Deeply engaging characters and mostly solid action combine in Ninja Theory's latest effort.
Kill robots in exotic locations!Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is a simple story told with subtlety and heart, about two intertwined survivors making their way across a wasteland America in the wake of some catastrophic future war. A fair amount of Hollywood talent got involved in this game--the story is by Sunshine and The Beach writer Alex Garland, and Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings' Gollum) directed the dramatic sequences and voiced the main character--and they earn their places in the credits as you see nuanced, believable relationships building between Enslaved's tiny cast of speaking characters over the course of their grueling journey. The game's mix of melee combat and acrobatic platforming satisfies more often than not, but even when the gameplay gets awkward, the plight of the survivors is engaging and touching enough to drive you onward to the story's conclusion.
Monkey is a capable, muscled nomad making his solitary way through the wastes. Trip is a technically adept but fragile young girl stranded hundreds of miles from her secluded farming community. She needs to safely cover those miles and elude roving bands of killer robots, the remnants of the war that destroyed civilization. She needs Monkey. So she secretly fits him with a mind-control device that forces him to obey her commands and will administer a killing shock to him, if she dies. Naturally this fierce loner isn't too thrilled about obeying orders from an excitable teenager, but what choice does he have? It quickly becomes apparent that while Trip is technically in control of the situation, Monkey's the one with both the brawn and the survival know-how, and that creates some good tension and an almost playful back-and-forth dynamic between the two, as they scrape through frequent close encounters with the mechs, and learn more about each other in the process.
The game hits you with cinematic action sequences on a regular basis. The game's dramatic scenes are among the most convincing in the business, utilizing Serkis' obvious flair for the dramatic, and the "performance capture" process made famous by Avatar, to fill Monkey, Trip, and the game's one other meaningful speaking character with more lifelike personality and pathos than a dozen text-heavy role-playing games. Technically that's because there are actual people behind not just the voiceover (which is superb) but also the body language, facial tics, and zillion other subtle elements that make these characters seem quite real. Performance capture must still be a pretty expensive or unwieldy process, otherwise every developer would use it in their cutscenes all the time. The results speak for themselves. Even outside the cinematics, the game does a great job of developing its characters, owing to the snappy and genuinely funny banter between them, and I realized I honestly cared about what was going to happen to them only an hour or two into the game.
Actually playing Enslaved is largely like bouncing between Prince of Persia and God of War. From a crumbling, heavily jungled New York City to a mechanized facility run by the slavers who are trying to subjugate what's left of society, there's a lot of stuff to climb on. The game subscribes to the hold-your-hand school of acrobatic traversal, since it marks only certain background elements--loose bricks, conveniently placed poles and ledges--as climbable, and all you need to do is push the stick toward the next handhold and press the jump button. In general I have no problem with letting a game take the lead with this sort of mechanic; the weird angles and irregular spacing of the jumps you have to make would probably be a nightmare to accomplish with looser, manual gamepad controls. Though, if you're looking for a constant challenge, this isn't it; the platforming rarely demands expert timing from you, and only a few of these sequences near the end of the game really put you under any sort of time pressure. It's easy to do, but at least it looks really cool while you're doing it.
Mech-ridden wasteland America is a pretty ugly place. The melee combat involving Monkey and his weird electro-retractable futuristic staff weapon is more challenging and consequently more satisfying. You've got a healthy assortment of light and heavy attacks, dodges, counters, and blocks, and the game does a good job of smoothly introducing stronger and trickier foes throughout the game that come at you in different ways and force you to actually use your entire arsenal of moves to defeat them. Monkey's staff also doubles as a sort of rifle that can fire both stunning and killing energy blasts from a third-person view, and there are enemies that make you mix in these ranged attacks as well. Monkey even has a hoverboard of sorts that comes into play in a few action sequences and boss fights.
Lastly, there's an AI-only co-op mechanic that lets Trip pitch in and help you out when you ask for it. She can project a hologram to draw the mechs' fire away from you for a short time so you can run from one cover point to the next, and you can also pop up from behind cover and yell at them to draw their ire back your way, so you can tell her to move up to your position. Per action genre standards, there are multiple upgrade paths that let you enhance your fighting prowess, ranged attacks, health, and so on. I found the game did a good job of varying up the sorts of combat and action scenarios I was getting into so I never got bored with what was happening at the moment.
Step two in the "Body By Monkey" workout program.Enslaved has the appearance of being entirely original, but it's actually based on the classical Chinese narrative Journey to the West and places some specific narrative threads from that work into its distinctive setting to create its own identity. And though the post-apocalyptic thing has been done to death in video games recently, this game has a unique take on that theme. It brings together a lot of elements, the visual design and tone of the characters chief among them, to create a vision of a shattered future that doesn't feel exactly like every other wasteland you've seen before. I really enjoyed the dirty, clockwork look of all the technology left over from the war; it's got a sort of retro-futuristic vibe to it, and the mech designs are all fearsome in an animalistic sort of way. In basic terms of color palette and art style, it's a rich and beautiful-looking game, though a few frame rate drops and the Unreal Engine's characteristic texture pop-in don't do it any favors. The game has a penchant for larger-than-life cinematic action sequences, such as an escape from a crashing airship or a battle on top of a skyscraper-sized mech, that really showcase not just the graphical fidelity but also the designs of the technology and architecture that sprung up in this game's world, centuries after the gears of modern society and industry ground to a halt.
Enslaved comes right at the start of the busy fourth-quarter release schedule, and given the game's modest promotional campaign up to now, this review might be the first you've heard of it. But it's a well-produced effort that makes itself easy to get invested in and is worth considering for anyone who enjoys a solid dozen-hour-long, story-driven action game. It doesn't do everything right all the time, but some grander and higher-profile games could stand to learn a lesson or two from this one.
Aside from a couple of bumps here and there I'm loving this game. It's leagues ahead of Heavenly Sword and plays largely very well on the hard difficulty setting.
" Has anyone else experienced a complete and utter turn-around in opinion on this game? When I first saw the thumbnail for this come up as a new QL, I was like "Uh, alright. Looks dumb.". Then I watched the quick look. At that point I was saying "huh. OK.". Then I played the demo and said "Damn. Yeah!". Now after all these good reviews such as Bradley's here, I actually want to spend $60 on this. Not that I have $60 to spend, but if I had it, I probably would. Crazy. "
Right here, that was my exact arc with it. I'm about to install it on my hard drive and play it, so the demo has done it's job. It's a pity so many fanboys will hate it reflexedly because it's the company that changed their "precious" Dante... "
two good games that have an (admittedly) different style compared to Devil May Cry won't go over well with the fans in any case. It can't be helped. "
This is true, but I use "fanboy" in the pejorative sense. I think normal, right thinking people will give this game a shot and be really happy with it. Or they won't, but at least they'll have tried it.
Nice to see this get a good review and i was nodding in total agreement whilst reading it too. Especially the part about the characters. Though i think it's sad that this game sticks out like a sore thumb in that regard, simply because the characters are believable, well voiced and acted. I even genuinely laughed a few times.
I'm in agreement with Brad but I don't know if this is a game that you buy I see it as a rental because after one play through you need to be a big achievement whore to play though it a again for the points....
I loved the demo for Enslaved, and I absolutely love that the art design is full of vibrant colors (as opposed to lots of brown). I am definitely going to pick this up. Just waiting for my next paycheck to come in.
Sleeper hit of the year eh? I was really surprised about the quality of this game when I played the demo. I liked the setting, the characters, and while I was left underwhelmed with the combat the traversal gameplay was fun. great review Brad.
This looks really cool, and as always a great review. With this game being "short" it seems like a perfect inbetween game for fable III and Fall Out NV
I was really disappointed after playing the demo and now I'm a bit puzzled that did I really play that demo of this game which seems to be so good after reading the review. The demo felt like a narrow tube with some fighting (which didn't feel really good, a poor GoW ripoff) and some x mashing for jumping sequences.
Now I must really try to play the demo again to see that did I just understood it wrong :D
well, i didn't expect this after the apparent reception the demo got. even though the ql didn't really do anything for me, i'll give it a gander. good review!
Excellent game enjoing every moment of it so far, as brad says in the review the cut scenes are truly amazing in the way Trip and monkey interact you can really see the emotions which bring them to life far more than any other game would.
however I dont agree with avatar getting the credit for making performence capture famous, If i remember right Peter jackson did that with Andy serkis for golum in the lord of the rings triliogy as well as Andy doing the same when he did Heavenly sword both of which were out well before Avatar so if anything it's them that should get the credit.
It isn't technically a mind-control device Monkey is wearing, is it? I mean Trip isn't explicitly controlling Monkey's mind, he's just compelled to do what she orders him to do because the device will kill him otherwise. Anyway, Brad, as always, you string words together in a satisfying manner.
I don't know how long the game is, I think I'm about 5 hours in and I'm stuck looking for something to jump on in an area with rotating platforms. I got frustrated and just stopped playing, maybe I'll notice where I'm supposed to jump later. Other than that the game is really engaging, complete mindless fun, for most people this is definitely a rental but I paid retail for the game since my girlfriend may actually enjoy playing through it as well.
I have only played the first 4 levels of Enslaved, but so far, it's amazing! The voice acting is inspired, the cut-scenes are palpable in their authenticity. I admit there's a chance that the game will spiral downhill from here, but if it doesn't, it's definitely a game of the year contender for me. If you're looking to lose yourself in a video game, go pick up Enslaved now.
" This game is incredible. I finished it in two sittings only because I was to tired to stay up and finish it. Also, the visuals are damn impressive for X360. "
Ditto. I'm still having a hard time time getting through Halo: Reach, but I finished this game in two sittings. This game's all heart, I love it.
Honestly I really don't feel like the demo (which was literally just the first chapter of the game) gave the most perfect impression of the game as a whole. Most of the combat is in narrow corridors (which didn't do the camera any favors) which isn't the case in most of the full game, with just hit a couple buttons to kill mechs. You can vary it up a bit more later on. While the platforming is a bit indicative of the game as a whole, it just is a lot funner past Chapter 1 because there are far larger and more varied areas and other distractions.
This is why the strategy of "Let's just make the first 10-20 minutes of the game the demo" kind of annoys me with certain games. You're getting the easiest and most basic part of the game to try it out - which is just going to give people the impression it's gameplay is overly simplistic and as a result boring for the entire game. And it did for a lot of people. I know quite a few people who won't play the full game who decided it was "too easy" and "too simplistic" from the demo and I've spent a lot of time trying to convince them otherwise. But I know it 's cheaper and easier for devs on a time crunch to do it that way vs no demo at all.
I don't know. I've just suddenly found myself too attached to this game. Sure it has it's flaws, but every game does. It does things very well at it's core, and it's got something a lot of games don't: heart. It's got great personality, fun gameplay, and you can tell a great deal of love went into the making of it. I can't help but find myself championing this game everywhere because I've come to love it so much - this hasn't happened for me since Bioshock.
Edit: Also, fantastic review Brad! Happy to see you really liked it as much as you seemed to on Bombcast c:
Really enjoyed the demo a lot and am looking forward to the game, but Castlevania has completely taken over my life. Guess I'll pick this up in a couple of months.
"Technically that's because there are actual people behind not just the voiceover (which is superb) but also the body language, facial tics, and zillion other subtle elements that make these characters seem quite real. "
I am usually forgiving about writing in reviews, but man, there are just so many things wrong with that sentence.
" "Technically that's because there are actual people behind not just the voiceover (which is superb) but also the body language, facial tics, and zillion other subtle elements that make these characters seem quite real. " I am usually forgiving about writing in reviews, but man, there are just so many things wrong with that sentence. "
In Brad's defense: he's usually the least worst when it comes to this.
I went to the mall today and waited a very long time for my mother who was with me, to order some new glasses so she could see better. While I waited, I went to Gamestop to see if there were any games I would like to buy. I found Enslaved, which was on sale for $15.00. I decided to buy it after hearing really good things about it.
I plan to play it this weekend, once I'm done with work, and I'm excited that I bought it.
86 Comments