Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

Date Acquired: Rented on 10.9.2010

Date completed: 10.12.2010

Thoughts: A relatively recent addition to my gaming radar, my interest in Enslaved was boosted with the release of the fantastic demo last week.

Enslaved is the second game from Ninja Theory, the developers behind cult hit Heavenly Sword, and the studio that has been tapped to make Devil May Cry 5 it's next project.

In a lot of ways Enslaved reminds me of Prince of Persia 2008, thanks to it's unique graphical style, and the manner of platforming. The combat is not a lot deeper than Prince of Persia and this is a pretty easy game, as PoP was. It's also at least partially an escort game, which Pop really wasn't, despite having a female character follow you around, she got around on her own and only entered the game to help you. Such is not the case with Trip. You are often forced to not only figure out how to get yourself from point A to point B, but you also have to figure out how to get Trip there, and of course, it's usually two different paths.

Trip comes across as kind of a bitch in the beginning of the game. The game opens with both your character, the inanely, though accurately-named Monkey, trying to escape a crashing space ship. It's here that he encounters Trip, who is also trying to escape. Instead of helping each other, Trip keeps slamming doors in Monkey's face, and refusing to do anything to help him escape, instead trying to save herself and leaving Monkey to die. When the two of you finally do escape, Trip puts a slave collar on Monkey, forcing him to help her get home. Throwing Trip across chasms is the earliest form of revenge/satisfaction the game provides, but it's still and escort effect.

Pros: The acting, the characters and the story are all mesmerizing. Ninja Theory did a great job creating a world that was interesting and making characters that I care about. The game injects a lot of creativity and humor. At one point Trip dismisses a bunch of boxes as 'obsolete technology'. If you choose to examine the boxes further, you'll see they read '3D Televisions'. Later in the game, Trip, Monkey and the enormous Pigsy are crammed into an escape pod together, prompting Monkey to wryly comment 'at least I get to be inside this time', which made me laugh in itself, but the next part of that scene is hysterical. Boss battles were enjoyable and creative and varied. Games like this tend to give you the same boss fight over and over, but Enslaved does a good job of delivering enjoyable variety.

Cons: The game is very short, and doesn't seem to have a lot to offer as incentive to replay it. I finished the game 2 days before it was due back to Blockbuster, and I don't really see myself playing through it much more before I return it. The ending is interesting and unique, but a little disappointing from the perspective of resolving the story. It seems likely that the game will deliver the true ending via downloadable content in the future. It didn't end on a cliffhanger, but it didn't end with the sweeping resolution I hoped for. The game has it's glitches, and combat can be made much more frustrating because of these. Many times I would have to deal with slow response times where I would aim at one enemy, it would swing at another, so I would aim at that enemy, and then it would bounce me back to the last enemy, finally registering my command from the previous sequence. There's also not a lot of varietey to the combat. There's an upgrade system, you can use the orbs you collect to unlock things, but there's not a lot of things you can unlock that affect the combat.

Conclusion: I hemmed and hawed about what to do about this game. I knew I wanted to play it as soon as possible, but I also knew it would be short, and it seems like the kind of game to follow in Brutal Legend's steps, and will be in the bargain bin very quickly. I decided to rent it, betting that I could finish the game before I had to return it. I feel a bit guilty not giving the developers money for the game, I know this isn't going to sell well, but this was the best decision for me. I will buy the game eventually, when it is miring in the bargain bin and probably the PS3 edition, to double dip and get the trophies, again exactly as I did with Prince of Persia 2008 which I also rented initially. I liked the game a lot, and definitely think it's worth playing, but maybe just not spending $60 on. I would love a sequal, but strongly doubt that happens. The best we can likely hope for is Monkey appearing in Soul Caliber one day.