| 26 September 2010
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is an upcoming third-person action/adventure game, whose demo just hit PSN/XBLA last week. In it you escort a female character named Trip back to her home village, with just a little catch - she placed a device on your head that will kill you if she dies, to ensure her safe return.
Enslaved was developed by Ninja Theory, who created Heavenly Sword, and it shows. Its female lead looks strikingly like the main character from Enslaved, and both have a similar visual style. Enslaved's world is rich and vibrant, which may have to do with the fact that your character traverses a world overrun by vegetation.
The game plays like a mix of Uncharted-esque climbing and Arkham Asylum-influenced combat. Unfortunately, although it has chosen good titles to emulate, it doesn't quite live up to its influences. The climbing sections are a little tedious, and don't convey the same sense of accomplishment that Uncharted did. The combat will probably get more varied as the game progresses, and it was pretty solid in the demo, but it also felt a little looser than what I'd like. Actually, the controls as a whole felt a little loose, as if I wasn't in total control of my character; which resulted in my feeling like I could fall off a ledge at any time. That being said, the demo did present a good amount of variety and some pretty epic moments; if the rest of the game can keep up this fast pace then it should be a pretty fun playthrough.
Where the game really succeeds is in its character animation and story development. The characters look great, and even the enemies look stylized and interesting. The story itself is intriguing enough to make me consider playing through some of its more lackluster elements just to see how it all plays out. Hopefully, they'll get into how the world got to be this way, which is what interests me the most.
While it didn't totally win me over, I remain optimistic about Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. What did you think?
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