Ninja Theory and Namco Bandai partnered up to create a third person action game centered around two very dependent characters who endure what amounts to be an incredible journey across a post-apocalyptic wasteland filled with mechs and slavers, set about 150 years in the future. The two main protagonists Trip and Monkey meet during an unorthodox escape from a slave-ship and find themselves in a New York City reclaimed by nature after a massive apocalyptic event, which is never really explained but hinted at between the lines of an incredibly well written story.
Trip is the tech savvy daughter of a wind farmer who runs a community in the mountains outside city boundaries while Monkey is a strong, rugged loner who keeps to himself, until he meets Trip. She manages to enslave him after a crash landing in Grand Central station where their journey begins. Trip explains to Monkey that he will have to help her get back to her father or he will die as she installed a slave headband on him after the crash, allowing Trip to control Monkey’s actions and inflict doses of pain if he doesn’t obey. The story, written by talented screenplay writer Alex Garland who also wrote 28 Days Later, is the centerpiece of Enslaved. Monkey is voiced by Andy Serkis who played Gollum in Lord of the Rings and also directed the outstanding motion capture in Enslaved’s cut scenes. The well written and delivered plot is only strengthened by the incredible motion capture work. Trip, Monkey and Pigsy – who joins the two later in their travel, are incredibly well animated and deliver strong and realistic facial expressions which make most video games look bad. The interactions between the characters are so believable that one cannot speak of an uncanny valley, often described in video games. Monkey’s raised eyebrow, Pigsy’s embarrassed chuckle or Trip’s innocent smile can be as expressive as an entire carefully scripted conversation.
Apart from the stellar story telling and animation work, the world Enslaved is set in looks beautiful. While games like Fallout 3 portrait a post apocalyptic United States as a dry, dead and lifeless wasteland, Enslaved fills its environments with lush overgrown areas reclaimed by the earth’s plant life. Traveling through a world filled with gorgeous vistas and bright colors is a nice fresh take on the genre. Throughout the journey, Trip and Monkey who are bonded by Enslaved’s underlying theme of: “If I did, you die”, have to overcome a variety of vicious mechs including some large boss battles which are ultimately falling a bit short as they are just a bit too simple in their patterns. The various mechs can be defeated using Monkey’s staff and melee attacks. While his staff works as a typical combat weapon it can also be utilized as a plasma and stun shooting gun, allowing Monkey to disable mechs’ shields and then quickly destroy them. All in all the controls in Enslaved are pretty standard and combat is fun but not incredibly challenging. I would have liked a few more combo unlocks.
Controlling Monkey is generally good and feels organic. The main character is easy to control, feels weighted and well balanced but there are a few instances where Monkey wont make a jump and I had to reset him for a leap or jump to a pipe. There also were a few issues with targeting enemies but I did not feel that it retracted from the combat experience.
Glowing tech orbs can found throughout the world and are also dropped by defeated enemies which then can be used to upgrade Monkey’s shield, health, staff and melee abilities. While combat is rather straight forward, a quick one-two melee attack following a successful block for instance, can be very satisfying especially when surrounded by multiple enemies. Takedown moves can be performed as well which allows for several targets to be taken out as a result. Players are able to make combat more interesting by switching up the different combat options, stringing together some impressive looking attacks which does not seem required to succeed.
Apart from combat there is plenty of platforming and some interesting but not too challanging puzzle solving which usually involves Trip and Monkey collaborating when passing obstacles for instance. The platforming itself is fun and cinematic, as the entire Enslaved experience – but it does hold players’ hands a little bit too much. Monkey will stop himself from jumping off of a ledge if it would result in his death or not even attempt a jump across a few beams if the distance was too far. This is one area that some might find a bit disconcerting but I did not mind it as I didn’t have to go through the typical trial and error stages some games make players endure. In addition to the platforming and puzzle solving Monkey gets to use his ‘cloud’ which in a sense is a hoverboard, allowing him to travel across water or take down a boss which has to be chased down.
Enslaved has a stunning opening and concluding level which remind of Uncharted 2’s amazing cinematic work but lacked those moments in the middle of the game. A few more of those epic, jaw dropping stages in the center of the game would have elevated the experience for me. But even with the lack of a few more gigantic set pieces, Enslaved has plenty of tense action and excellently designed levels which are always fun and engaging.
Enslaved was first revealed by a Game Informer cover, a few screens, some concept art and very scarce details regarding the plot. That information was enough however, to build an epic adventure in my head and set myself up for potential disappointment. I am glad to say that Enslaved did not disappoint in the least and fully delivered on its promise. The game has some of the best animation in any video game to date, a stunning visual style and a story which is second to none. A few control issues and hand-holding could be argued as negative but should not keep anyone from playing one of the best video game experiences of this year.
Score: 9 / 10
Enslaved was developed by Ninja Theory and published by Namco Bandai for the Xbox 360 and PS3 on October 5th. A copy of the Xbox 360 version was provided to us by Namco Bandai for reviewing purposes.
