Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
PlayStation 3
Nostalgia Factor:
This is a game that has flown severely under the radar over the years. Most people reading this review have probably never heard of the game. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this is one of my least read reviews ever, because so many people will skip over it because they don't know what Enslaved is. I myself had never heard of the game back when I first played it. There was no hype. Nothing about it online or in the gaming magazines. I only played it because a friend kept recommending it to me, saying how excellent it was. I was like "ok, I will give it a try." This was back in 2010. 15 years ago.
I remember very little about my time with the game. I remember liking it. And that's about it. According to my trophy information on the PlayStation Network, I beat the game in three days. I guess you can't blame me for not being able to remember much about a game I played for three days over fifteen years ago.
So here I am, back to play Enslaved one more time. Would I still find the game to be enjoyable, or would I find that it is rightfully forgotten? Let's jump in.
Story:
I didn't expect such an involved story when I came into this. It is set in a post-apocalyptic world where the machines have taken over. The vibe is very similar to Horizon Zero Dawn. Lots of buildings overrun by vegetation. Animal-like robots stalking around.
Things start aboard a slave ship, The main character, Monkey, is freed from his restraints when a mysterious red haired woman starts running around the ship and sabotaging things. The ship crashes, while Monkey and Trip escape together. Monkey is knocked unconscious during the attempt. When he wakes up, he finds that Trip has put a slave collar around his neck. He has to do what she says and make sure she stays alive, or the collar will detonate. She is demanding that he protect her and take her back to her family's settlement.
Although the tethered nature of the characters is the main gimmick of the game, and an important factor when it comes to the gameplay, it never really sat well with me. I understand she's got to do what she's got to do in order to survive, but enslaving someone with a death collar and forcing them to do your bidding is something that I never really agreed with. And as a result, I was never as fully invested in the story or seeing Trip succeed as I should have been. She was always kind of a villain in my eyes.
Anyway, Monkey escorts her back home, where she finds that her settlement has been wiped out by the machines. Since the machines like to take slaves, Trip and Monkey team up with a local soldier named Pigsy to take them down. Pigsy adds some Beyond Good and Evil vibes to the game to pair with those Horizon Zero Dawn vibes. The gameplay itself borrows from a few other gaming franchises as well, but we'll get to that in the next segment.
Gameplay:
This is a linear action/adventure game. It takes place from a behind-the-back perspective. You take control of Monkey, a very acrobatic man (to say the least). He can leap from ledge to ledge or hang from poles with ease. I don't think I've encountered someone who can climb and leap so effortlessly in a video game before.
You use a staff during combat. As you make your way through the game, Monkey can be leveled up. He can learn new attacks and new abilities. Learning how to shoot projectiles is important because these become a big part of combat as the game progresses. An important thing to remember is that you are tethered to Trip with your slave helmet thingy. She can scan ahead and show you what is to come in the level. Speaking of similarities to other series, Trip reminded me a bit of Aloy with her Focus.
The story is split up into 14 chapters. Each chapter takes an hour or two to complete. Some even less than that. Just as the game's story and its setting takes inspiration from other well known franchises, its gameplay does as well. The fighting is similar to the PS2 God of War games. You have a heavy and a weak melee attack. Square, square, triangle is always the way to go. Don't be like me and forget that holding square initiates a charge attack that breaks enemy shields. I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing against shielded enemies. I mainly saved my electric ranged weapon for them. But when I was out of that item, I was out of luck. I had to just keep attacking the shield while moving and hope I'd get lucky and hit the enemy from behind. I made the game unnecessarily harder for myself. Use the charge attack. Don't be like me.
The climbing and the parkour remind me of games such as Prince of Persia, Uncharted, or Assassin's Creed. But Monkey puts these other characters to shame. Nate Drake is a normal guy. Monkey is true to his namesake and he can flip and swing and climb with the greatest of ease. In fact, you don't really ever have to worry about falling or making a mistake. When climbing, I often just found myself pressing the direction I wanted to go, and then hitting x repeatedly. No precision is required. The game does it for you.
I guess that is one of my main criticisms of the game: no precision. It seems like this game cuts a lot of corners. The platforming and the climbing is so ridiculously forgiving. I would line up a terrible jump that I would miss in 9 out of 10 other games, but in this game I would land it. It's like the game is saying: "eh, close enough." Same with the combat and the hit detection. Just swing your staff in the area of the enemy. You'll probably hit something. Close enough! The frame rate can be choppy, but it never truly distracts from the experience of the game. Close enough! I really feel like the game developers got away with some of the most obvious half-assing I've ever seen in a good video game. I don't mean that as an insult or a bad thing, either. They wanted to give the player a fun, swift moving experience full of thrills and battles. If you want difficulty or precision controls, you've come to the wrong place. This game is all about delivering a fun experience. And I believe it succeeds in that regard.
Before we move, on, I want to point out that there are parts of the game that remind me of classic 3D platformers. I swear one stage takes inspiration from Super Mario Sunshine. And there are others, like Jak and Daxter. Let's say you enter a big, open area full of glowing orbs. You can jump up on ledges or cliffs to collect them all. Walk off the beaten path and explore a bit. You can hop on a hoverboard and skim along open water, going up ramps and collecting items and making big jumps. These parts of the game reminded me sooo much of Jak and Daxter. I'd be shocked if that game wasn't a big influence on the people who made this game.
But really, this game borrows heavily from so many different things. Let's count:
God of War
Jak and Daxter
Horizon Zero Dawn
Prince of Persia
Uncharted
Assassin's Creed
Heavenly Sword
Beyond Good and Evil
Super Mario Sunshine
It sounds like a weird combination, but it works. It doesn't really do anything better than any of those games, but it is never not fun any step of the way.
Graphics/Sound:
The game looks and sounds "good enough." Notice a recurring theme here?
The frame rate can slow down. The game can get really shaky sometimes. Enslaved has perhaps more in common with a game from the PS1 or PS2 era than anything to come later. Things can look a little messy sometimes. But you know what? It still manages to look good at the same time. The characters look great. The environments are lush and visually appealing; reminiscent a bit of The Last of Us (oh crap, add another one to the list). I also think the big action sequences with all the robots and explosions and ships crashing and all that shit is very well done.
It took me a while to recognize the actor who plays Monkey. I was looking at him closely and thinking to myself "who is that guy? I know him from somewhere." He yells a lot in this game, too. I knew the voice as well. I eventually looked on the internet and saw that it is Andy Serkis. I should have known. It looks like him. It sounds like him. I should have recognized that Caesar screaming voice immediately.
The sound effects and music fit the aesthetic of the game perfectly. I can't say anything really stood out as far as the music, though. It's just kind of generic adventure music. If you played some music and blindfolded me, I wouldn't be able to pick this game's music out of a lineup. But I don't really care. It was good enough.
Overall:
This is a quirky but entertaining little game. It's not long. You can beat it in twelve hours or so. But I think it is well worth the experience. It's fun. It's cinematic. It's got a lot of exciting action. A bright and vibrant setting. An interesting story. Good combat. Things to collect. Just an extremely varied gameplay experience. That being said, there is something about this game that doesn't seem to really stick with me.
I had fun with this game when I first played it 15 years ago. But I walked away from it remembering nothing at all. It was like sitting through a solid, entertaining, but ultimately brainless blockbuster action movie. You enjoy it but don't really take anything away from it. I feel like the same thing is going to happen this time, too. Ask me about Enslaved in 15 years and I'm going to be like "uhh, that game was fun. I think." The character building between Monkey and Trip is fine, but it is no Joel and Ellie relationship. I think I was supposed to care and have an emotional response when Trip finally returns home, but finds it has been attacked. But I didn't. I liked watching the story, but I was not emotionally invested at all. And don't get me started on Pigsy. I hated this character. He is the worst thing about the game. I could have done without him.
All that being said, I would absolutely recommend this game to anyone who has not played it. I really enjoyed it. It's fast paced, it moves back and forth between action and exploration sequences smoothly, and it is addicting to play. I enjoyed the combat, and I did not want to put the controller down until I had cleared each area. I think the story could have done slightly better for me, but I won't hold that against it too much. I enjoyed the gameplay and I found it fun to play, and that's all that really matters for me.
THE GRADE:
B
(a little better than just "good enough" to me)
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