A classic Chinese folk tale gets a particulary clever retelling. The result? Some very fine gaming.
The importance of story in video gaming is a debate that never quite seems to lose its edge. It’s a remarkably complex one too, with the same people who wax lyrical about, for example, the breadth of Halo’s historical backstory often being the same people who eschew the single player campaign and spend their evenings indulging in a joyous round of teabagging.
To lay some cards out on the table before we start, this particular reviewer highly values narrative, even to the point of putting up with deeply flawed gameplay (looking at you Alpha Protocol) or remarkably sub-par graphics (yes, we see you Dragon Age: Origins) for a game that really sizzles in the story stakes.
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is a particularly clever retelling of the classic Chinese folk tale, Journey to the West. For most of us, this allegory for the path an individual must take on their way to enlightenment is best remembered as the TV show Monkey – a show made in China, by a Japanese production company, dubbed into English by the BBC and regularly broadcast on the ABC in its 5pm slot. Enslaved takes a slightly more authentic look at the original tale and, perhaps a little sadly, avoids any mention of “the funkiest monkey that ever popped”.
Set roughly 150 years into our future after a robot apocalypse has decimated mankind and left the survivors existing in tiny isolated pockets, Enslaved places the player in the size 14 boots of Monkey, a hulking simian brute of incredible strength and agility. Tricked (initially) into aiding young techie Trip into finding her way home – thanks to a jury-rigged slave headband on Monkey that will explode if she dies – the pair embark on a long journey from the East Coast of the US to the West.
Enslaved’s gameplay is a strange mix of platform, combat, escort quest, item collection and the odd puzzle thrown in. Core to the game is the platforming element, with Monkey’s insane agility letting you leap from handhold to handhold in exploratory moves that feel like Ezio at his very best. Ninja Theory has made this an extremely fluid experience and even though there’s not a huge amount of skill required (with notable exceptions) it’s highly rewarding.
Sadly, the combat is a little less polished, with Monkey having the standard mix of heavy and light attacks via his staff, plus an energy shield for blocking opponents. It gets a little more interesting when the staff gets a ranged attack upgrade but, except for the occasional finishing move, you’ll mostly find yourself whaling on robots until they explode in fiery chunks. With the ranged attacks, Monkey can fire either stun blasts to disrupt shields and freeze enemies, or plasma bolts to cause actual damage – swapping back and forth between these will become second nature as you rapidly blast away mech shielding before destroying them with a quick plasma blast. Gather enough of the ‘tech orbs’ conveniently floating around and you’ll be able to upgrade health, combat abilities and more, thanks to Trip’s electronic wizardry.
While Trip isn’t exactly defenceless – she has an EMP blast she can use to freeze attackers – she’s certainly not a brawler like Monkey. You’ll spend a lot of time protecting her or distracting robots while she runs to a safe area. That said, Trip can return the favour, using an electronic baffler to keep the mechs’ attention elsewhere while Monkey sneaks around for some devastating attacks. Trip will also be essential in later puzzles when you need two people to operate a series of switches. These are never overly difficult, but do add a nice element to the climb-kill-climb sections.
One thing that truly stands out in Enslaved is the depth of characterisation. Mo-capped in entirety by Andy Serkis – face, body and voice – Monkey has an incredible sense of athleticism and emotion, both in-game and during cut-scenes. Trip adheres to Ninja Theory’s love of lissom redheads, but the devs have done a superb job with her facial expressions and voice work. Pigsy, when you meet him later in the game, is similarly excellent. In fact, without the characters and their nuanced interactions, Enslaved would be a vastly different (and lesser) game. The script by Alex Garland (The Beach, 28 Days Later) wouldn’t work half as well as it does without the commitment from the three players – it’s something that other developers should be playing a lot of attention to.
Design-wise, the Enslaved works on breaking that post-apocalyptic mold. Forget the bleak, beige and battered landscapes of Metro 2033 or Fallout 3 – Enslaved is a lush green, with plant life taking back the Earth in humanity’s absence. Crumbling buildings around New York are covered in vines and grass, bright sun blazes down and the whole environment feels oddly cheery – if you can ignore the giant robot dogs attempting to eat you.
While Enslaved is not without its flaws – camera angles can be frustrating, combat difficulty can skew oddly when bosses arrive and your finishing move animations can become so repetitive that you’ll want to lose just for some variety. But ultimately this is a very different game to what we’ve become used to. The term cinematic is well and truly over- and misused in gaming, but Ninja Theory have brought cinematic production values to Enslaved to create a title that succeeds as both a game and a genuinely enthralling story – certainly, no mean accomplishment.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012