Enslaved: Odyssey To The West or A Contrived Excuse To Show The World Your Vacation Photos

I had such high hopes for this game.  The people who gave us Enslaved had previously given us the Sacred Volume known as Heavenly Sword.  Now they see fit to give us photos from Andy Serkis' private life with a game wrapped awkwardly around it.  Oh and Spoilers by the way.  Should have mentioned that sooner maybe.



Now it's not that the bulk of the game is real life photos of the man who played Gollum it's actually just a small part.  A small bizarre part that is crucial to a terrible Matrix themed ending.  And the real life photos along with the live action video at the end; jar with the rest of the games computer rendered visuals like sand paper on glass.  They have committed the Sin of Wall-e.

(For all who don't know what this sin is I'll explain.  Pixar's Wall-e contains clips of live action footage.  They show film of Hello Dolly as well as Fred Ward.  Most of the movie is computer animated but not all.  When Wall-e was nominated for the Academy award of best animated movie some in the animation industry were upset, and rightly so in my opinion.  The objectors said that since live action clips were used in the movie the film is not technically animated.  They have a point.  Animation is a laborious process.  Another movie that were 100% animated could rightly feel cheated by Pixar's nomination, even if Wall-e is 99% animated it doesn't matter.)

Now on to the mishandling of Pigsy.  Pigsy could have been a great character.  He could have been a funny foil for Monkey.  Instead he was made into cliche comic relief.  He could have been used to encourage Monkey and Trip in their relationship but instead he tried to come between them.  How many times have we seen that before.

The whole games is an exercise in missed opportunities and undeveloped potential.  Monkey and Trip are engaging characters but are never fully realized.  Neither is their relationship which started out as interesting, compelling, and complex.  But it quickly and quietly moves to the background and then seems to disappear altogether.  When Trip offers to let Monkey go and he insists on staying enslaved to her it rings hollow.  The proper time that needed to be invested for that potentially beautiful moment never happened.

Likewise the story held promise but nothing was ever delivered on that promise.  The combat camera was a pain but forgivable.  Simplistic combat not so much.  And there were several Trip command events that failed to trigger for no reason an then start working inexplicably.  Over all the game felt short and rushed.  The environment of the game rubbed me the wrong way.  The end felt like a cop out.  Like the design team was like "We got to finish this before our lunch break.  Lets just rip off the Matrix and call it good."  For shame Team Ninja, for shame.  I expect better from you.