It always feels bad to rag on games that the public majority considers underrated, especially members of that category that underperformed financially. But unfortunately, I did not like Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, and so I have to criticize it in order to justify my opinion.

The idea of taking Journey to the West (or its abridged English translation Monkey) and adapting it into a video game format was an inspired idea. While I have not read Wu Cheng'en’s novel, I am aware of its epic scope, which naturally fits the parameters that a AAA video game can provide.

But alas, somewhere along the way, it was decided to loosely incorporate the plot of the classic, with the team instead opting to create their own lore and world. I think this was a missed opportunity to show how video games can be the artistic equivalent of great literature, but on the other hand I completely understand that adapting another person’s work is inherently restrictive on one’s creative expression. And so, Journey to the West was turned into Odyssey to the West: 7th Century Asia to post-apocalyptic America. By going this route, the team had the ability to conceive their own setting, one potentially rife with mythologies, commentary, or even satire.

And yet, this is the probably the biggest ball that Enslaved drops. Co-writer Alex Garland revealed that there was a deliberate attempt to be “reductive” with the game’s storytelling, and I have no problem with this approach. Showing instead of telling often yields greater world building rewards whilst avoiding the pacing issues that expository dialogue risks creating. The problem is, Enslaved is too quiet for its own good. Outside of vague references to a “war,” there’s no information on how exactly this place came to be. Robotic monstrosities called mechs roam the planescape, their AI acting like biological fauna; you get a notion that smuggling and slave trafficking are prominent enough, and perhaps tribes of like minded people still exist. But you will have to make so many assumptions because the game DOES NOT tell you anything. Why are the mechs still operational if no one is maintaining them? Why are there no other humans, neither friendly nor hostile? On that note, how is Monkey superhuman? Are any other clans trying to rebuild society? What caused this war and what ended it? Most video games would at least compensate for the lack of direct information by having external data available by way of collectibles (BioShock’s audio diaries, Arkham City’s Arkham stories). Enslaved doesn’t give you any of that. It’s vague to a fault, and this deliberate tactic on Garland’s part hurts the world because you have a very unique setting with its own mythos that I end up caring about as much as a level in Mario.

No seriously, think about that- you don’t care about how a particular area in a Mario game came to be because the point of it is to simply serve as a backdrop for the platforming action that’s about to take place. Enslaved falls into that same generalization- since its depiction of the United States doesn’t have anything narratively tangible to it outside of aesthetics, it’s essentially just a backdrop for the action of Monkey and Trip’s story. And again, it’s sad because this is a beautiful construct that is definitely brimming with a rich mythology, yet you don’t end up having any investment in it since Garland and co. don’t give you anything to chew on beyond obscure drops of knowledge that could be interpreted a bunch of different ways.

Is the adventure at least fun on its own merits? The answer is no. Enslaved is a title that starts off with a lot of potential- you have two prisoners who have escaped this floating prison and now one of them is forcing the other to help her get home in exchange for freedom. It’s a unique take on the “road movie” format, and instantly played to themes of freedom vs. security, as well as the effects of the judicial system on youths. Most importantly, it set the game on a serious note, which is what you want to do with a post-apocalyptic setting (assuming you’re not conceiving a tongue-in-cheek tale).

And yet, it falters because it doesn’t develop the relationship between the two characters well. Monkey and Trip are very interesting individuals, each with their own personality and view of this disturbing era they’ve grown up in. It’s a classic pinning of the grizzled veteran with the naïve rookie, albeit tuned to fit Enslaved’s persona. But that aforementioned complaint about things being too understated applies to the background of the protagonist Monkey. We don’t learn a damn thing about him! I mentioned his unexplained superhuman attributes, but practically everything else remains unclear- what was his childhood like, how did he become a proficient fighter, what are his views on morality in this dystopia, how did he end up on the ship, heck why is he shirtless all the time? You don’t get anything outside of a couple of small drops like his parents being killed by mechs, and it’s a little frustrating because you spend all this time with a guy you don’t end up knowing much about it. Ironically, it once again plays to the Mario schema of this man being more of a placeholder for action beats over a fleshed out individual.

This wouldn’t have necessarily been a glaring problem (for me anyway) if there was frequent conversations between him and Trip ala the way there was between Joel and Ellie in The Last of Us, but no, you don’t get much in the way of quiet moments. Most of their dialogues are focused on getting through sections of the world, whether that’s through procuring new equipment, scanning areas, or discussing the best plan of action. You need to either use those scenes to build up mutually-beneficial success stories or implement dramatic-laced parts when all the fighting is done. The former fails because, more often than not, Trip is merely a means to an end and Monkey does all the heavy lifting. And when she does get endangered, the reason I’m saving her is because her death means Monkey’s insta-termination, not because I care about her well-being. The two’s relationship just isn’t fleshed out enough to the point that I care about their future prospects together.

The biggest killer to the story, though, comes in the form of the second half of the game: the introduction of Pigsy. This guy (who is apparently another loose homage to a character from Journey to the West) is the epitome of lazy writing: a stereotypical comic relief slob. Credit where credit is due- I didn’t end up hating him since he actually serves a purpose, but the biggest downside is that he absolutely kills the serious tone that was established in the first half. Enslaved goes from a hard T to a flat-out E10 rating because of him: the tonal shift is THAT bad. If the whole narrative had been tongue-in-cheek, it’d be one thing, but because it wants to be a serious tale, the decision by Garland to change it up makes no sense. And considering the humor is often juvenile, it honestly took me out of the immersive nature (am I seriously hearing love triangle jokes in a dystopia)?

Another overhead issue with the narrative design is that it’s tied to a game design that’s too cinematic for its own good. This was always going to be a risk given the involvement of filmic artists like Garland and Andy Serkis. Movies are, of course, a very different medium from video games- they are purely linear, wherein everything about the story is out of your hands. Video games (yes, even walking simulators) are different because the player controls the pacing of the plot. And because they have that control, they need a sufficient number of activities to do: activities that simultaneously advance the story, keep them entertained, don’t hurt pacing, and develop the characters.

You already know Enslaved significantly falters on the latter front, but all the others are failures too. With the first, it’s quite clear that Garland and co-writer Tameem Antoniades were thinking of the plot purely in macro terms: escape the prison, get to Trip’s home, find Pigsy, etc…In AAA video games, you HAVE to think about the micro picture since that is what will be taking up most of the player’s time (i.e., what is the player doing in-between A and B).

Because that was the primary focus of the writers, that in-between is chockful of the most repetitive gameplay loop I have experienced since Epic Mickey- Monkey and Trip arrive in a plane, find it to be occupied with mechs, Trip sends a drone to scan, and then Monkey proceeds to clear a path forward. Repeat ad nauseum. It gets old fast and stops being fun. There was a pathetic attempt at introducing some non-linearity into this by way of having some stealth options to approaching areas or malfunctioning enemies with different ways of getting to them, but it’s very half-assed: you don’t want to avoid fighting because defeated enemies yield the game’s currency for upgrades, and finding the quickest path to get to the malfunctioned bot is usually far more cumbersome than just going in guns a-blazing.

The only time this pattern is broken up is via boss fights (all of which are lame, boring slogs) or surfing with Monkey’s cloud disc device (reference to Goku’s Flying Nimbus from Dragon Ball?), which is very very very underutilized considering how fun its mechanics are.

For all my ranting, there is one redeemable part of the whole narrative aspect and that’s the performances. Much has been made about Andy Serkis’s role as Monkey, and he is indeed amazing, donning his best Steven Blum impersonation whilst also pioneering the amazingness of motion capture. However, a lot of people have been sleeping on Lindsey Shaw’s performance as Trip: in my opinion, she more than equaled Serkis, an amazing feat considering this was her first mocap role. She does a great job conveying the innocent nature of Trip, making the tragic scenes all the more affecting. There was chemistry between the two, and while it’s a shame that it’s not capitalized on more than it should have been, I’d be lying if I said they didn’t make the most of their limited convos. And, though I was not big fan of the character, credit to Richard Ridings for also giving a solid portrayal of Pigsy.

Graphically, Enslaved came out during the Autumnal years of the Xbox 360/PS3’s life, and it looks gorgeous. There is a genuinely-realized vision of a post-apocalyptic USA: humanity has abandoned all pretext of metropolitan civilizations, leaving urban structures overwrought with vegetation. While there’s a surprising lack of pollution, the remnants of consumer culture lay prevalent in the cityscapes with furniture, TVs, papers, and other simulacra everywhere. Industrial components are strewn everywhere (serving as the footholds for most of the game’s platforming), and yet all their appearance (alongside the mechanical factories of the second half) avoid falling into steampunk territory, crafting their own visage. Indeed, Enslaved looks like a stereotypical Xbox 360 game: photorealistic models and environs that are stylized enough to prevent them from aging badly. Though the texturing isn’t as consistent as I would have liked it to be, nothing stands out (outside of the occasional rendering zigzag on Monkey during the cutscenes): there’re no hitches, no misplaced hues, and the only bug I experienced was caused upon trying to do any set-up change in the options menu (my screen would either get really small upon implementing the change or massively drop in graphical quality, forcing me to relaunch the game as a whole).

That being said, one reason I didn’t get immersed into the visual beauty of Enslaved’s America is that everything feels too bright. And no, I don’t mean from a lighting perspective (the lighting, for the record, is primarily static, with every luminescence being perfectly suited to whatever area you are in)- the sun is out for 99% of the game. No, what I mean is that the schemes rely too much on warm colours, making everything feel unintentionally cheery. Obviously, in a real-world scenario, you wouldn’t be seeing depressing tones in a humanless world, but this is where artistic license comes into play with fictional depictions. Enslaved’s dystopia is so oversaturated at times, that it can’t help but feel like a paradisical place. And maybe that was partly the intention of the designers, but for me personally, I couldn’t help but not think of this as an apocalyptic wasteland rife with kidnappings, murdering robots, and no life.

Other notable feats- shadow mapping is terrific and game runs better without motion blur (IMO) and Monkey blinks!

Sound design is another area where the game drops the ball hard. The editing, in general, is terrible: you don’t get a good balance between SFX and score- even when I turned down the music volume I couldn’t make out the noises half the time. Not that it would’ve mattered because there’s a significant lack of impact with the sound. Footsteps feel light, and combat noises like enemies getting hit don’t have any weight to them minus the finishers. The exact same “chink” is repeated no matter the kind of mech that you’re whacking away at, and nothing else stands out. Sound really feels like an afterthought here- even ambient noises like birds squawking are blatantly stock in nature. It’s all so generic.

I wasn’t a fan of Nitin Sawhney’s score either. Outside of the beautiful main theme, nothing particularly caught my ear and stayed in my head. He does the quiet moments well enough, but because there are so few of them, the bulk of his compositions are focused on actiony tunes that either aren’t engaging or too background-like for my liking.

Finally, there’s the gameplay, and it’s decent enough. You have your standard light and heavy attacks, however there’s a lack of a combo system, meaning nothing flows together as well as it should. You won’t be able to jump between enemies, meaning your only tactic is to wail on a mech until it’s destroyed or another guy tries to attack, in which case you either block or dodge. The lack of good sound makes kills unsatisfying (save the finishers, which were badass), the lack of flow means battles are inherently 1v1 in nature, and the lack of multilateral moves means you’re going to be repeating the same pattern for most of your encounters. And yet, for all my issues, it gets the job done. The ability to charge up your staff for a stun, purchase counter strikes from the store, or pull out your plasma rifle for a quick shot gives just enough diversity to your actions. I also liked how enemies were quick on their feet, meaning even a mech that’s been hit won’t be out long enough for you charge attack, meaning will have to block, evade, or get a quick weak strike in. Should there have been more combat moves to purchase in the store? Yes, but I’m not going to bother fretting about something that isn’t there when I didn’t get frustrated by what was there.

I did dig the parkour- the animators did a good job replicating the feel of a humanoid monkey with the climbing and jumping animations. However, the design was purely linear- I would’ve liked to have seen this approach to parkour applied on a grander scale (i.e., give more avenues to begin ascending up as opposed to a single pipe to climb- be more like Assassin’s Creed!). Also, animation transitions between static and motion poses are non-existent: it’s a hard cut.

The movement for Enslaved in general is lackluster courtesy of one missing element- jumping. Seriously, you cannot jump at all, which seems deliberately done to gridlock players from accidentally causing a break since the world is deliberately designed to be nothing but linear paths. This means simple things like descending down or climbing up are turned into “find the correct entrance,” when a slightly more open-minded approach to game design would’ve yielded greater fruit. And I know it was possible considering the damn Cloud allows you to jump (probably why it’s barely in the game).

So yeah, overall Enslaved: Odyssey to the West was a disappointment for me. I was hoping it’d be an underrated gem in the vein of Alpha Protocol, but it’s something that seems to have garnered a following more-so due to its celebrity status than anything in it. The uniqueness of the world is hampered by frustratingly vague storytelling, repetitive gameplay sections, and lack of dialogue. It also suffers from The Last of Us problem of exploration being at odds with story progression (though to a far lesser degree since character interactions aren’t as well-developed as in TLOU). Gameplay is decent, sound design abysmal, and graphics are very good (though your milage will vary on the color scheme). Despite terrific performances, I wasn’t able to get immersed into the setting, and with tonal inconsistencies it seems that the writers weren’t either. None of this is even getting into the ending, which is a sudden hodgepodge of unearned philosophical depth that Spectre and Ready Player One ripped off of.

With regards to the story DLC, Pigsy’s Perfect 10, I obviously had low expectations going into it given my mixed-to-negative overview of Pigsy. Credit to Ninja Theory because they actually do a good job here of creating an entirely different genre within the same world- this shows their apt for making decent cover shooters. You also get a variety of tools that create different gameplay scenarios in a way that was never realized in Enslaved. The story is obviously humorous in nature, but because it is this way from the get-go the atmosphere doesn’t get tanked. It does try to get serious by way of emphasizing the relationship between Pigsy and an AI robot of his called Truffles, but I found the latter more annoying than cute (maybe that was the intention behind Ninja theory: create a more annoying character to make your protagonist more likeable by comparison). The level design is a little more diverse than what we saw in the main campaign, music more consistent, and sound design (particularly mixing) stronger.

The shortness of the narrative also benefits things tremendously. It does create some continuity errors though (Pigsy is shown living in a junkyard here and finds the Pigsyland area later, whereas in Enslaved it’s depicted as being his defacto home), but I think it was overall a good initiative on Ninja Theory’s part. If I had liked the main game more I think I would’ve liked this, but as it stands it’s an okay DLC on its own merits. Richard Ridings definitely deserves props for his consistent delivery here. Another small thing I appreciated was how, every time you collected a new collectable (sexy magazine, food item), there was a unique reaction from Pigsy for each one.

EU copy played on a PlayStation 3 Super Slim.

Going from Heavenly Sword to Enslaved is a pretty big step up - the characters feel more interesting, the art is more detailed with higher fidelity on the character models and environment, and the art direction can be a stunning, colourful departure from the bland backdrops in HS. Controls feel tighter too and the gameplay is just more fun all round. I did enjoy HS (for the most part), but this feels like Ninja Theory made a bigger accomplishment in both tech and entertainment.

Once Pigsy's introduced however, all chemistry between characters goes out the window along with any sense of the plot. Gameplay was still fun but I was caught off guard a couple of times by things the game expected me to know without telegraphing anything. The settings got a bit boring as well with purely factory and machine-based levels in the second half which took away from the lush greenery of early levels.

The end-game twist was, uh, definitely a choice too.

Overall I enjoyed it but outside of picking up the leftover trophies I don't know if I'll play it all the way through again.

A game that took me by surprise in terms of offering an engaging story and characters despite the introduction of a post-apocalyptic world that's basically lifeless. This setup actually strengthens the bond of the two protagonists that set on an adventure to the West.

Gameplay and combat system are not overly defined and there is some slight jank in there but overall the game works fairly well presenting combat, platforming and puzzle sections to keep variety throughout the game. The surprise to me was the ending, one of the best ones I've experienced in recent memory so make sure you stick to the end to experience this.

Ninja Theory has had a hard time establishing itself as a talented developer. With the major hype of Heavenly Sword, and Luke warm sales to the crappy Kinect Joy Ride, and the controversy of DMC it’s struggling. Enslaved is probably NT’s most successful game mainly commercially due to it’s better marketing. The story is probably the game’s strongest point, as well as character development and combat takes a back seat.

You play as Monkey a guy who escapes a slave ship that’s crash landing in post-apocalyptic New York. Along the way to escape he finds himself stuck and enslaved, but a young woman named Trip who needs his muscle to get her back home further west. The relationship between Trip and Monkey is what makes you keep playing, and their constant fight for freedom is heartwarming.


The combat had a lot of potentials, but after the first chapter, you’ll get tired of it. It’s the same two combos over and over again with a crappy camera that can’t stay put. Sure the angles are cinematic, but if you get backed into a corner it’s nauseating. The camera can’t stay put at all, and it leads to cheap deaths, and frustration when mech after mech is beating you down. You can charge an EMP burst to disable shields and make the mechs temporarily stunned, and this is essential to defeating them due to their constant blocking and shielding. You can command Trip to use a decoy so long range mechs shoot at that instead of you so you can climb around and get to them. Some mechs have weak points that allow faster kills, and you can use your staff as a projectile weapon equipped with plasma rounds and EMP rounds. This staff is also used for puzzles and exploring as well.


So combat is pretty finicky, but exploring can be a blast thanks to huge sprawling vistas, and easy to see glowing handholds and what not. Occasionally the camera gets in the way here or controls can be a bit touchy, but it’s not nearly as frustrating as the combat. You’ll notice orange orbs floating around everywhere and these are used for upgrades, but you can only upgrade if Trip is in the vicinity. There are some points where you can use Monkey’s Cloud hoverboard and there are a few exciting moments like chasing a giant mech, but this feels a bit tacked on.


The game also has pacing issues since the first chapter is epic than the next six or seven are the same repetitive area-to-area beating mechs up, jumping around affair. It’s a shame that Enslaved feels like it’s only 80% complete because it needed a lot more polish. Even though the game looks good technically it’s pretty bland with just lots of green everywhere. There’s no unique art style or anything and this is a shame. The mechs all look the same and the enemy variety is less than half a dozen. Boss fights sometimes feel epic, but they repeat often, so Enslaved is iffy on every subject. I do recommend this as a great weekend rental or bargain purchase.

Que aventura.

No es ninguna maravilla, tiene demasiados defectos y el tiempo le pasó en cima feisimo (no por nada es conocido como Unreal Engine: El Videojuego) pero su dirección artística tan interesante y personajes la hacen una obra notable.

Si aguantas un ritmo, raro; mecánicas de combate no muy eficientes y gráficos algo feitos a cambio de una historia y personajes bastante bien definidos, entrale. Al menos comigo, conectó perfectamente.

Очередной «недооцененный шедевр», который на деле просто «не шедевр».

История — нормальная. Ну то есть постапокалипсис, диалоги нормально написаны, а в конце выясняется, что в рабство людей сгоняет ИИ, на основе воспоминаний рандомного чувака с внешностью Энди Сёркиса, рисует им светлое настоящее. Но исключительно виртуально. Поэтому мы всё это вырубаем и куча народу погружается во тьму титров, вместо счастливого стояния на месте. Вот такая вот борьба с матрицей.

Жаль только что на вопросы почему вообще началась война? Кто построил ИИ? Почему он решил, что сгонять выживших в матрицу полезнее, чем восстанавливать цивилизацию? — ответов не будет. А кроме этого в игре есть только отношения Трип и Манки (стандартное «мы вынуждены сотрудничать, но со временем подружимся»), и комичный персонаж Пигси. И он, сука, не смешной, а раздражающий и мерзкий. «Трип, ты только что потеряла отца, который был моим старым другом, но так выросла и стала такой горячей... замутить не хочешь?» — блять, какие эмоции у меня должно это вызвать?! Смех?!

И самая большая проблема в том, что это игра. Потому что играть очень скучно.
По большому счёту игровой процесс состоит из драк и платформинга. Драки — простой слэшер: блок, уворот, слабый и сильный удары. Никаких новых комбинаций ударов по ходу игры не дают — как дрался в начале, так и будешь драться в конце. Прокачка из серии «чтоб была». Увеличение здоровья, щитов и урона от выстрелов из посоха. И всё. Какая-то программа минимум, которая не цепляет совершенно. Вначале драки ещё разбавляются недостелсом: прячемся за стенами, приказываем Трип отвлекать турели, чтобы успеть забежать турелям в тыл. В остальное время система взаимодействия это приказы в духе «вот тут меня подкинь» и «вот тут дёрни рычаг».

Платформинг в игре настолько беззубый, что я такого никогда прежде и не видел. Маршрут всегда один единственный, при этом цепляться можно только в определенных местах, которые ещё и мерцают. И упасть с края нельзя. Почему всё сделано настолько для тупых?

Спасает всю эту геймплейную дрисню только то, что игра проходится максимум за 8 часов. Но терпеть такую скукоту даже 8 часов, ради неплохих актёров (в роли Манки — Сёркис) и приличных диалогов — я бы не рекомендовал.

P. S. А, игра яркая! Для 2010-года, а это время поколения «коричневых игр», такое очень даже тянет на плюс.