Enslaved [PS3/360]

[prinnysquad]

I'm onto chapter 11 and have had a great time with it!

Beautifully busy art design throughout. The gameplay is limited but I've accepted the limitations and got to grips with it nicely. Like a couple of other posters on here, it's very easy to go into detail about the problems and appear to make the game look terrible, but it isn't. I'll go through a few anyway.

The inability to free jump is annoying, and sometimes lining up a jump can be a chore. On one bit, I had to quickly jump onto a ledge, turn round, and haul up Trip before she fell. It took me 4 times to do, because I couldn't get Monkey to the exact place on the ledge to make the jump, or I couldn't turn round and haul her up quickly enough. This was annoying, no doubts about it, but I've accepted the laws of jumping in the game and I really don't care about its limitations.

Likewise, the 'platforming' is similar to the single button timed presses of the 2008 Prince of Persia. That's ok, though. It's not really a platforming game. It's an action adventure story which likes you to climb to sense the scale of the dystopia and take in the vistas. I would find endlessly lining up intricate swings and jumps, and plummeting to my doom every few minutes, excruciating. I would find falling off a ledge while battering a mech infuriating. Thank god this doesn't happen. The 'platforming' as such is utterly simplistic and simply a means to experience the setting and pacing of the game, and being honest, I've really enjoyed this aspect of it.

Other aspects of the gameplay are nice. The puzzles are few and average, but break up the pacing well. The bosses are rather simple, but, once again, suit the overall challenge and tone of the game. The cloud sections I've loved! The combat is ok, not any great depth to it, but it's satisfying enough. I like the staff powers, and the upgrades are straightforward. The story has been solid and well-structured. The voice acting is decent, and the facial aminations excellent. There's a lot of character in the game, and it's often unspoken. Trip is a doll.

It's been a quality experience so far, despite problems. The game has more than enough interest and charm to keep me hooked.

[Bort]

Completed Enslaved last night. I played the demo section Monday night and couldn't be arsed to play any more. Turned it on around 6pm last night and burnt through it in one sitting (till 1.30am).

Cool game. I had a questionable view of it after seeing some preview footage of the action but apart from some really ****ing stupid chase and dynamic crumbling environments that lead to unfair deaths it's a good solid game.

It plays and feels a lot like a Ratchet and Clank game but with the traversal of a PoP and the comedy gold 'story' of Assassin's Creed. Monkey and Trip have a believable relationship similar to the best of the Prince and Elika/Farah from PoP.

[Charlie]

Having finally gotten round to playing this, I regard it as a flawed masterpiece.

The lush, green environments are beautiful and really set themselves apart from the dead, cold lands that dominate the vast majority of games, books and movies set in a post-apocalyptic world; and nature being the resilient force it is I feel it served as a more likely post-apocalyptic land.

The story was excellent and intriguing, but it's the characters that really stood out. Monkey, Trip and Pigsy are, without doubt, three of the best characters I've come across in gaming and, thanks to some inspired voice acting, brought a rare helping of humanity to proceedings, injecting humour, subtlety, strength, weakness and fragility in convincing fashion.

Sadly it's the core ingredient - the gameplay - where the game falls down. The jumping and clambering around was too simplistic to offer any sense of satisfaction, the combat swung between being dull thanks to the poor and limited selection of tedious mech enemies to frustrating thanks to the ridiculous dynamic camera. And there was plenty of scope for a broader range of moves and upgrades so their absence was disappointing and a missed opportunity. Thought it a bit short too, despite going straight in on hard it took 6, 7 hours to complete. So, yeah, a flawed masterpiece, but a masterpiece nonetheless.

[Uli]

i am close to finishing this and i keep wondering what's so masterful about the game? technically it's mostly last gen, the story is disappointingly stereotypical and the gameplay is becoming repetitive very quickly.

[ExtremePabs]

I played through this over the weekend and have to say it was much better than I expected. I really enjoyed the fight and platforming sections. I also really like the graphical style of the game with the use of a lot of colour.
On the downside there are a couple of chase sequences that were a bit hit and miss and I didn't really like and Trip can be a little annoying sometimes if you just want to have a look round for tech orbs.
Definitely worth a play through and can easily be done over a weekend as its only about 7 hours long.
Does anyone know if Majin is similar to this? the graphical style looks similar but I have missed all reviews.

[Number45]

I think Majin is less of an action game, more of a stealth/puzzler from what I can gather.

[Team Andromeda]

Just finished this and what a brilliant game and totally enjoyable experience it has been . The story is great the cast of characters simply brilliant, with some of the best facial animations I've seen in any video game and the levels well planned and layered out so hope we get a sequel that could irony out some of the games flaws .

Ninja Theory are one of the best developers around imo, so wish MS would ask them to make Kung Fu Chaos II

[SkilloChris]

Has anyone tried the stereo-scopic 3D they added with the DLC? I've already rented and played through this, but I'm tempted to buy now that I have a 3DTV...

[Charlie]

A friend of mine on Live has the 3D DLC and he claims it's pretty good. I'd definitely buy it if I had a 3D TV, though to be honest there's so little 3D gaming content around (on the 360 at least) I'd probably get anything if it was 3D.