environment. It came out of nowhere and left me feeling a little unimpressed. There was no real vengence, there was no grand finale, simply a 'don't unplug me' - 'oh i've unplugged you' cutscene and some credits. I hope I wasn't the only one thinking we'd perhaps get a little more.

And really - that's it. The game's done. It will go on my shelf and we'll always have the memories of Monkey and Trip as they made their journey across the wastelands. For the price i paid to be 'late to the game' - i think it was a game that presented some strong characters and some great motion capture work, but the mechanics and gameplay structure were average at best - a game that played it safe a majority of the time and could have innovated in certain area's such as combat to vastly improve the core of what we're here for - the game.