Enslaved Odyssey to the West – Review (Xbox 360) : Gametactics.com

Enslaved Odyssey to the West – Review (Xbox 360)

Demitrius Berkley-Thomas On October 25, 2010 at 1:40 pm

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is an action adventure platformer based on the ancient Chinese novel Journey to the West and was developed by Ninja Theory, who also did Heavenly Sword. The story follows a loner named Monkey who is enslaved by a young woman named Trip. Trip is very tech-savvy so she reprograms a slave headband to enslave Monkey so he can escort her home and protect her from Mechs and slavers. Monkey, true to his name, is very athletic and agile so he can climb and jump to places most people can’t and he uses a staff that changes size on command to fight.

This platformer hasn’t had much coverage, but it is a quite a surprise from Namco Bandai Games.

First thing I noticed after starting the game is how beautiful it is. Everything in the world is very detailed especially the character models. This has to be the best post apocalyptic world I’ve seen in a movie or video game. It takes place 200 years after some war that wiped out most of civilization so there’s a lot of plant growth throughout New York City where the game starts off. Whether Monkey is climbing up a broken wing on a slave ship that is flying over New York and is about to hit a building or climbing on the side and under a crumbling bridge trying to get to the other side the visuals will just have you saying, “Whoa!” out loud and stopping when you get the chance to just look around.

Platforming is a huge part of this game and is implemented very well. One complaint I can see about the game is that getting around is very easy, for some people may be too easy. You press the A button to jump from spot to spot but you can never miss a jump or fall off of an edge because if you try to jump somewhere you can’t Monkey wont jump. Moving, climbing, jumping and swinging around are very smooth and looks great thanks to the spot on animations. Another way Monkey will be getting around is on his Cloud, a disk that works in certain places and is like a hover board that allows him to move much faster and travel across water. This actually works very well and makes for some great chase sequences.

Combat in Enslaved is pretty basic with a light and heavy attack being used in different combination’s to deal more damage and finish off enemies quicker. There’s also a charged stun attack that gets past enemy shields and temporarily stuns them and a focus attack that is acquired through the upgrade system and is a powerful combo attack that is available after Monkey lands enough hits on an enemy. There’s also 2 ranged attacks that monkey can do after getting ammo for them, he can shoot a plasma blast at an enemy for damage or a stun blast at an enemy to take out shields and stun them.

As Monkey and Trip travel from place to place they work together to defeat enemies and solve puzzles. Trip has a few abilities up her sleeve such as Decoy which will distract enemies and gun turrets and let Monkey get around without being filled with lead. She also has an EMP blast which will stun all nearby robots if she ends up being attacked. There are some simple controls to get Trip around such as follow, which tells her to come to one place while Monkey either attracts enemy gunfire or have here go to another spot to pull a lever. There are puzzles in the game that utilizes this but they are all pretty simple and easy to figure out.
In the game there are 2 types of collectibles that encourage level exploration, masks that give little peaks at the past before the apocalypse and tech orbs that give tech for upgrading Monkey and his abilities. These upgrades include improved health, improved shields, more combat abilities and increased effectiveness from staff projectiles. I ended up collecting most orbs because I always ended up exploring as much as I could of every level because they were just so cool. Also for the obsessive collectors out there in the level select menu it tells you what percent of orbs you’ve collected along with how many masks you’ve collected so this helps out a lot.

Enslaved is an action packed epic adventure as two people brought together by circumstance travel west in search of answers. The game does a great job making moments feel truly epic while also having some really funny moments. The voice acting in Enslaved is top notch and the music is great and really adds to the experience. Enslaved truly is a wonderful experience and is definitely one of the best games I’ve played in a while. Anyone even remotely interested in a great story and experience should definitely pick this up and unless they’re expecting a 20+ hour experience they will not be disappointed.

Gameplay

Everything from the story to the combat and platforming is excellent and besides it maybe being a little too easy from some people it is close to perfect.

Graphics

The environments in this game are absolutely gorgeous and the character models including facial expressions are really well done.

Sound

The music really adds to the experience while the voice acting really adds to the game and makes the characters seem genuinely believable.

Overall

Enslaved is a must buy for anyone that loves single-player games and a great story. Normally replay value is based on the variety of ways you can go through the game but with Enslaved you will want to play it more than once because of how great the experience is.