Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

pro

Enslaved tells a good story. A story which is both immersive and funny, filled with Uncharted-like platforming and cinematic action. The chemistry between Monkey and Trip works and Andy Serkis does a good job of voicing Monkey. Lindsey Shaw as Tripitaka creates an emotional and interesting character whom you're sincerely interested in learning more about. The animation, facial expressions and voiceovers creates a duo worth caring about as they adventure towards their goal.

pro

The post-apocalyptic look of New York is great, but the game really shines after you actually leave the city. This is where the adventure properly starts. Enslaved sports something as unusual as colors. Bright greens and blues pulls you into a dead, yet living world, inhabited by mechs roaming around in grass beneath a scorching sun. At times Enslaved looks really, really good.

pro

You might think this is basically a very long escort mission. I can assure you right now it isn't. There's only a few times where you have to save Trips life, but more often you will work together to traverse the landscape, create distractions and kick mech ass. The combat is fluent, consisting of a normal attack and hard attack, which can be combined into combos. Your staff can shoot to harm and to stun enemies, and your shield can both protect you and be surfed upon. All of these can be upgraded with tech orbs you pick up along the way, creating bigger and better combos, more health and so on. While it might seem basic, the fighting itself if satisfactory and fun.

pro

Enslaved has one of the coolest beginnings ever. This ties into its cinematic approach and you will find a few more set pieces along the way.

con

But the set pieces are too few and too far between. While the beginning and end of Enslaved are pretty darn epic, the game and story as a whole drags a bit out in between. It could have benefited from better pacing.

con

This is no technical wonder. Enslaved suffers from poor framerate at times, making intense battles a chore. A few glitches here and there is no game breaker, but the combination of these two makes the execution feel a bit sloppy at times.

con

Andy Serkis is a cool guy. I dug him in Heavenly Sword, and he's cool here as well. But there are certain decisions Ninja Theory made in this game that baffles me. To say more would be spoilerific, and you might not even care when you see it, but to me this sort of ruined the overall feeling.