Review: Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

UK developer Ninja Theory’s second next-gen title tells a heartwarming tale that takes some rather unexpected turns. 

Developer: Ninja Theory
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Platforms: X360/PS3 

Developer Ninja Theory is known for beautiful cinematics, fantastic art direction and amazing motion capture performances, and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West delivers that in spades. But if you’re hoping for a deep combat experience along with a grand adventure, you may be a bit disappointed.

Enslaved revolves around two unfortunate characters: The agile loner with a huge heart Monkey and the young beautiful red head Trip. Both find themselves captured by the mysterious slavers and thanks to Trip’s quick thinking manage to escape. Trip, knowing that it’s a big crazy mech infested world out there, knows all to well that she won’t last long on her own. In a move of fear and sheer desperation she enslaves the poor Monkey to become her body guard, forcing him to accompany her on her voyage back home. 

What follows is a touching 9-12 hour adventure which sees both characters begin to learn that even if they’re from different worlds, they’re both just looking for a way home. Ninja Theory, and to the credit of the cast of Enslaved managed to deliver some of the most brilliant performances in gaming, really making Trip and Monkey feel like believable flesh and blood characters. The mesmerizing animation of the eyes and small subtle facial reactions, along with a simply superb vocal job all meld together perfectly to create a story that wasn’t so much about the wondrous and beautiful landscapes (which there are plenty of), or the maniacal machines out to kill you but about the quiet blossoming relationship of two characters caught in a bad situation trying to make the best of it. 

At this point you’re no doubt thinking, “Wow this sounds lovely, so what about the game-play?”. Well, that’s where things sadly begin to head south. 

Enslaved is at heart an adventure game, something that shows through and through - and as an adventure game it does a great job. I know some may find that platforming is fairly simple and almost on auto-drive only forcing you to press in the direction you want Monkey to go and press the jump button. But honestly with some of the insane set pieces, going the more skilled timed route would have been maddening and not fun at all. I was quite pleased with Monkey’s platforming, it worked well and was actually enjoyable. 

What wasn’t was the combat system. Combat in Enslaved is tedious, difficult and at times sloppy. Monkey’s reaction time can be pretty much summed up in one word: sluggish. Forcing Monkey to maneuver his way around enemies is almost always a game of trial and error. He’ll move, but at his own pace. Which when you’re being attacked by several mechs armed with mini-guns hunting for you is not a good thing.  

Making matters worse is that Monkey will at times randomly decide to aim for a wall instead of an enemy standing right in front of you. Which will then cause the camera to swing wildly slamming up against a wall. It’s at these times I was just forced to mash on the strong and light attacks and hope for the best. 

Again, I know that combat was not intended to be Enslaved’s main focus - as it is above anything else an adventure title. But even with that knowledge, there’s no excuse for having a combat system and camera that can randomly decide it wants to fight you along with the already pretty damn menacing mechs. 

Enslaved also suffers from the same dreaded technical problems that seem to rear their head on all Unreal Engine powered games. You’ll come across texture pop-in, clipping and even at times the occasional bug that sees Monkey disappear within an in-engine cutscene. All of these technical problems don’t really hamper the game-play but they do give off the feeling that the title needed perhaps a few more months in the cooker. 

Ninja Theory’s Enslaved, even with its small problems is a game that captures you from the very beginning, filled with wonderful performances, breath taking vistas, amazing action sequences and a hell of a twist ending that will have many talking about it for months to come.

It may not be the action-adventure title many were expecting from developer Ninja Theory after Heavenly Sword, but it is a title that shows what the power of compelling narrative and heart can bring to a game, and in that, Enslaved excels like few adventure games have. 

 By: Michael Torres