Enslaved: Odyssey To The West

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If you're looking for a game that will keep you playing just for the story look no further. The strongest feature in this game is the plot, featuring a small but well developed cast of characters and story that will keep you interested from start to finish. The gameplay follows a standard "button masher" formula similar the Kingdom Hearts or God of War series.

Despite the lack of ingenuity in how this interactive story is played, I have found it to still be an incredibly immersive experience due to the richness of both story and graphics. On that note, the graphics deserve a special mention as this is an incredibly beautiful game (google screenshots to see for yourself).

Is this game worth buying? Definitely. Is this game worth $60, well that depends on if you are more interesting in the storytelling portion of the interactive storytelling experience games provide. If you've enjoyed titles such as Heavy Rain, Psychonauts, and/or the Mass Effect trilogy where the plot is the selling point of the game, then I would recommend buying this game as soon as possible. If not, then I would recommend waiting until the price drops down to something more reasonable before purchasing it.

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Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is an action adventure game from developer Team Ninja that attempts to re-imagine the ancient Chinese story Journey to the West with a bit of future apocalyptica flare.

You follow the story of a young tech girl named Trip and a battle-hardened vagabond named Monkey. After escaping from a slave ship, Monkey must escort Trip safely back to the village she was kidnapped from, whether he wants to or not. Set in a time where free men struggle to survive in a world dominated by the homicidal mechanical ruins of a long ended war, you must run, jump, and smash your way through crumbling cities and clockwork goliaths to reach your goal.

I had a lot of fun playing Enslaved and can honestly say that I fully enjoyed the experience. That experience, however, has to be taken with a grain of salt. Do not purchase this game expecting a deep gameplay experience. It is very straight forward. Run and hit things. That's pretty much it. The battle system mainly boils down to pressing the attack button repeatedly while intermittently tapping a dodge button. There are some more aspects involved but nothing really game changing. Outside of combat, the game has a heavy focus on parkour-style exploration. However, this feature is noticeably shallow. Rather than preforming any button combinations that may require mental and reflexive dexterity, you simply run toward the object in front of you and tap jump, and your character takes care of the rest. Hell, you don't even have to guess at where to go next, because that area will be lit up brightly just in case you stopped to wonder if you had to go anywhere but straight for once. Level designs are straightforward, with exploration only ever really extending as far as 'there is a path that veers slightly to the right, lemme check there for something new'. This isn't going to scratch your adventure game explorer itch the way say, Ocarina of Time may have.

That being said, this game is enjoyable so long as you don't go into it expecting more than it is capable of offering. It is beautiful. The graphics are fantastic, and the world Monkey and Trip travel through is at times breath-taking. Sapphire blue skies that reach out to the horizon, as well as lovingly detailed urban environments with the lush greens of invasive nature are the staple of this game. I often found myself stopping and playing with the camera angles just to get a look at the world the developers had crated. The level design is also fantastic. Yes, they usually are straightforward, but the complexity of the scenery and architecture around you will quickly help you forget that you are essentially traveling down a convoluted corridor the whole time.

Another winning point for this game is the characters. At first they seem rather cookie-cutter at first: the strong hero tasked with protecting the weak, but support-effective girl, and the third wheel comedic relief. While they do fill these roles rather typically, their personalities, dialogue, and voice acting truly set them apart and above other video game casts to date. Also, the game has a very subtle sense of humor that took me completely by surprise. I found myself at several moments bursting with laughter at dialogue and cutscenes that were delivered with such perfectly unexpected comedic timing. The motion capture is phenomenal, and by the end of the relatively short campaign you will feel a true sense of humanity from each of the heroes. Speaking of the end, I was pleasantly surprised by that as well. Without spoiling anything for you, be prepared for the game to end with a twist that is both unexpected and slightly unsettling.

All in all, if you're a fan of adventure games and can appreciate a title for its good points without it being some ground-breaking achievement, get this game. However, don't you dare pay full price for it. Nothing more than $30 is acceptable. If you do find it for cheap though, jump on it. So long as you dive into the game without expecting it to give you things it can't promise you should be able to garner a sense of appreciation for it, as I have.

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3/5 stars

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Thanks for reading, hope this helped with your purchase. Leave questions/comments if you like.

Ender

Buy Enslaved: Odyssey To The West Now

Ok, so everybody, even most of the negative reviews, rave about the story, graphics, and voice acting. I also agree with all of these points. Where I differ with most is about the gameplay.

I am a trophy hunter. Once I start a game, I cannot move on to another without seeing that platinum trophy pop up in the upper right hand corner of my TV. There have been few exceptions to that rule. Even those exceptions get completed to platinum with time. Taking that into mind, I delve as deep into each game as I possibly can.

There is no way you can button mash through this game if you are trying to get the platinum. There are a lot of trophies (49 of which 17 are completed by beating the game on hard) that require you to actually use cunning and skill. Sure, if all you want to do is beat the game, throw it on easy and enjoy some button mashing. However, I started my first play through on hard. You will quickly find out that button mashing will not get you through the hard difficulty without making you go bald. Wait until you are button mashing on some robot while three others are running in to pummel you for your horrible tactics. Or you say, "Hey look! There are a few robots just sitting there. Oh, wait, wait! Oh GOD DAMNIT!!!" You just got owned by three machine gun robots in the distance because you weren't cautious.

As far as you needing to or not needing to think of where to go next, try finding 100% of those tech orbs without thinking of every possible way the developers could have hidden those tiny red dots. They exploit every camera angle and every millimeter of playing area they can to make sure you don't have an easy time finding them. They even throw a few wrenches into the whole operation that will make you say, "WTF! I haven't had to do anything like that up to this point to find an orb."

Those are just two prime examples of how I differ from the rest of these opinions. There are more than a couple more dozen reason I could point out that the gameplay is spectacular.

Maybe there aren't that many trophy hunters out there who might appreciate what I am talking about but, I figured I'd put in my two cents anyways.

Highly recommended!

Read Best Reviews of Enslaved: Odyssey To The West Here

Bought it on a whim, played it straight through in two nights (which I never do). Scenic graphics, immersive story, great characters, smooth action (minimal button mashing), fun high speed platforming (impossible to fall off), rewards exploring by finding items to boost character (rpg-like tweaking), epic ending with a very memorable ending. Very minor glitches (when compared to over hyped games like Skyrim).

Have no idea why this game never got the notoriety, but it is a sleeper hit in my book.

Want Enslaved: Odyssey To The West Discount?

Enslaved odyssey to the west is an action adventure game. As the main protagonist of the game, you are a person enslaved by the slavers with an unknown name. You call your self "monkey" not much of the story is unveiled until you reach close to the end of the game. Your first task it to break free from a slaver ship, team up with a girl name Trip and start on your grueling adventure to discover the past and find out just why the slavers have enslaving your world and why the world has been transformed into nothing but machines and mechanized monsters. Though the premise of the story sounds interesting, i felt as though it could of added alot more depth, instead the over all story ends up being to simple and not as engaging as I would of hoped.

This game has certain levels, separated by "chapters" in the game that you must complete. There are 14 chapters in all. The game it self is a pretty short game. Roughly 5-10 hrs depending upon how fast you rush through the game. The mechanics of the game is your ordinary action game where you use different attack combinations to unleash devastating assaults against your enemy. What sets this game apart from other action adventure titles is there is a degree of strategy involved. You can't just accept to go rushing into battle and hack and slash your way through. If you do you will die very fast. You must use trips many abilities such as her hacking skills to get past doorways or her ability to see bombs if your to get through the game unscathed. Together you and trip are like one and should always use her assistance to get through most scenario's in the game.

The battle mechanics are kind of interesting but do end being repetitive after a while. The combinations and attack pasterns really don't change that much and your access of abilities is very limited. You only have about 3 or 4 special attacks you can really do in this game. Though the many perks you take through out the combat system does increase your proficiency to damage and also your range, among other things. Still regardless of that, when you do get into fights with the enemies, it just feels as though your mashing the same buttons over again. There really is no dynamic system here. That being said, the game it self is kind of interesting, the story is ok and the cut scenes are some times humerus and fit into the over all story line. How ever i did find the over all plot to be kind of cliche at the end. The story just didn't really didn't work for me in my opinion.

Perhaps for me one of the most bothersome parts of this game, is its very streamlined. You have a set of predetermined paths to take through the course of the level, there really is no outside exploration, this game is not a plat-former, so don't think it is. Every action you take, jumping from vine to building structure, even though it looks cool watching "monkey" jump all over the place and reaching great heights with ease, its all pre scripted and its impossible to actually miss a jump and die. I found this to really take the over all challenge away from the game and also you don't really feel as immersed into the game play. I found this to be kind of aggravating in the game and it became boring after a while, certainty trying to get the platinum in this game and having to redo each level over and over again was one of the hardest things ive had to endure, not for the challenge but for having to endure the same scenario's over and over again. There are different difficulty levels that to change the the enemy AI and there a little bit more challenging where you have to rely on blocking more efficiently and counter attack to get through.

The graphics and scenery are pretty well done though for the game, each hand crafted level has been designed pretty well. The facial expressions on the characters during some of the scenes come off as being more realistic like your in a movie experience. Not quite as great as uncharted, but still ok none the less.

I would have to say the greatest aspect of this game is the DLC "Pigsy perfect 10" if you have the chance and own this game, do your self a favor and dl that DLC. Its very different to enslaved and the degree of challenge is very satisfying. Consider you really can't get into melee action with pigsy, he has to rely mostly on tactical stealth and getting enemies to fight for him. Some of the cool skills he uses is "alley" which allows you to alley other mechs to damage them self's or other mechs in the game. You can use distraction bombs that send a signal off so the mechs are distracted so you can get by, or the stun bomb which stuns enimes. He is also a ranged fighter and focuses mostly on his guns for damage output. Over all I found how the levels were structured in this way and the many events that you encounter where satisfying to see how you can take down those pesky mechs with out the use of hack and slash melee combat. This game is completely separate to enslaved, you won't see trip or monkey. You will be replaying as pigsy in his own world with new levels and a completly new story line. It is quite short of course but still satisfying.

Overall this game can be fun for people that play it the first time, but subsequent play through's can really become repetitive over time and its best to move onto something better. If you plan on buying it, don't spend no more then 15 dollars at the most.

~Jeff~