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Naff narrative

Enslaved 's narrative is as desolate as its wastelands. Characterisation relies entirely on the excellent voice acting, and not in any memorable or revealing dialogue. And the narrative constantly falls into the trap of telling rather than showing.

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

Crossing the road never looked straightforward

Monkey and Trip's relationship marks the narrative highlight, evoking genuine emotion as forced co-operation blossoms into affection and, ultimately, love. But neither character is sufficiently fleshed out, and neither feels like it has a credible back-story.

The introduction of Pigsy during the game's second half promises to inject some much needed humour. But the greasy, wisecrackling pig is laughable. And by that I don't mean funny. Pigsy's sex addiction in the ancient Chinese story is transposed into mechanophilia, which results in some puerile, cringe-worthy jokes, which neither enliven nor enrich the narrative.

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

Higher viewpoints than Assassins Creed

The story also suffers from severe amnesia at times, especially in its denouement, leaving players scratching their heads wondering how they got there and where it was they're were supposed to be heading to.

Latest Comments
Anonymous Coward

Rhianna Pratchett

I don't know, I thought her work on Mirror's Edge was awful. I'm not sure how much of the story and characters were her fault and how much was foisted on her by the developers, but I thought the totalitarian regime running the city was incredibly cliched and the characters all stereotypes.

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still a nice game to play.

Yes everything that was said in the review is true however i found it really playable and is one of the few games i've managed to sit down and just play through constantly! I don't think it is worth buying as i completed it in like 2 days, however i think it is at least worth a rent! Admitidly i didn't want to trade the game back in 2 days after buying but when the dust settles i probably won't play it again! still a nice little game to get gamer points on! i managed to grab 840 from this game alone! :)

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Not to mention

the very entertaining Overlord games.

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Anonymous Coward

"first videogame translation" of Journey to the West?

The Japanese/Chinese/Taiwanese have been making them since the 80s. This is possibly the one with the ugliest characters though.

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shame

such a shame as the concept of a post-apocalyptic version of the Monkey story sounded awesome

they should have got Rhianna Pratchett to do the writing - she worked on both Risen and Heavenly Sword with Serkis and although the Heavenly Sword gameplay got a bit repetative, the story and dialogue was highly entertaining and kept you going to complete it.

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