Enslaved

[AWS260]

I finished this on 360 last night and really enjoyed it, although it's far from perfect.

Overview: A single-player, story-driven 3D brawler based on the Chinese tale Journey to the West (but set in a bleak, futuristic world).

Pluses:
-- Beautiful graphics. I've seen approximately a zillion post-apocalyptic wastelands, and this is among the best.
-- Great acting -- possible the best I've ever seen in a video game. By this I mean the combination of voice acting and in-engine facial animations.
-- Interesting, original story and dialogue.
-- Combat is relatively easy. This may be a minus to some, but it's a plus to me.

Minuses:
-- Occasional graphic slowdown. Not game-breaking, but noticeable.
-- Story is told in cutscenes -- there's no opportunity to influence the flow of events or participate in dialogue.
-- Linear levels. There's very, very minimal exploration on most levels. A few of them open up a bit to give you more tactical options, but generally speaking, they funnel you toward your goal.
-- Your character is acrobatic, but the "acrobatic" moves are limited to a set of pre-determined anchor points -- there's no freedom to leap about levels like in the Assassin's Creed series.
-- Combat falls well short of similar linear beat-em-ups like the God of War series and Bayonetta.

If you primarily value highly polished, challenging gameplay, this is not the game for you. If (like me) you place a premium on story and characterization, this may be the game for you.

[Skinypupy]

I got through Chapter 10, but couldn't muster up the motivation to finish. Normally I'd have taken the time to just push through to the end when a game is as short, but it simply wasn't very interesting. I fired it up one night and realized, "you know, I really couldn't give two shits what happens to these people". While the digital acting and voice work is incredible, they didn't make any effort to flesh out the characters or develop the story even a little bit. If they did, Enslaved could have been a classic. As is, I found it to be just a mediocre action game.

[Hipolito]

Thanks for the thoughts on this game. I've been thinking of picking it up. Great story and characters are enough for me to forgive gameplay flaws. So this game's a maybe. I'm also interested in its unusual vision of a postapocalyptic world.

[Daehawk]

Picked this up new @ Gamestop for $15.00. So far its fun and the graphics are just beautiful. I also just want to kill that girl I'm having to bitch sit. Maybe that will change down the road.

[msteelers]

I played the demo for this when it was first released and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it considering I knew nothing about the game. Maybe once I clear my current slate of games I'll buy it if I can find it cheap enough, or rent it.

[ChrisGrenard]

I bought this (along with Bayonetta, Alan Wake and Darkstalkers) for my buddy who is deployed in the desert, and he said it was his favorite of the four. He noted that the combat was weaker than others, and the story was decent, but he had never before seen facial animation on that level.

(And for the record, he said both Enslaved and Bayonetta were superb, Alan Wake was very good, Darkstalkers was good but buggy.)

[Hipolito]

I still haven't gotten the game, but I heard on a recent episode of the GameCritics.com podcast that the DLC, "Pigsy's Perfect 10," is very much worth getting for anyone who likes the game.

[Turtle]

Yeah, Giantbomb had a quick look of it, and the DLC looks pretty amazing. But sadly, I'm just done with the game.

[Hipolito]

I've played this game about as much as I can stand. For some dumb reason, I played it on Hard difficulty, which is suitably challenging but not God of War hard. Not God of War fun, either. I gave up during the final mission. I probably could have beaten the game if I had kept trying or set the difficulty downward, but at that point I was just fed up with the waves and waves of enemies and YouTubed the ending. The ending is pretty good, at least.

I agree with most of what you guys have said already, though I rate the game as average, not good. After being disappointed by BioShock Infinite, I found the digital acting refreshing. But it wasn't enough to get past the game's many flaws, such as bad controls and camera, inconvenient checkpoints, occasional dropped sounds and out-of-sync video, and mediocre combat and exploration.

I tried the Pigsy's Perfect 10 DLC and wow, that was a mistake. As Pigsy, you can't fight hand-to-hand, so you rely on stealth, sniping, and gadgets. It should have been cool, but from the start, Pigsy is up against far greater odds than Monkey was. I gave up very early in the game after failing the same stealth section a couple of dozen times. People who like the main generally like the DLC as well, so I shouldn't be surprised that I didn't. I was hoping for something better, though.

[Daehawk]

I put the disc to this back in the Xbox the other day. not played yet. When I left off a good bit back I was on the bridge across the bay.

[Daehawk]

I think Im at the end now. I've played a few areas a night for the last 4 or 5 nights. This morning it told me it was my last chance to upgrade so Im guessing Ive reached the end area. Im sad but happy too. Its been a hell of a ride. The collecting upgrade orbs has kinda worn thin. I find myself collecting orbs when Id rather have my eyes on the graphics and such. But I'd rate the game a 10 easy. loved it and the story.

Now I hope the end doesn't piss me off. Still not figured out how Monkey's flashback visions are going to play into it.

[EddieA]

Now I hope the end doesn't piss me off. Still not figured out how Monkey's flashback visions are going to play into it.

I thought the ending was fantastic, both the gameplay leading up to it and the ending of the story. A lot of people don't seem to like it, but I have no idea why.

[MonkeyFinger]

Dang... need to get back to this.

[Daehawk]

Im done. The ending did not piss me off I swear though I've seen that movie..wink wink.