Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (PS3) Review

An odyssey that's packed with trouble.

 

 Enslaved: Odyssey to the West was one of developer Ninja Theory's gems during the seventh gen era. A retelling of the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West but with a futuristic twist, the game follows two leads as they journey across a ravaged United States. The game wasn't a huge success but got good reviews when it released back in 2010. It's often forgotten about as the years went on, with it occasionally getting a sale or two. As one of the games in my backlog, I've always been interested in playing Enslaved since I've enjoyed Ninja Theory's previous work. So is it any good?

 Set in a post-apocalyptic future, we follow or two main characters: Monkey, a scavenging nomad, and Trip, a tech-savvy woman as they must travel across a war-torn U.S. in order for the latter to reach her village. It's not an easy journey as vicious mechs scour the land, enslaving and killing everything in sight. The story was an interesting one as you slowly uncover and piece out what happened to the world via flashbacks and character interactions. Without going into spoilers, the plot-twists was a wild one with the ending easily setting up a sequel. Though I wished that the game fleshed-out the cause of the war since it doesn't get fully explained.  

 As for the characters, Monkey and Trip's relationship starts-off rocky, with Trip planting a self-destructing headband on Monkey should he disobeys her orders. That said, the two slowly open up to each other and you get to learn more about them. It also helps the chemistry between the two, making the interactions a lot more interesting. Still, I wished that there was more characters aside from the third one you meet (who gave the game its funniest moments) to make the world feel a bit more alive.

The story's interesting, though it leaves
 a lot of unanswered questions.

 Enslaved is a third-person adventure game where you control Monkey as he beats up enemies with his staff, climbs various platforms, and protect Trip from Danger. Trip serves as your companion in gameplay by upgrading your health and equipment, distracting enemies by creating holograms, and even helping out in puzzles. While she's not entirely dead weight, it's game over if the mechs kill her, so you'll have to watch her back. Rather than just simply button mashing your way in fights, you can also block enemy attacks with Monkey's shield and even evade them. When cornered by a bunch of mechs, Monkey can charge his staff to briefly stun them, which gets handy in later levels. 

The gameplay is clunky yet serviceable
for the most part.

 Other than that, the gameplay just felt average with no interesting features whatsoever. There are the occasional stealth segments, which were laughably weak given how enemies can instantly spot you, and made fighting head-on a better idea. Also, there were the occasional Uncharted-style climbing sequences and open-areas where you use Monkey's "Cloud" hoverboard, which were fun. My favorite parts of Enslaved were the platforming parts with Monkey where you swing between vines, leaping to ledges, and climbing all sorts of machinery. While it sounds like your mundane platforming segments, they were well-executed given how snappy Monkey's movements were. 

Swing like a monkey with Monkey!

 

 Enslaved took around 10 hours to beat and in terms of replay-value, it's low. Aside from fully upgrading Monkey's equipment by collecting all "Tech" pieces in levels as well as hunting for the elusive masks, which give flashbacks before the war--- there isn't much reason to go back and replay the adventure.  The Premium Edition of the game includes the "Pigsey's Perfect 10" DLC which is a 3-hour adventure starring Pigsey taking place before the game's events. A notable issue I had with the gameplay was the camera, which had a tendency to clip through walls when fighting enemies and performing take-downs. 

 Enslaved still looks great some 10 years later. The detailed nature of the environments and expressive facial animations of the characters was impressive back then and still is today. That said, it's not without issues. There were lots of low-res textures throughout the adventure, choppy frame-rate in combat, and lots of screen-tearing as well as audio issues that makes Enslaved far from being polished and was noticeable over the course of the ride. The voice-work was fantastic with great performances from all the lead characters, no doubt about that. As for the soundtrack, it was good and complimented the game's serious and even funny moments well. 

Enslaved still looks good but the technical issues
hold it back.

 

 Overall, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West was a good game with an equally good cast of characters and world. I kind of wish that the gameplay was way more interesting and technical issues of the presentation would've been polished, as I feel that they held the game back from being great. It's sad we didn't get a sequel after the cliffhanger ending though. Fans of action-adventure game with a sci-fi twist should definitely check it out since it's relatively cheap nowadays.