Enslaved: Odyssey To The West Review
Written on December 5, 2010 by Jess
Sprinting for your life hasn't been this colourful in a long time
Reimagining a myth is a classic launch pad for entertainment. The evolution of story, characters and themes nurtures these myths, keeping them alive in a world that can have the memory span of a goldfish. Sometimes it goes well (the God of War franchise and Dan Simmon’s Illuim books being fine examples) and sometimes it goes quite badly (Clash of the Titans or The Bible … not so much). Thankfully Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is a member of the former group. It’s not the first modern retelling of the myth of Monkey – you may remember the old TV show and might have seen the recent terrible movie adaptation starring Chairman Kaga from Iron Chef. These kitschy retellings thankfully were followed up by Damon Albarn’s Opera last year.
Ninja Theory’s game leaves out some of the recognisable markers of the original story, but is thankfully no less enjoyable for it. There’s no Dragon-disguised-as-Horse, no demons, no overall journey to become a great immortal sage or collect scrolls. Monkey certainly can’t multiply himself or change into anything (except maybe from angry man who wants to kill Trip to an angry man who might be in love with Trip), but we do have the Cloud, the headband, the staff. We still have Pigsy and his lecherous ways, and we still have a story that ends in Enlightenment.
As the story goes, the nature of Monkey was … irrepressible. In this version (written by Alex Garland) Monkey is a large, agile, brutish man, plucked by Slavers from the wasteland of post-apocalyptic North America and held in a an egg-shaped containment unit on a flying transport. He watches an attractive and early 90’s fashion-inspired young woman escape, and then the ship begins to explode. Nice timing, really. Monkey escapes, just barely, in what is a rather nicely done spin on the Tutorial level, and crashes to Earth on the outside of the girl’s escape pod. He wakes up to find that the girl he followed has now slapped a Slaver control headband on him.
So this is the "unexpected challenge" my horoscope mentioned this morning ...
From here, you’re under the instruction of this girl. Tripitaka (or Trip, as you’ll come to know her) demands that you escort her back to her home village, carrying her, throwing her, protecting her and fighting for her along the way. While she can’t help physically, Trip is something of a technomage. She’s hacked the headband to give you a commlink, enemy specs, powerups, upgrade menus and a HUD, but to ensure you help she’s also linked your biosigns. If she dies, you die. What a bitch. So you, as Monkey, are now glorified babysitter to one of the most easily freaked out girls in gaming history. The way she yells ‘MONKEY!’ … well, if you ever start a drinking game for Enslaved, you’d better hope that isn’t the buzz word.
So there’s the premise and the plot remix. You’re set loose into a world of post-apocalyptic prettiness. In a wonderfully refreshing move (or perhaps a throwback to the old Utopia’s of the Victorian era), Ninja Theory have created a bright and vibrant world of tomorrow. The city of New York is overrun with lush vines and flowers, there’s insect life (both organic and robotic) and very little signs of any humans. There are, however, slavers and Mechs. Slavers and their organisation PYRAMID are the game’s main conceptual enemy, but the Mechs are the physical enemies that Monkey will fight. Over and over, in fact. You’ll meet most of the different varieties of Mech in the first couple of levels and from there you’ll battle slightly stronger versions … in ever increasing numbers. While the difficulty level does curve slowly but steeply upward, it’s more a case of difficulty via numbers than the enemies or puzzles being strategically harder. This didn’t really bother me, but I could see it being frustrating for someone who plays this kind of game on a regular basis.
It's also programmed to shock you if you think impure thoughts.
True to the original tale, Monkey is armed with a staff of adjustable length, which doubles here as a bludgeon and long-range cannon. You’re able to pick up ammunition (conveniently placed in areas where it’s going to be needed) that arm it with either EMP or plasma blasts, designed to take down Mechs with shielding and the Big Boss Mechs. The aiming controls are fluid and targets a forgiving broad area, which is really useful when trying to take down the Dog Mechs.
While the movement and combat controls are simple and easy to work with, they can suffer from some excruciating camera angles. I was caught a few times by overlapping scenery obscuring where Monkey was, all while getting my arse handed to me by a fairly easy Mech that I also couldn’t see. It’s more of a problem with the game’s camera-guided spell-every-puzzle-out approach than any real control flaw, but it was random, annoying, and usually only solvable after a bit of button mashing. In a similar vein, much of Monkey’s movement leaping from handhold to ledge to handhold. It’s beautiful to watch, really well animated, but the actual mechanics can occasionally get a little iffy. You really do have to have the directional joystick pointing exactly the right way or Monkey will just sit there while you repeatedly push buttons, which can be highly irritating when you have to do the odd time-dependant jumps. The controls for Monkey’s ‘Cloud’ were also, unfortunately, a real son of a bitch. It felt slippery, like I had little to no control over the direction, often resulting in dozens of U-turns just to get up a ramp.
Well if you HAD to enslave someone, you could do worse than a guy who could punch through giant robots
But in the end, what truly impressed me about Enslaved was the obvious work that has gone into the characters. The voice acting was a great match for what you imagine Trip, Monkey and even Pigsy to sound like. Monkey’s rough, 2-seconds-way-from-coughing growl expresses his frustration so very well, especially when you have Trip plaintively wailing ‘Monkey! Help me!’ in increasing panic as she gets stuck or attacked. Pigsy swings between braggart and letch and back like a rusty gate. The dialogue is definitely up there with the more ‘natural’ offerings out there at the moment and while the plot is sometimes very simplified, the cut scenes are not wasted. While I wasn’t completely impressed with the ending, it didn’t suffer from lack of empathetic characters, I just felt that it was too quick.
Overall, Enslaved is an entertaining and mildly challenging platformer that delivers the level of engagement you want from a game to play in between the dark and super-serious offerings out at the moment. It’s might not be a spiritual journey, but it’s a damn good story.
The Verdict:
Pros: Great characters coupled with a lighthearted, yet complex and interesting plot. The game world is beautiful, a welcome change to the bleak post-nuke worlds that seem to dominate games at the moment. Superb voice acting gives rise to some really nice, natural exchanges between the characters.
Cons: Controls can get a little erratic at points. The ending is somewhat abrupt. Not necessarily bad … just abrupt.
Overall: An enjoyable game that will keep you interested until the end. Definitely worth a play, though probably not a replay. Pick it up and have it on hand to play between your epic Triple-A titles. 3 and a half stars of out 5.
Reimagining a myth is a classic launch pad for storytelling and entertainment, with the evolution of characters and themes nurturing these myths, keeping them alive in a world that can have the memory span of a goldfish* . Sometimes it goes well (the God of War franchise and Dan Simmon’s ‘Illuim’ books being fine examples) and sometimes it goes quite badly (Clash of the Titans or The Bible…not so much). Thankfully, Enslaved : Odyssey to the West, is a member of the former group. It’s not the first modern retelling of the myth of Monkey – you may remember the old TV show (LINK) and might have seen the recent terrible movie adaptation, starring Chairman Kaga from Iron Chef (LINK). These kitschy retellings thankfully were followed up by Damon Albarn’s Opera (LINK AND INFO) of last year. Ninja Theory’s game leaves out some of the recognisable markers of the original story, but is thankfully no less enjoyable for it. There’s no Dragon-disguised-as-Horse, no demons, no overall journey to become a great immortal sage or collect scrolls. Monkey certainly can’t multiply himself or change into anything (except maybe from angry violent man who wants to kill Trip to an angry, violent man who might be in love with Trip), but we do have the Cloud, the headband, the staff. We still have Pigsy and his lecherous ways, and we have a story that ends in Enlightenment.
As the story goes, the nature of Monkey was … irrepressible. In this version written by Alex Garland, he is a large, agile, brutish man, plucked by Slavers from the wasteland of post-apocalyptic North America and held in a an egg-shaped containment unit on a flying transport. He watches an attractive and early 90’s fashion-inspired young woman escape, and then the ship begins to explode. Nice timing, really. Monkey escapes, just barely, in what is a rather nicely done spin on the Tutorial level, and crashes to Earth on the outside of the girl’s escape pod. He wakes up, and realises she’s put a slave headband on him.
From here, you’re under the instruction of this girl. Tripitaka (Trip, for shortened coolness) will demand that you carry her, throw her, protect her and fight for her, all the way back to her home village. Being the techno mage she is, she’s hacked the headband to give a commlink, specs, powerups, menus and a HUD, but she’s also linked your biosigns. If she dies, you die. What a bitch. So you, as Monkey, are now glorified babysitter to one of the most amusingly and easily freaked out girl in gaming history. The way she yells ‘MONKEY!’…if we ever start a drinking game for Enslaved, you’d better hope that isn’t the buzz word.
So there’s the premise and the plot remix. You’re set loose into a world of post-apocalyptic prettiness. The city of New York is overrun with lush vines and flowers, there’s insect life (both organic and robotic) and very little signs of any humans. There are, however, slavers and Mechs. Slavers and their organisation, PYRAMID (CHECK) are the enemies you’re trying to destroy, but the Mechs are the physical enemies that Monkey will fight. Over and over. You’ll meet the majority of the variances in design in the first couple of levels and from there you battle slightly stronger versions, in increasing numbers. The difficulty levels have a fairly steep curve, but it’s more a case of greater numbers of slightly faster enemies than the enemies or puzzles being harder. This doesn’t bother me one bit, but I can see it being frustrating for someone who plays this kind of game on a regular basis. Monkey’s two weapons are his fists and his staff. Fists – self explanatory. The Staff? A combination of bludgeon and cannon. You’re able to pick up ammunition (conveniently placed in areas where it’s going to be needed) that arm it with either EMP or plasma blasts, designed to take down Mechs with shielding and the ‘Big Boss’ Mechs. The controls are nicely fluid and targeting quite broad, which is really useful when trying to take down the ‘Dog’ Mechs.
While the movement and combat controls are simple and easy to work with, they can suffer from some excruciating camera angles. I was caught a few times by overlapping scenery obscuring where the hell Monkey was while getting my arse handed to me by a fairly easy Mech that I also couldn’t see. But it’s a problem more to do with this being a camera-guided instead of freeplay game, rather than any control flaw. It was random and while annoying, easy to get past with a bit of button mashing. A lot of Monkey’s movement is done by leaping from handhold to ledge to handhold. It’s beautiful to watch, really well animated, but the actual mechanics are occasionally iffy. You really do have to have the directional joystick pointing exactly the right way or Monkey will just sit there while you repeatedly push buttons. When you have to do the time-dependant jumps, this can be highly irritating. The controls for the ‘Cloud’ were also, unfortunately, a son of a bitch. It felt slippery, like I had little to no control over the direction, often having to do a million U-turns to get up a ramp.
One of the best things about this game, besides button mashery (my long time fav), is the obvious work that has gone into the characters. The voice acting was a great match for what you imagine Trip, Monkey and even Pigsy to sound like. Monkey’s rough, 2-seconds-way-from-coughing growl expresses his frustration so very well, especially when you have Trip plaintively wailing ‘Monkey! Help me!’ in increasing panic as she gets stuck or attacked. Pigsy is swings between braggart and lech and back like a squeaky gate. The dialogue is definitely up there with the more ‘natural’ offerings out there at the moment and while the plot is sometimes very simplified, the cut scenes are not wasted (though sometimes they were over-utilised as tutorials). While I wasn’t completely impressed with the ending, it didn’t suffer from lack of empathetic characters, just a bit of the old tying up all the loose ends too neatly.
*this often repeated adage is a myth in itself. BAM.
