Game Reviews

"Your main character is named Monkey and he doesn't wear a shirt."

That was all I knew about Enslaved: Odyssey to the West about a week ago. But as I do before most review assignments I read up on the game from our previews section and learned that Enslaved is loosely based on the classic Chinese novel "Journey to the West," features the talented team from Ninja Theory (who previously created Heavenly Sword and who will be creating the next Devil May Cry), and Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings, King Kong) stars as the main character, Monkey -- Serkis also serves as a cut-scene director and lends his motion capture talents to the project. There, now you're all caught up as well.

Enslaved takes the standard, post-apocalyptic videogame setting and mixes in a batch of steam punk and heavy science fiction for its stylized world. But as gorgeous as the levels look, it's the characters, dialog, and story (co-written by Alex Garland, who wrote 28 Days Later, The Beach and Sunshine) that pull it all together...even when portions of the game become repetitious.

Monkey, after a daring escape from a crashing slave ship, finds himself irrevocably attached to Trip, his companion for Enslaved's journey. She's able to control Monkey via a headband through which the two are bound -- if she dies, he dies, so he must follow her commands. Her motives for enslaving Monkey are simple: she needs help and protection to traverse the wasteland back to her homeland. The story becomes more complex as the game goes on, though, and it includes one of the more thought-provoking endings I've experienced in recent memory.