Enslaved: Odyssey to the West was developed by Ninja Theory, of Heavenly Sword and DmC fame. It is an action platform game released in 2010, loosely based upon the Chinese novel Journey to the West. Enslaved is set 150 years into the future, where a global war has devastated the world, with humans on the brink of extinction. In its post-apocalyptic setting, we're introduced to Monkey, who was captured on a slave trade ship. Upon crashing, he meets Trip, who forces Monkey to wear a slave headband while he was unconscious. Now, Monkey must accompany Trip to her home across the dangerous terrain. Why? Because Trip has the ability to command Monkey through the headband, oh, and if Trip dies, the headband will kill Monkey too. Along the way, they meet up with a third character called Pigsy. In this world, there are mechs left over from the war, these machines kill any humans on sight. I found that the atmosphere of the game changes between the early chapters and the final ones. In the first few chapters, Trip and Monkey is travelling across a desolated New York, they are alone and there are killer machines out there. It feels like a horror end of the world type of game, with intense chases and battles. In the last few chapters, the story turned into a more action focused feel. The ending was intriguing and introduced another concept but it ended before things could be fully explained.
One of the highlights of the game is the banter between Monkey and Trip. Of course, at the start, Monkey hates Trip since he was forced into the whole thing. After a while, they grow warm towards each other and the chemistry between them blooms. The story is very loosely based upon Journey to the West but apart from the characters and the general direction of heading west, there isn't too many things else in common. However, the storytelling is tight and quick paced. There's always something happening or is going to happen. There are some fantastic set pieces and from time to time, even some scary moments that will thrill you. Enslaved is focused upon two things: platforming and combat. Throughout the whole game, you play as Monkey who is very agile and nimble. He is able to climb up structures easily and is powerful to boot. Platforming generally requires you to find pieces in the background which shine to indicate they are climbable, and then you just aim Monkey towards it with the analogue stick and press X. All the platforming in the game is really easy, Monkey usually cannot die from platforming since he doesn't jump to the next piece unless he can make it. Platforming is more for the visual spectacle rather than the challenge and that is fine because Enslaved keeps the pacing going. Any break in the quick pacing of the storytelling will only serve to infuriate players.
Being developed by Ninja Theory, you would expect the combat to satisfy. In a way, Enslaved does just that. It feels clunky and annoying at first but once you get used to it, it's fun. The controls are simple, you have one button to evade, one button for a normal attack and one button for a strong attack. You also have the option to dodge, shoot plasma projectiles from your staff and stun enemies. Destroying a mech usually involves smacking them with Monkey's staff until they go down. Needless to say, it becomes tougher as the game goes on once new enemies are introduced. These enemies may have shields which require you to stun them first, enemies which calls on reinforcements and enemies with the ability to stun Monkey. This keeps the game varied and exciting and you end up having to juggle between different abilities, blocking and evading until the opportunity presents itself for you to unleash your counterattacks, especially when several different mechs attack you at the same time. Monkey has various gadgets to help him on his quest too, including an energy shield which blocks a limited amount of ranged fire. He has a "cloud", which is a hoverboard allowing him to zip across the level, however, he can only use the cloud in predetermined sections of a level.
There is an upgrade system tied to collectibles. You can find "tech orbs" scattered around each level, as well as when you defeat enemies. Collecting enough will allow you to upgrade abilities such as increased health, increased ammo capacity and additional combat moves. There was over 1600 tech orbs to find!! The other type of collectible is masks which are scattered around each chapter. Playing the game on Hard, even normal enemies can decimate you if you're not careful. You have to study and learn enemy's movements and their weaknesses, and the adrenaline it pumps into you is unrivaled in any other game. Then there are the boss battles. They are usually epic and heaps of fun. Once again, you need to learn attack patterns and the boss's weaknesses before you can attack. You're usually left with your heart beating and your face smiling after you've defeated a boss. One negative is that bosses seem to have way too much health on the higher difficulties, so it gets boring when you repeat the same process to damage the boss multiple times. Enslaved also has a puzzle element to it. You see, as you are travelling with Trip, you need to occasionally traverse across areas which she alone cannot pass. You can pick her up and throw her across, or you have to travel in a roundabout way to lower down a bridge.
There will be segments where Trip can act as a decoy so that you can sneak up to shooting enemies and disarm them. Trip never becomes a liability of the game however, and that is a relief. The design of the game is good with pleasing aesthetics. There is a lot of green within the game which can make it feel oversaturated at times. The graphics are decent but not amazing. Playing it on the PS3 system, there are some noticeable technical issues. For one, the camera seems off. It can stutter and cause screen tearing; lowering the sensitivity helps a lot. There are occasional framerate drops, even during cutscenes (as well as lip syncing issues whenever you restart a checkpoint). The story has fourteen chapters and an epilogue, which translates to roughly around 10 to 12 hours of gameplay. Once completed, you can use Chapter Select to grab any collectibles you've misses or aim for any Trohpies. Apart from that, there's no other replay value. I found that the game started chucking repetitive sequences at you towards the end, such as breaking four sets of anchor restraints and repeating the same set of actions multiple times to defeat a boss. It also forced a lot more third-person shooting aspects. Overall, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is a fun action adventure game. You get to experience a fantastic atmosphere, some adrenaline-filled fights and a decent story. It has its flaws but it was a good ride.
Pigsy's Perfect 10:
Enslaved had one DLC pack (excluding the free ninja suit DLC for Monkey) released, which was called Pigsy's Perfect 10. As you can tell from the title, it stars Pigsy and it takes place before the events of the main game. Pigsy's Perfect 10 plays like a completely different game due to Pigsy being the controllable character. As you would expect, he is nowhere near as nimble or naturally powerful as Monkey. Whereas Monkey had a lot of platforming sections, Pigsy's are more like stealth sections. Pigsy relies on his gun and gadgets in order to defeat enemies and you'll be facing a lot of mechs over the course of the DLC. Pigsy will find himself in an arena with cover and numerous enemies roaming around. It is up to you to use a combination of stealth and gadgets in order to defeat the enemies. Running in guns blazing is not recommended as Pigsy dies very fast and his attacks are mostly long-ranged and awkward to use in a pinch. Pigsy's main weapon is his gun so the DLC plays like a shooter at times. You can go into sniper mode to fire off more powerful rounds.
Pigsy has other gadgets too; he has an EMP which can stun a mech in close range. He has a long ranged EMP with an area of effect. He can fire off a decoy, use bombs and convert enemies into allies for a limited amount of time. The combat sections thus regress to puzzles. This huge shift in gameplay is annoying and frustrating at first but will end up being very fun. The voice acting continues to be fantastic here and the story is about Pigsy finding spare parts to build a companion. The one-liners that Pigsy spits out during the course of the game are funny and makes the whole journey worthwhile. The moral of the story was predictable but the actual ending was somewhat annoying in that it makes the objective of the story moot. There are nineteen short chapters and takes around 3-5 hours to finish depending on how quickly you can defeat the enemies. There are additional Trophies to earn and more collectibles to find. Pigsy's Perfect 10 also adds the ability to not only play the DLC in 3D (on a 3D compatible TV) but also the main game as well. Overall, this is a fun DLC which adds a decent amount of content to the core game and complements it very well.
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