Enslaved is a pretty weird game. It's a retelling of the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West, a story which has inspired countless other adaptations such as Dragon Ball,
set in a future where society has been wiped out and the few remaining
humans fight to survive against slavers and homicidal robots. It has a
lot of platforming components to its basic gameplay, but it's literally
impossible to fall to your death. The main character is a freakishly
athletic shirtless man with facial tattoos and voice acted by Andy
Serkis, best known for playing Gollum. The entire game is basically one
long escort mission. The third most prominent character is a fat guy who
resembles and sounds like a talking pig, and the story goes on for the
entire time with no real visible villains. Namco was disappointed with
the sales, but frankly I'm surprised it did even as well as it did.
There's just not much about the game that screams commercial success,
despite the lush visuals and solidly fun action. I really dug the game a
lot, and find it a bit disheartening that it's now so cheap and
probably won't get a chance for a sequel. But I definitely see why
that's the case. It's a unique product released in a really busy time
without much fanfare.
Even with better positioning though, it was probably destined for a fate similar to a game like Beyond Good & Evil,
which miraculously actually does have a sequel in development, at least
last I heard. I was repeatedly reminded of that game while playing this
one, though it isn't quite from the same school of design. BG&E
took a lot of inspiration from The Legend of Zelda's philosophy of a large open area leading to various puzzle-heavy dungeons, while Enslaved takes more from the recent Prince of Persia
games with a linear progression of platforming-heavy areas punctuated
by larger set pieces and some combat. They're not exactly alike, but I
think the comparison is apt, and I think there's more than a little in
common between the two, enough to make me think a fan of one would like
the other. They were both developed by European studios, which
sometimes have a flavor that feels distinct from American games. They
both have a main character equipped with a powerful staff and a vehicle
that lets them float over water, and are frequently accompanied by one
or more computer-controlled characters. They both have good stories
heavily featuring characterization that's unusually strong for a video
game.
The game starts as Monkey escapes from a slaver airship that crashes in a
destroyed and overgrown New York City and is then subdued by Trip,
another captive with a lot of computer skill, who uses a special
headband that will kill him if she dies or he disobeys her orders. She
promises to set him free when he brings her home, though there's tension
between them at first as Monkey resents her actions. As he guides and
protects her on the way to her village, their relationship changes into a
friendlier one, and the development there is one of the game's
strongest aspects. It gets a bit awkward with the pig-like third
character is introduced, but he eventually becomes sympathetic as well
and pays off well before the story ends. There's a weird use of live
action elements sprinkled around here and there that also feature
heavily in the ending, the bizarreness of which overshadows the actual
revelations of the plot at least a little bit, but I appreciated that
they took risks and tried out new things with the story. A lot of it
works because of the voice and motion capture work, which I believe was
directed by Serkis, and lends a realism to the animation that helps a
lot.
The visuals in general are pretty spectacular. All of the animation is a
pleasure to watch, with Monkey being one of the smoothest and most
agile game characters I've had the fun to play as. The environments are
awe inspiring as well, with a lot of the highlights coming early on in
the destroyed city, but there's a lot of cool stuff near the end as
well. Some of the areas in the third quarter or so of the game are a bit
bland, focusing on indoor industrial locations, but the game is just
fun to look at any time you're outside. There are some Unreal-engine
related issues with the detail on certain things popping in later than
it should that seemed to get worse as the game went on, as well as some
problems with audio skipping or dropping out, but they didn't end up
distracting me much. It wasn't the most technically perfect game I've
played, but I liked the look as a whole a lot.
And it's a fun game, too. Monkey is fun to control, the interaction
between him and the other characters usually adds to the joy of working
things out, and there's even some light shooting elements thrown in that
work. The mix of stealth and brawling in the combat helps out a system
that's not terribly complex on its own, and which manages to sustain
itself through the length of the story. The platforming is a bit on
auto-pilot, as the game only lets you jump towards things you can
actually jump to, but Monkey's acrobatics make it entertaining
nonetheless, and there are parts where obstacles or collapsing portions
do add an element of danger that is otherwise lacking. No single element
of the game is really taken to its fullest extent in a game that
doesn't last terribly long, but it mixes things up a lot and pulls you
along with the story that it's just a fun ride while it lasts. The orb
collecting and upgrading sort of felt like they were only there out of
some sense of obligation that a modern game should have collecting and
upgrading, but they didn't hurt the game either. Really, not much about
Enslaved is truly exceptional or original, but the way it puts
everything together without the seams showing and with a solid sense of
wonder makes it greater than the sum of its parts. I like shooting
things and blood exploding everywhere and dark, serious stories just
fine, but things like this are always welcome.
