Customer Reviews

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (PS3)

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The campaign is around 12-15 hours, depending on the difficulty you play it on and if you want to collect all the bright shiny things to upgrade your weapons and shield. Whilst the gameplay might not always be the smoothest, it is varied and always exciting, especially at certain points in the story where it can be very tense. The whole game is designed and looks beautiful, and some of the sights are breathtaking, a much better looking post-apocalyptic world than that of Fallout. The acting is flawless and you grow to really care about the characters throughout the game, which in the end is why you should be playing the game. It puts a new exciting spin on a very over used storyline and the ending, without spoiling anything, is not what i expected, but still absolutely incredible and better than what i imagined. From anything you might have seen from trailers or gameplay, you haven't seen anything..trust me. The last few levels are absolutely huge and brilliantly designed and at this point any small flaws or problems you might have with the game, will be overlooked instantly. So this game might not be COD:Black Ops, (even though it does include some quite frequent third person shooting), this game has emotion, looks, and a really fun experience.
I can't believe how under rated and overlooked this game is by the gaming community, and this game would make a brilliant christmas present, especially now it's been reduced nearly everywhere. If your a fan of action, adventure, a good storyline, good acting, or even art this game is definitely for you.

The pros are it looks great and the story is engaging and well acted.

The cons are it plays like a pig at times with no real challenge to the game play. Its crying out for a simple 'jump button' as you often end up running against obstacles you should pop straight over (or through) and the climbing is effectively on rails with no possibility to mess up. The camera angles are often dreadful and I have gone through whole fights with the camera hidden in a block of scenery so I can see nothing (but still won as it all comes down to button bashing).

I like it, but it needed several months more play testing pre release.

If like me you love games with a strong narrative, then this is a game you won't want to miss.

This is a game that plays well, tugs at your emotions and looks amazing. There are a few flaws but the sheer joy of seeing the story through more than makes up for the small short comings. The voice acting is second to none and although (like many 3rd person games) the camera angles can be a little clumsy, the action is intense and quick to get to grips with. In summary, it's a joy! Should you like adventure games such as, 'Uncharted' then this isn't even a decision - buy it, you'll love it!

I had high hopes for this game as as it was developed by the the creators of one of my favopurite ps3 games: Heavenly Sword and i'm happy to report thgat i was overall impressed with the game but i felt it lacked the scale and epicness of Heavenly sword. The Game begins on a brilliant high with you escaping and exploding slave ship and it is here where you meet trip, a hot girl with a penchant for hacking. the opening scene alone was so brethtasking i continued playing hoping for a similar adrenaline rush but was unfortunately denied. However this was maded up brilliantly thanks to the introduction to pigsy who added so comedy onto the tale and the final boss was a brilliant spectacle to behold with a sad twist.

Gameplay in this game is a mix of action elements and button mashing to more tactical encounters using trip to create hologram decoys to distract enemies while you close in for the kill and platforming sections. i felt this to be the most weak part as the tactical scenes felt weak as the situations felt too easy once you knew the kinks of the decoy meter.Same with the combat which i felt lacked depth as the same combos strings eventually became repetetive and boring which was a shame.

overall i believe this game is worth the story alone even if the the gameplay lacks in some areas. its great to see andy sekis in the game with multiple roles and its worth it for his awesome acting.

Enslaved, is the most obvious Uncharted clone that has been released to date, and succeeds and frustrating in equal measure. I brought this game, due to its price- £15, a stream of positive reviews and good fan fare, but i came away slightly disappointed by my experience of the game, although i would say at this price it is well worth a playthrough.

The game, frustrates because it is a game of undeniable potential. The game world is well thought out, the post apocalyptic new york where you begin your adventure is beautiful, instead of a barren world of grey and browns, nature has reclaimed a post humanity new york in full bloom. Colourful flowers, trees, and plants, cover abandoned homes, skyscrapers, and machines, and at times, when the game allows you to, there are some breathtaking backdrops, that show of some splendid graphics. The voice acting, and the animations of the lead three characters, are at times superb, which help you invest in the game design and story.

But this is where the problems begin to occur, It is a 5/10 game, dressed up in 8/10 art design. The game is really clunky, and to be honest, the story is actually quite bare, there is no real narrative, and this isn't really supported by a subtext to care about the world you find yourself in, or the characters that you supposed to guide through it. The game consist of chapters, each one taking maybe up to 30 mins to complete, and starts and ends with 10-30 seconds of dialouge between the two leads, Monkey and Tripp. I was left disappointed because there is no real substance in these cutscenes, they consisted of where shall we go next and how to do it, the evolving relationship between monkey and Tripp, of slave and its owner, never really developed for me. We were meant to to see a gradual evolving relationship, but this never quite took off for me, even with great acting, and good facial animation. When the story delivered its emotional punch, its felt bare, and somewhat stale.

This problem is made worse by how the game plays, The first half, is of slave and owner, you have to guide your master through the city, to your crashed ship, but this idea is not fully explored, instead its you have to do this, go there, and open this by your master command. The game plays like uncharted: drainpipes, ledges, walls to climb, it does this fairly well, but there is no real challenge, its linear and well not as well executed as the mentioned game, the platforming is really uninspired, and does not prevent a challenge at all untill the last two chapters of the game, where it offers a little bit of prince of persia inspired platforming. The second half of the game, presents you with a task that you can't invest in because you are fighting against a non descript enemy. You literally do not know who you fighting against,and why the world is like it is. The game obviously wanted to use the idea of a evolving relationship between slaver and master as it main card, but considering this is flawed, it leaves the rest of the game open to severe criticism. The game most interesting part , is it ending, which is really left-field, and quite clever. If only they brought this forward. Its like the game, which is fairly short at length- 8-10 hours to complete was cut halfway through. Its just that the next half is probably coming out next year sometime.

The combat is interesting, and there is some clever use of decoying, and using certain ways to defeat the mechs that stop you from getting A and B, and where Uncharted made great use of shooting, this game here is mainly Melee combat, and works quite well, probably better than that of uncharted, and fairly similar to that of Batman: AA.

The review, is probably overally critical, and reads as though its not that good. Its a fair play, it does some things really well, others bits are left a bit floundering. For its price, you will get your moneys worth, its fairly enjoyable and there are no game breaking problems with it, its just that its well, a bit uninspired. Considering the reviews, and the fan fare, i was left a bit dissapointed.

Bought this as was looking for a game after completing uncharter 1 & 2. Im not into robots as a rule but this game caught my interest from the start. The story line is great - even my family got into it and were keen to help with how to complete a puzzle or beat up a badie. Its set in amazing graphics and the sounds are awsome. Once you have got a couple of the combo moves its pretty easy to take most of the robots down with ease. I dont like too many combo's (as a rule) and this game got it right for me. The missions are well designed and flow well. If you like 60% fighting and 20% puzzles and 20% storyline, then give it a go. I truly enjoyed it, as much as unchartered 1&2.

Story, Enslaved is set in an apocalyptic world ruined by years of war and time. We follow "Monkey" and "Trip" the two main characters on their journey west away from a slave ship which brought them to the city of New York, the story or should I say the dialogue is the high point of the hole game the facial animations and characters are so believable at times I forgot I was playing a video game. I did how ever have some issues at times with the plot, for instance at one point around midway through the game "Trip" states she wants vengeance on this third party which we don't know anything about! This makes it hard to feel the same drive the characters have to find and kill this so called menace; having said that the ending is a strange one the ending leaving you slightly puzzled, with not much being explained gave me the impression a sequel is on the cards .I almost whish this was a film because the gameplay isn't half as impressive as the characters and their facial animations.

Gameplay, The core gameplay varies with you shooting and bashing (mainly bashing) the robot menace you find yourself fighting from start to finish, not forgetting platforming as chunk of the game and easy as pie puzzles. There aren't many combo's so if you think it's going to be similar to Castlevania or God of war, think again, the amount of moves at your disposal is very limited; at first I liked this idea I hate having a endless list of combos when I only use a select few, but by the end the combat was seriously dragging the experience down for me hitting the same buttons again and again just gets very tedious. What makes the combat worse is that half the moves are fairly pointless trying to charge up your staff to smash through a shield is most of the time a fool's errand in which half the time I would just get hit before it was ready to use, instead I would just fire a stun round and wail on them with the same button bash of square square square, not to say the combats a total waste of time it's just simple and boring by the end. The other half of the game is the platforming, while its fun to watch monkey move around the terrain effortlessly and fairly smoothly; ITS FAR TOOO EASY! Every platform you can jump on is flashing meaning you can't put a foot wrong, on the positive side this means you're less likely to turn the game off because of a miss timed jump but more likely because you're simply tired of playing.

Graphics, the graphics are good it's nice to see an "end of world" game where things are green and colourful unlike Fallout which is a mixture of grey and brown. Good but...not great I noticed alot of texture popping and hick ups in that department

Conclusion, This game is fun don't get me wrong I may sound fairly negative but I did complete it and had second thoughts before selling it. It took me around 10 or so hours to complete in my opinion that's a good length for any game and I think time well spent ,the characters are very likable there's humour as well as what the hell? Moments. Now some negativity it's kind of repetitive at times (especially 1 point a chapter before the ending) generally I felt like the game was holding my hand too much instead of just letting me get on with things. Some points in the game seem a awfully like Uncharted 2 e.g. chase scene, climbing, by no means a bad thing but Uncharted is combination of great ideas while this game seems to be going for a more original theme but when I notice things from other games it just isn't as stand out as its trying to be, more so when those games its taking ideas from are more polished and just overall better.
Not much of conclusion I know but if you curious or just want to help some small UK game developers I'd give it at least a rent, £40 is a bit of stretch for this game I'd wait for it to be around £20 pounds before parting with your cash.

I wouldn't have even been aware of Enslaved: Odyssey to the West had it not been for my good friend who lent it me in favour of the admittedly inferior Medal of Honor. And it's hard to see why, with its storyline thats epic in scale, characters you clearly care about and unique visual design. It's a very ambitious game on these fonts, and its such a shame that the game wasn't more recognised. I highly doubt we can expect a sequel with the serious lack games sold.

Basically, Enslaved is a post apocalyptic future concept were deadly robots called mechs rule in numbers over mankind. Very few humans remain, and the ones who do are captured as slaves and possibly executed. We follow a guy known as Monkey, who is in this very situation. As he awaits death on an airship, luck comes his way as it crashes and he escapes his cell. Here is where he can put his acrobatic skills to test, defying impossible stunts to keep himself from being killed. When an oppurtunity like that comes along, why wouldn't you try your hardest to survive? He comes across an incredibly intelligent woman called Trip who also plans to escape. But with no trust and little time at her hands, she doesn't sieze the oppurtunity to help Monkey to escape in the pod, thus making things much harder for him. When it turns out they have crash landed side by side, Monkey awakes with a slave crown on his head. Trip placed it on his head to ensure he doesn't kill her, or he dies to. But mainly, because she wants to seek out her family and with all the mechs roaming she doesn't have the combat skills to survive if anything goes wrong.

Sounds like the recipe for an ultimate disastrous partnership doesn't it? While the first hour or so show two strangers who are bitterly hostile towards each other, the rest of the game develops a relationship no one could predict to be so beautiful and believable. They feed off each others talents to make it through a journey of blood thirsty mechs and mind bending puzzles, with Monkey's incredible strentgh and agility, and Trip's technologically adept mind. While the storyline is nothing original, its real plot lies in how the two protagonists bond and Enslaved makes damn sure you care about them.

So the gameplay itself is its pitfall. There is actually nothing at all wrong with gameplay, it's just nothing specail. And it feels we've done it many times before. I like to say there's three elements in this sector: the platforming, the combat and the stealth. The platforming alone feels so epic at times it's cinematic (look no further than the superb first chapter), but while it does charm in that aspect, it esentially feels like Prince of Persia or Assassin's Creed clone.

The combat... well even the combat feels like its ripped straight from God of War. There is original ideas like every now and then, an icon will flash over an enemy's head which depending on which variety it is, it will perform an execution which will help dispatch surrounding enemies with ease, such as using a torso as a detonating bomb or an arm as a gattling gun.

The stealth however, is suprisingly the highlight. The concept of how you go about feels like it has been done before (run to cover from enemy bullets, run to the next cover etc.), but it's never been done to this depth. As well as getting yourself closer to the enemies to rid of them, you have to make sure Trip gets across safely. To do this you must perform distractions, and here you control both Trip and Monkey. At first it seems too confusing for it's own good, but I eventually came to love these scenarios more so than any of the other elements of gameplay.

There's a great variety of enemies on store here, everything from combat mechs, demolition mechs and ninja like mechs. Every two levels or so, it will introduce a new form of enemy, which keeps it fresh. There's also a few bosses thrown in the mix. The individual bosses are used various times throughout the game, and at first look terrifying and offer a good change from God of War gameplay against the mechs. But because of the number of times a certain boss is used, it detracts from the experience. You get sick off seeing the same mech dog and it made me think of the creators as a bit lazy. However, minor complaint aside, there's little to complain in this sector.

The graphics are truly stunning. Everything from the wonderful effects, level design and character models. It often feels like a hollywood movie, its done to that much detail. I haven't been this amazed by visuals since Prince of Persia. I also love the facial movement. It's rare you cancome across a game that you can truly pick out emotions on characters faces, but Enslaved pulls this off brilliantly. The voice acting as expected is second to none. Only other that competes in this department are RPG games. Although there's essentially only two characters to work on here, it's still amazing considering the amount of dialogue. Sound is another great feat, including all the background noises you expect to here to make platforming more immersive. While in battles, the sci-fi sound effects never feel forced, and often sound brutal in such a pretty game. The score is sublime, one of the best in recent years and whoever that composer is, I'd love to hear more from him.

There's a good 15 hours here, not to mention a new game plus, and collectibles. If you ask me, thats quite good for a third person adventure. By around three quarters in, the multi layered gameplay gets suprisingly old, but luckily the story remains consistent and keeps you hooked to the superb climax. Overall, you owe yourself to get this little known gem, the more sold the more likely a sequel! If you love games that rely on storylines, this is easily one of the highest recommended on the system. Don't let Enslaved drop from your radar, as it has done from many others.

If you are looking for a game to fill the gigantic void left after completeing both current Uncharted games then here it is!! This is the only game other than those two titles that i have not been able to put down and completed in one sitting :)

I shouldn't really compare this game to any other though as it is fairly unique in itself but does borrow a lot from Uncharted... The gameplay is very similar although combat is more hand to hand using a staff as opposed to with guns! The graffics are stunning and the post-apocalyptic world is so colourful and vibrant it's just beautiful! The story is very engaging and the characters are acted perfectly, theres a good balance of hunour too but be prepared for some serious cringe moments!haha i absolutely loved this game!!

i was originally going to knock off a star because of the issues with the camera and the rough edges graffically sometimes, but i really didnt find this in any way damaging to my overall experience of the game... and also if this was to get 4 stars then other half decent games would only get 1 star in comparison... Therefor this game deserves the full 5!!

Buy it now if you liked Uncharted ot Ratchet and Clank... You will love it!!!

I was looking forward to this game after reading several good reviews, and it certainly didn't disappoint. First of all it looks beautiful. All of the environments are green and lovely, and at times I would stop what I was doing just to look at the scenery.

Combat is pretty easy, but fun. There aren't too many enemies -- I am often annoyed when playing games that keep churning out a neverending stream of enemies. Quite a few times you have the option of sneaking past the mechs, but doing this will not get you experience points.

The characters are among the most realistic looking I have seen in a game, and the voice acting is far better than in most games like this.

The story is compelling, though this is to be expected since it is based on a classic Chinese story and written by Alex Garland.

I thorougly enjoyed the 20+ hours of gameplay I got out of it, and will probably play through it again sometime in the future, if only to get to ride around on the cloud again.