Rushed to market
Worse still, the game's most memorable sections are often completely unplayable. In the same way narrative tells rather than shows, cutscenes often replace gameplay, as Monkey rides on the roof of a van, careering and bouncing through gunfire, or as Pigsy drives a gigantic mech into battle.
Lightly does it
Even the often drop-dead gorgeous visuals fail to save Enslaved. The epic grandeur of the post-apocalyptic wasteland has a unique vibrancy, courtesy of the primary colours of its cartoon-esque palette, made especially beautiful by the foliage grown over the traces of man. But the PS3 version is plagued with a woeful frame-rate and during both play and cutscenes, and horrendous screen tearing and anti-aliasing, which would suggest the PS3 version was rushed to market.
Verdict
As an exercise in pushing storytelling within videogames, Enslaved merely highlights just how much the medium still needs to mature. The voice acting deserves critical acclaim, Andy Serkis in particular proving videogames deserve greater consideration than most non-gaming critics presently afford it.
Had Enslaved achieved its ambitions, instead of failing to match even the current best exponents, it would still have been in vain, thanks to its utterly uninspired and banal gameplay. ®
The frog-like hovercraft croak down and had to be toad
More Games Reviews |
|||
 Castlevania:
Lord of Shadows |
 F1 2010 |
 Dead Rising 2 |
 RUSE |
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
COMMENTS
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.
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! :)
"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.
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.
