Enslaved Demo
This is the game by Ninja Theory, who also developed Heavenly Sword. I believe the reason they made Enslaved is because Sony owns the Heavenly Sword IP and the engine they used to create the game, so if you play Enslaved and roll your eyes when you see the Unreal Engine is being used that’s why. They also went multiplatform because they made no money from Heavenly Sword and I’m pretty sure Enslaved might even be ‘make or break’ for them.
From a story perspective I find that this game could prove intriguing. It has a futuristic setting on Earth highlighted by a wasteland New York City with greenery growing on countless buildings of rust and decay. You’re this monkey type guy, who’s not really a monkey but seeing as how Enslaved is based on the “Journey to the West” premise with Ninja Theory’s twist on it the lead has a staff and eventually gets his nimbus cloud, just like Goku.
It’s your classic action/adventure with platforming and attacking. I hear it’s more platforming than say Uncharted but less action than Uncharted. That’s an exact impression from someone who has a retail copy already. Overall I wasn’t thoroughly impressed with the game, visually it looked nice but the art direction in Heavenly Sword felt much better. It still has top notch voice acting and animation which is once again provided by the guy who did Gollum in LoTR. It’s the usual “upgrade your weapons as you progress” type of game. You’re accompanied by a woman who basically fits your skull with a slave unit headband, as such you become enslaved and have to help her. That’s how the story kicks off. Then from New York city, I guess you travel west.
As the game is actually called, Enslaved – Odyssey to the West. It feels like I’d enjoy this game more for the story elements rather than the gameplay which felt in some ways more refined than Heavenly Sword, but almost generic comparatively to other action games. It borrows from others but the demo didn’t feel like the action gameplay was it’s own thing. The controls did not feel fluid, as the lead is a hulking mass with a monkey type of walk, which is totally fine. However movements felt like animation sequences that you watched. As scripted as Uncharted is, at least it wasn’t completely apparent what or where I needed to go.
Enslaved uses glowing objective points where to go and jump to. Which basically means you moving your analog stick in the direction and pressing the jump button. Climb, jump, run, run, jump, jump, jump, climb, drop, rinse and repeat. Oh one other thing was the enemies were all robots, which suddenly made things feel really stale and soulless. The storyline could save that perspective I have though from the demo. I just got no real feeling in it.
