Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

For months now I've been hearing critics praising Enslaved all over the place, saying that despite its practical commercial failure it really does need to be played. So I wondered, why wasn't it selling? What was holding people back? Well, the same thing that held me back when I found it out: while reviewers absolutely loved the story, concept, and environments, the gameplay itself wasn't so great. Which always made me think it would be more worth a rental than owning it. So now Blockbuster comes along, going out of business, and offers a month free of their mail service. Turns out Enslaved is available, so I finally got to sit down with this title. Sure enough, it was worth a rental...but no more.

Enslaved is loosely based on Journey to the West, the old Chinese story. Alas, the only thing I know about Journey to the West is that it involves the mythical Monkey who uses a staff that can extend. And, well, that's who you play in Enslaved. Instead of taking place hundreds of years ago, however, Enslaved sets itself hundreds of years in the future where humanity appears to be on the brink of extinction due to a giant war long ago. Despite the war being over and most of New York and other areas being reclaimed by vegetation, deadly machines still remain, hellbent on killing anything that makes noise or moves. What humans that do remain appear to either be the mysterious slavers, or the people they capture. Monkey begins as one of those prisoners trapped aboard a ship, until a woman breaks free and causes the ship to explode around her. In the resulting chaos Monkey escapes his cell, and rushes desperately to find an escape pod, only to find himself on the outside of the last one as the woman hits "eject". One big crash later and you awake, only to find that that the woman, Trip, has fixed a slave headband to you which she has hacked so that you are forced to obey her commands. Disobey, and experience unbearable pain. And if she dies for any reason, you die. She explains she needs to get back home 300 miles away, and she can't do it alone. So either you help her and be freed when you get there, or you die. From there, it's a literal odyssey through the now jungles of New York fighting off deadly mechs and trying to help Trip reach home and get revenge against the slavers who captured you both.

As expected, the story starts with a fascinating premise and only goes upwards from there. This is undoubtedly especially due to the significant input from Andy Serkis (Gollum, for those who don't recognize the name) towards the story, motion capture, and theatrical elements. The story, separated into 15 chapters, really does feel like it was well thought out and plays like a novel. There may not be many twists and turns, but the simple story (well, simple until the end) it tells is so well developed that it never feels dull or uninteresting. Monkey and Trip's characters feel very grounded in reality despite being essentially a mythical creature and a girl who can hack dragonflies to spot mines. And in a game that is essentially one long escort mission, that's very important.

Where Enslaved falls down is in the gameplay. What it does, it does spectacularly. Each enemy has specific moves that let you know when best to attack it, when to block, and when to get the hell out of the way. Some enemies even have special abilities Monkey can use once he knocks down their health enough, like turning into a walking bomb or yielding up a gun arm that Monkey can then use to strafe enemies to bits. The end result are fights that feel highly strategic and almost puzzle-like, forcing you to think very intelligently about each move you make lest you quickly end up dead. The problem is that the mechanics behind those battles can be very clunky, making some battles endlessly frustrating as Monkey refuses to block or decides to start attacking the ground instead of the enemy next to that ground. Also, the "upgrades" you purchase throughout the game (health/regen, general attacks, ranged attacks, and shield) honestly don't feel like they make a big difference especially in the later game. I kept wanting some kind of staff upgrade that made my strikes more powerful, but alas, no such luck. While this does maintain the sense that Monkey is by no means an all powerful fighter, it also means there's a lack of that need to feel like you are getting at least better at killing the increasingly difficult waves of enemies coming at you.

And then there's the platforming, by far the weakest link of the game. You jump between platforms, across gaps, up crumbling handholds, etc. by simply indicating your direction with the thumbstick and pressing X. What becomes frustrating is that this means Monkey will only jump to certain spots from certain spots, and otherwise will stumble or just shake his head and do nothing. However, you begin to realize the reason for this when you get to use the "Cloud", a hoverboard that ignores that, allowing you to roam pretty much anywhere and over anything, but also meaning you must time your jumps. The Cloud gave me some major headaches with its piss poor controls, extreme sensitivity (touch the thumbstick and expect to jet across the screen), and frustrating trial-and-error chase sections.

Basically, Enslaved is best summarized by the fact that a great deal of the development seems to have come from film people. The story, environments, pacing, and set pieces are amazing and always feel different and exhilarating. The problem is the gameplay behind it isn't nearly as good. Most of it feels like it just needed more tweaking/time in development, so hopefully the obviously planned sequel will happen, those issues will be addressed, and we'll get one of the best games ever made. Until then, what we've got is an enjoyable ride that's certainly worthwhile, but not more than that.

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West gets a 7.5/10