Enslaved: Odyssey To The West Review

13 October 2010

4 Comments

Posted by:Rob

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, this crazy new tactical action adventure from Team Ninja, the brains behind Heavenly Sword, has action-packed moments delivered by the boat load. Lets see what made it such an amazingly fresh new title to play.

System: PS3/Xbox 360
Genre: Tactical Action-Adventure
Release dates: October 5th 2010 (U.S.A) October 8th 2010 (UK)
Players: 1
Developer: Ninja Theory
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Origin: Cambridge, England
Rating: PEGI: 16 ESRB: T

For those of you that don’t want to read the entire review and get straight to all the juicy bits, check out the video review.

Hi everyone Jester here and this is my first actual review of a game, so as you can imagine I’ve written and re written this a million times over, to try come up with a review that will get straight to point without skipping anything, so I’ve decided to break the game up into a few different categories and I’ll discuss the game in more detail there. So without too much fuss lets get into the first area graphics.

Graphics 9.
Looking like the set to Will Smith’s “I Am Legend” movie the in-game world is a post apocalyptic earth, for some reason us humans let the mech’s take over, but with huge posters shouting to stop the war and huge no mech signs painted around I’m thinking the mech’s kinda took over by force.

The world itself is highly detailed, the textures are fantastic you can almost feel parts of New York rusting away as you walk around and climb up posts and vines that have engulfed this once magnificent city.

The character models look fantastic and the game joins game play and cut scene in the blink of an eye. Overall a very high standard has been maintained throughout the game and on the graphic side of things Enslaved is amazing to watch.

Game-play 7.
The first level covers most of the actual mechanics very well, you can run around and move although at times Monkey seems to be diving around a little to much, especially when trying to navigate through tiny gaps but on the whole movement is responsive enough not to frustrate.

The next sequence of the first level introduces the platforming element where you jump between bars, poles and hand holds and it’s as simple as pushing the jump button and Monkey will fly into action performing vaults and somersaults with ease, the only minor issue is that there no way to actually fall off an object or miss a jump so at times this can seem a little to easy, but that said it’s still very satisfying to have Monkey leaping across huge gaps knowing you’ll make it.

The combat system itself is very satisfying, this isn’t a button masher combat has a definite flow and using your blocking and dodging skills will become a must after the first few levels, you use a plasma staff Monkey’s weapon of choice and this can be upgraded throughout the game to gain access to new moves and powers like increased stun ability, by collecting Tech-Orbs the games currency for upgrades these are dropped by defeated enemies and are scattered throughout all the levels. But wait my friends those are just the basics because Enslaved loves to throw in awesome chase sequences, huge boss battles and even skateboarding??? Well, not exactly skateboarding (more like hoverboarding!), Monkey has a device known as the Cloud and this little gadget is AWESOME you will find yourself riding this during certain levels, and although not a major element of the game they do an awesome job of always keeping the gamer on his toes.

With all of that said I’ve only focused on Monkey and not his new slave driver Trip, who also adds some interesting game play elements such as being able to deploy a decoy display, so Monkey can flank his enemies and not get shot to bits in the process.

Trip also makes up some of the puzzling elements of the game, as you both move around different parts of the map Monkey can always get in touch, thanks to the slave headband that Trip so kindly forced onto your head.

All round strong mechanics with some niggles but a solid combat system and a huge variety of elements makes this a dream to play for all levels of skill.

Audio 8.
Audio so where to start really as with all team ninja exploits the voice acting is world class and you wont find better in any Oscar award winning film, the background score is eerily haunting with strange melodies floating around that always fit your situation and intensify as the action does.

I may not be classically trained nor a master musician but all-round the music and voice acting the sound effects were all top notch.

Ingenuity 7.
Is Enslaved a ground breaking new game? Not exactly and it doesn’t need to be. What it is, though, is a mix of some of gaming’s finest elements all thrown into one. Action through some intense combat. Puzzling provides a welcome break to all that mech bashing. Platforming although a little forced looks brilliant and adds a real sense of scale to the environment.

Set pieces are seamlessly molded into the levels, to the point where you don’t even think about them being anything but a brilliant interactive cut scene. Add to all this some crazy characters and an award winning story line, and you have one of the best all-round titles ever produced this year in my opinion.

Overall Fun-Factor 8.
From the very first level all the way through to the final boss, Enslaved will captivate and make you want to play more. The levels are finely crafted and both look and sound amazing, the characters are lovable and you really do feel for their well being. Then throw in a bunch of angry mechs and a big plasma stick to top off this huge gaming glory sundae and you are set.

A definite must play game for this year. With some of its shortcomings, like the strange combat camera and your restricted movement during platform sections by no means a perfect game, but a damn good one in my opinion guys. And with DLC already in the pipeline this monkey madness looks set to carry on delivering.

I would love to know what you thought of the game, what kinda score would you have given to Enslaved Odyssey to the West?