Made by Heavenly Sword developers Ninja Theory, Enslaved is looking to be a title to reinvigorate the same flagging genre as Prince of Persia has been for a while now. Will this be the beginning of a new phase in gaming where power returns to the platformers?
I say platforming, that's really just one string to Enslaved's bow. This game has both close combat and ranged combat, but they're far from the emphasis. Plenty more has been showcased in stage demos and gameplay videos, and for this article I chose to play through the current demo (which is avaible on PSN and XBL) to offer you some impressions of what the final game will offer. I mentioned in my Vanquish Impressions that it has a really cool looking menu screen, and that I'd like to see more inventive menus. It seems Ninja Theory either read that article, or had a similar epiphany as the menu screen in Odyssey to the West is similarly cool.
The Enslaved demo starts off in the same place the full game will likely start off. The 2 main protagonists have been captured by slavers and are being transported in a flying fortress of sorts. Trip (the lady) breaks free using her technical expertise and sets the ship to a collision course with the nearest mountain. The commotion that follows leads to Monkey (the man) being sprung from his own cell and thus the gameplay extravaganza does begin.
Upon beginning the game the first thing I noticed were the animations. It's clear that a lot of work has been put in to this facet of the presentation and it really shows. Occasionally you'll see a little stiffness in a cutscene, but in-game the animations are amazing. They really succeed in conveying a weight and reality to the characters and environments. A collapsing cell won't affect you if it isn't animated well, these things need to look and feel like they weigh a ton and they really do, it really helps to immerse you in the games world.
The next thing I noticed was the style of the visuals. Since I played Heavenly Sword I wondered why you never saw that bright light type of lighting on the Xbox 360. Same thing with Uncharted, they both made 360 games look really monotone next to their vibrance and stunning usage of colour. Finally this style of visual has been brought to the 360 and let me tell you, it's wonderous. There's a brilliant contrast to everything, you could have sharp black and stunning white on the same screen and both executed brilliantly. That's not to say that Enslaved is the prettiest game to date, but it is aesthetically beautiful due to how it uses what it has. Some genuine artistic merit can be found in the style of this game.
But hey, perhaps all you want to do is beat robots with a big extendable stick? Enslaved caters for that too! The combat system featured is refreshingly simple, but not without depth and it's entirely possible (and even probable) that the full game will feature a far deeper combat system than the demo, catered for by upgrades and varied enemy types. In the demo the combat wont challenge you, but it will entertain you. That said it only seems to take up a small chunk of the gameplay, most of which is spent navigating the treacherous environment.
If you're anything like me you'll want to know how the journey turns out for our two heroes, how their relationship evolves and grows, and most of all; do they get to their respective homes?
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West hits store shelves on the 8th of October 2010.
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