Enslaved PS3 Review (Second Opinion)
Action game Enslaved: Odyssey to the West was one of the most promising titles at this year's E3 for a number of reasons: an interesting and epic take on platforming, a dynamic combat system and an apocalyptic, mech-filled narrative based on the 16th century Chinese novel, Journey to the West. The game, written by novelist/screenwriter Alex Garland (of zombie movie 28 Days Later) and directed by Gollum—er...actor, Andy Serkis—details the partnership between two unlikely allies who struggle not only to survive, but to restore their humanity.
The story starts on a flying slave ship where main characters Monkey (a brooding hulk of a man) and Trip (a beautiful hacker) are being held prisoner. This intro serves as a tutorial, teaching movement and combat mechanics as well as illustrating the duo's escape from bondage. Things don't really start rolling though, until they've left the ship and (literally) landed in the burned out ruins of what used to be New York City. Once on the ground, the two strangers might go their separate ways, but tech-savvy Trip forces their alliance by jamming a slaver's headband onto Monkey's head while he's still unconscious. A headband? How does a simple headband control a thick-necked guy like Monkey? Well, the headband is wired directly into Monkey's brain, so if he tries to escape or to harm Trip in any way, the band turns his grey matter into curly fries. That's how.
Anyway, once their partnership is grudgingly agreed upon, Monkey and Trip head West, toward Trip's home village. First though, they have to negotiate the treacherous, rubble-filled urbanscape of New York. The once great city is now a dangerous mountain range of cement and rusted steel and sneaky though she may be, Trip's a fragile little thing, incapable of crossing it on her own. As Monkey, your job is to get her over huge obstacles and across gaping chasms. This generally entails picking her up and tossing her somewhere, then jumping after her and hauling her skinny ass to safety. Sometimes she'll freak out and lose the ability to move, forcing you to give her a piggy-back ride across entire areas; and as if that wasn't enough, you'll also have to defend her against the remnant army of hostile mechs running around everywhere. Combat in Enslaved is very straightforward, consisting mostly of one-button presses for unarmed melee, blocking and evading. You also have a shrinking/expanding staff (bwah!) with two glowing ends that looks a lot like an electric Q-tip (which begs the question—should you destroy the robots or clean their ears out?).
Enslaved plays a little like Prince of Persia, a little like Uncharted. Or at least, does its level best to emulate these two games. The indebtedness to PoP is obvious in the acrobatic way Monkey moves around the environment, jumping, swinging, dropping and flipping. This is fun and easy to do (even easier than PoP) since there's no fear that he'll fall off a ledge or miss a handhold. It's also reminiscent of PoP in the pairing of male/female characters who have to work together to succeed. Fans of Uncharted will note the borrowing of that title's seamless transitions between cutscenes and interactive sequences as well as the epic scale of the various set pieces. While paying homage to other great titles, Enslaved has some of its own cool ideas, including some clever narrative explanations for practical mechanics.
Most games have starting level cutscenes that show players enemy placement, progression paths and objectives; Enslaved weaves story and gameplay together by having a tricked-out dragonfly gadget scan the area and send the data directly to your headband. This points to the other smart narrative device—the headband. Monkey's little torture tiara explains the presence of the UI, allows Trip to be his in-ear advisor and gives him a means of easily keeping track of her whenever they're apart. Above and beyond these nifty little notions, the writing in general is really pretty good. That is, if you're not expecting to play a faithful retelling of the original Journey to the West. If you are, then you'll be sorely disappointed because aside from a few superficial references, Enslaved's plot has little to do with this ancient masterpiece. Non-purists will enjoy the story though with its unusually restrained portrayal of Trip and Monkey and will likely get a kick out of obese third wheel Pigsy's grossly comedic contributions. The game's art and sound are as good as the story, offering detailed, colorful environments, interesting character models and especially natural lip sync. The voice acting is well done and the parts well cast (except for Pigsy whose low, rumbly voice just doesn't seem to fit him) and most gamers will enjoy the electronic soundtrack which is evocative, mournful and ethereal.
Not as well done are the RPG elements and the pseudo-co-op play. Trip's presence offers you two things: a means of distracting enemies and a means of upgrading your weapons and abilities. Both of these things are useful...sort of. Trip's holographic decoy can draw enemy fire, allowing you to cross open spaces, but it isn't needed all that often. And her hacking skills give her the ability to tweak your shield, weapon, combat skills and health, as long as you've collected enough “tech orbs” (red glowing balls found floating all over the environment). This collection/RPG mechanic is the one thing that gets a solid thumbs down. For one thing, it doesn't make sense with the two of them on an urgent errand, for Monkey to stop and go jogging into every nook and cranny searching for red glowy things. There's no narrative reason for it and so it feels like a silly afterthought. For another, the RPG system doesn't seem to affect your abilities enough to matter and could easily have been left out.
These things are minor though, compared to the game's worst issue—arbitrariness. For believability and fun, game worlds need to establish their own sets of rules and then stick by them. It doesn't matter what they are, as long as they're consistent and you can count on them. By contrast, Enslaved falls victim to a pervasive “gameyness” that's fairly irritating. In multiple instances, you'll throw Trip up to an easy, obvious handhold but afterwards are told that you can't follow her and must “find another way”. In other instances, you'll be prevented from jumping off a ledge and repeatedly turn somersaults in place until you find the exact spot where jumping is allowed. These things make the world annoying to navigate at times since what Monkey can and can't do changes willy-nilly. Another aspect of annoying randomness occurs with Monkey's “Cloud”, or electronic skateboard. While it's indeed fun to zoom around on it, the ability to use it is again, completely arbitrary. Monkey himself even mentions it saying, “It works in some places and not in others.” Lame.
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is a flawed, but solid action game. While it won't win any awards for innovation, it does offer acrobatic platforming, easy, intuitive combat, a cool soundtrack and many beautiful things to look at. Fans of apocalyptic cityscapes, giant mechs, pretty girls and hitting things with glowing sticks will enjoy it thoroughly while sinophiles hoping for a modern retelling of the classic Chinese story are bound to be disappointed.
