Enslaved (video game)
Encyclopedia
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is an action adventure
platform game
developed by Ninja Theory
and published by Namco Bandai Games
. It was released on PlayStation 3
and Xbox 360
on October 5, October 7 and October 8, 2010 in North America, Australia, Japan and Europe respectively.
The story is a re-imagining of the ancient Chinese story Journey to the West
by Wu Cheng'en
, one of the Four Great Classical Novels
of China. Unlike the original story that was set in a fantastical version of ancient China, the game is set 150 years in a future post-apocalyptic world following a global war, with only remnants of humanity left, along with the still active war machines left over from the conflict. Like the original story however, the plot revolves around someone who forces the help and protection of a warrior, with many characters sharing the same names and roles. The game's story was written by Alex Garland
, with voice talent and motion capture from Andy Serkis
and Lindsey Shaw
.
-like shield that can block certain amounts of damage before requiring a recharge and the "Cloud" device that manifests as a hover board that can be used to glide across the water or land at great speeds, gaining speed if it passes over blue orbs of energy littered across the area. Other than combat, the gameplay also heavily focuses on platforming where Monkey can scale and leap across the ruins throughout the game. Some areas and platforms will collapse shortly after, requiring faster scaling before potentially falling to his death.
During the game, Monkey is accompanied by Tripitaka, or simply "Trip" who is to be escorted and protected as they travel. Monkey has a device attached to his head that is linked to Trip, that if killed can result in Monkey's own death. In some instances even just going too far away from her can result in the same fate. Trip however helps at times to overcome obstacles, some of which are performed upon command of the player. During key sections, Trip scans the surrounding area revealing hazards such as landmines or mechs on standby, allowing the player at times to attempt to avoid combat altogether. Trip can also project a temporary hologram to draw the enemy's attention away from Monkey as a decoy. In instances where Trip herself can be attacked by enemies, she can only initially protect herself from harm using a quick counter attack to stun them, other than this Monkey must fight them off when needed. Trip also plays a part in the platforming sections of the gameplay. While she is not as athletic as Monkey, she can crawl through small spaces and can be thrown up to platforms out of his jumping range, along with flipping switches out of his reach, making some sections of platforming more akin to puzzle
-like forms of gameplay. Other instances where Monkey can make jumps/climbs, Trip instead will need to be thrown to the other side or ride on his back. Some sections of the game have Monkey and Trip separated, thus disallowing the use of her abilities for the player.
When enemies are defeated, they drop tech orbs that can be used to upgrade Monkey's abilities, allowing the player to learn new moves and abilities for combat and devices, along with increasing overall health and shields and damage that can be inflicted on enemies. Orbs can also be found littered across levels, sometimes hidden out of noticeable sight, requiring extra exploration at times.
The game opens with the main character, Monkey (Andy Serkis
), awakening in a containment cell aboard a slave ship just as the vessel is about to crash. He and a woman named Trip (Lindsey Shaw
) leave the ship via escape pod, but when he regains consciousness after a fall, he discovers that she has placed a slave headband on him, which forces him to follow her orders and that if Trip dies, so does Monkey. Trip explains that she wants to return to her village, which is 300 miles away, and that she needs his help to get there. Monkey is angry, but complies when he realizes that he has no choice. The two travel across New York City towards the crash site, where Monkey hopes to recover his motorcycle. Along the way, glitches in the headband expose him to visions of what appears to be life before the war.
After visiting the crash site, the two travel the rest of the way on Monkey's motorcycle, but when they reach Trip's village, the place is deserted and overrun with mechs. After clearing the village of them, Monkey and Trip break into the safe room where they believe survivors are hiding, only to discover that Trip's father is dead and no other villagers can be found. Assuming everyone to be dead, Trip breaks her promise and refuses to remove Monkey's headband, explaining her intent to find and kill the person responsible.
Trip takes Monkey to meet up with a friend of her father's named Pigsy (Richard Ridings
), whom she believes can help them. Pigsy agrees to join them, and explains that a nearby mech base is currently housing an enormous and incredibly powerful weapon called the Leviathan. He gets a flying vehicle up and running, and the three follow a slave ship all the way to the base where the Leviathan is being held. They infiltrate the base, break the restraints off of the Leviathan, commandeer it and steer it in the direction of Pyramid, where the slaves are being held. Along the way, Trip apologizes to Monkey for breaking her deal and deactivates the headband, but Monkey tells her to turn it back on.
When the Leviathan reaches Pyramid, they are confronted with several giant scorpion-shaped mechs. The Leviathan's main cannon fends them off for a while, but one eventually climbs aboard and tears the cannon off, forcing Monkey to destroy the mech himself. With the Leviathan now defenseless and surrounded, Pigsy announces that the only way for them to destroy the opposing mechs is for him to overload the engines, which would blow up the Leviathan and kill Pigsy in the process. Trip frantically tries to convince him not to, but Pigsy demands that Monkey take her away from the blast radius, and Monkey complies. They make it away just in time to watch the Leviathan explode, bringing down all of Pyramid's mechs with it.
In the epilogue, Monkey and Trip enter Pyramid and discover that the slaves are under the control of a single individual. The man introduces himself as Pyramid (Andy Serkis) and explains that he lived before the war, and that he offers the slaves solace from the cruel world by sharing with them his memories of a happier era. He believes he is saving them, and pleads with Monkey and Trip not to take away what he has given them. Monkey recognizes the memories as the visions he'd been seeing with the headband on. Pyramid shows Monkey what he has given the slaves through a mask. Monkey becomes enthralled with the images, but Trip violently disconnects and kills Pyramid, shutting down the system and freeing the slaves. The scene ends with Trip asking Monkey if she did the right thing, leaving those in the pyramid and their future unknown.
. Serkis first involved himself with the studio as motion capture was becoming more prominent in video games. The gameplay was developed to include more variety than their last projects, with multiple approaches to scenarios, such as stealth to avoid combat altogether and/or using Trip's own abilities to their advantage. The design choice behind this according to creative director Tameem Antionades was to make portions of the gameplay more "tactical", being at times "a puzzle game in disguise" outside of the actual puzzle portions of gameplay. The combat itself opted less for the combination-style of attacks in most combat-heavy action games, being more accessible/stream-lined while including the different abilities, equipment, enemy types and scenarios to not become too easy either, still requiring thought. The involvement of Trip was to not make her a "dead-weight" to the gameplay, with her abilities instead being helpful with her own unique abilities, making her the "brains" while Monkey is the "brute".
The use of motion capture was considered by Serkis to be akin to that in film where it supposedly helps craft a story in a virtual world. With the same method being carried over from their development on Heavenly Sword, the studio utilized the motion capture to benefit the story and characters, particularity with facial animations to capture better realistic emotions. The technology itself was said to be advanced, even requiring a mathematician for the more complex portions of coding. Beyond facial animation, most of the motion capture was utilized prominently during the cut-scenes as many of the actions within the gameplay itself were considered "physically impossible". Serkis felt that the motion capture also allowed for better performances in the dialogue itself; that "if you don’t feel in the moment of filming that the character is moving you or engaging you or transporting you somewhere, it won't work. So you take that right into the recording of the dialogue. So it's about trying to keep that dynamic - that relationship on stage - going, rather than having this scenario that normal games have where you just go to the booth and record your lines."
by Wu Cheng'en
, one of the Four Great Classical Novels
of China, where two characters of the same name; Monkey and Tripitaka must travel across a landscape with Monkey also at command, the novel being used more as a basis on the plot rather than a straight adaptation. One of the more important aspects of the script was the characterization and interaction. In regards to character relationships in video games, with other mentioned examples including 2001 PlayStation 2 game Ico
, chief of development Nina Kristensen described theirs as at first opposites whose relationship evolves as they learn to rely on each other in the hostile setting. The script itself was for durations developed separately before joining with the gameplay developers in order to "mesh" both the story and gameplay. In order to achieve this a cinematologist was employed to teach editing, camera and film language techniques. Such techniques along with the use of music were used to in order to make coherent transitions between cut-scenes and gameplay.
offered a downloadable extra costume for Monkey called Ninja Monkey that came with "rare stun and plasma blast staff ammo", while Walmart offered a "Classic Monkey" costume based on the original tale's protagonist and Best Buy
offered a robot skin for Trip, both with their own perks. Amazon.com
however offered the official soundtrack to the game while Target Corporation
offered a miniature paper back comic.
In the UK, other retailers and websites like GAME
and Play.com
offered similar bonuses while HMV
released the "Talent Pack", which came in an exclusive presentation packaging and included the official soundtrack and a copy of the novel The Tesseract written by Alex Garland. Across Europe, a "Collector's Edition" was also released that featured both the soundtrack and a hard-back art book of concept art and character and level designs. The game itself was finally released on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on 5 October and 8 October 2010 in North America and Europe respectively.
gave the Xbox 360
version 83.66% and 82/100, and the PlayStation 3
version 82.23% and 80/100.
Much of the praise was directed at the art style, described by McKinley Noble of GamePro
as "vividly detailed... that teem with color and light", that "for a post-apocalyptic world, Enslaved shines with gorgeous landscapes, bright scenery, and colorful environments. It's a world where nature is slowly growing over the ruins of the modern age, and the levels all look incredibly vibrant as a result." Edge echoed this view in what they felt was the game's "greatest achievement, standing out in the crowded field of me-too, colour-sapped videogame apocalypses, serving as a vibrant oasis in the otherwise murky brown wastes." Along with the colourful, detailed setting, further praise came from the characters themselves, particularly their dialogue and facial animations. Matthew Keast of GamesRadar
felt that "what Enslaved represents is a more mature approach to storytelling, and by being more subtle (and even ambiguous in many of its character’s reactions to each other) it develops quite an emotional payoff", summarizing that it was "a game to justify the gaming medium as legitimate for storytelling". Game Trailers also praised "the voicework and motion capture, much of which bears the mark of the inimitable Andy Serkis, is several notches above what you'd expect from a game. The characters frequently sell you on their humanity with subtle facial gestures, which is truly a superb achievement."
In regards to the combat, while Jim Sterling of Destructoid
called it "varied enough despite the simplicity of the commands", the more positive aspects came from "the interactions between Monkey and Trip that really put Enslaved ahead", along with Monkey's cloud disk that "it's so easy for "vehicular" sections of an action game to fall apart, but by keeping the controls for both Monkey and the Cloud uniform, Ninja Theory has crafted an excellent little steed for our nimble hero". Tom Mc Shea of GameSpot
felt that "neither the combat nor the platforming are great on their own, but smart pacing ensures that you're always experiencing something new. Thrilling set-piece sequences are injected between the standard action fare, which create rousing moments of unbridled excitement." Arthur Gies of IGN
however felt that the controls were "loose" at times, along with "charitable" platforming being more of puzzle-based portion of the gameplay and relatively non-hazardous.
Some critics found a number of technical issues at times, reportedly being more prevalent in the PS3 version, including jagged textures and some characters missing during cutscenes.
Since the player takes the role of Pigsy, the gameplay has also changed due to his difference in character and build compared to Monkey. While Pigsy can still climb over terrain, he cannot scale buildings as fast or athletically. Instead, Pigsy utilizes a mechanical grappling hand attached to his own to reach higher places and swing over obstacles and large gaps. When in combat, without the same fighting skills as Monkey, Pigsy instead wields a long-ranged rifle and grenades. Stealth is also a preferable approach to gameplay, requiring at times to avoid combat altogether.
Action-adventure game
An action-adventure game is a video game that combines elements of the adventure game genre with various action game elements. It is perhaps the broadest and most diverse genre in gaming, and can include many games which might better be categorized under narrow genres...
platform game
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
developed by Ninja Theory
Ninja Theory
Ninja Theory, Ltd. is a video game developer based in Cambridge, England. Originally founded as Just Add Monsters in March 2000, the company was purchased by former Argonaut Games CEO Jez San in November 2004...
and published by Namco Bandai Games
Namco Bandai Games
is an arcade, mobile and home video game developer and publisher based in Japan which is the product of a merger between the video game development divisions of Bandai and Namco. Namco Bandai Games is a wholly owned subsidiary of Namco Bandai Holdings and specializes in production and sales of...
. It was released on PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
on October 5, October 7 and October 8, 2010 in North America, Australia, Japan and Europe respectively.
The story is a re-imagining of the ancient Chinese story Journey to the West
Journey to the West
Journey to the West is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. It was written by Wu Cheng'en in the 16th century. In English-speaking countries, the tale is also often known simply as Monkey. This was one title used for a popular, abridged translation by Arthur Waley...
by Wu Cheng'en
Wu Cheng'en
Wu Cheng'en , courtesy name Ruzhong , pen name "Sheyang Hermit," was a Chinese novelist and poet of the Ming Dynasty, best known for being the attributed author of one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, Journey to the West.-Biography:Wu was born in Lianshui, in Jiangsu...
, one of the Four Great Classical Novels
Four Great Classical Novels
The Four Great Classical Novels, or the Four Major Classical Novels of Chinese literature, are the four novels commonly regarded by scholars to be the greatest and most influential of pre-modern Chinese fiction. Dating from the Ming and Qing dynasties, they are well known to most Chinese readers...
of China. Unlike the original story that was set in a fantastical version of ancient China, the game is set 150 years in a future post-apocalyptic world following a global war, with only remnants of humanity left, along with the still active war machines left over from the conflict. Like the original story however, the plot revolves around someone who forces the help and protection of a warrior, with many characters sharing the same names and roles. The game's story was written by Alex Garland
Alex Garland
Alexander Medawar "Alex" Garland is a British novelist and screenwriter.-Early life:Garland was born in London, England, the son of psychoanalyst Caroline and political cartoonist Nicholas Garland. His maternal grandparents were zoologist Peter Medawar and author Jean Medawar...
, with voice talent and motion capture from Andy Serkis
Andy Serkis
Andrew Clement G. "Andy" Serkis is an English actor, director and author. He is popularly known for playing Gollum in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, for which he earned several award nominations, including the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Two Towers...
and Lindsey Shaw
Lindsey Shaw
Lindsey Marie Shaw is an American actress. She is known for her starring television roles as Jennifer "Moze" Ann Mosely on Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide and as Claire Tolchuck on Aliens in America.-Career:...
.
Gameplay
The player takes the role of "Monkey" in a third person perspective, using a variety of combat moves and platforming skills to overcome obstacles. In combat, Monkey utilizes a staff that doubles as both a close-combat and long range projectile weapon. The staff has two forms of long-range ammunition in the form of power cylinders: orange cylinders used for blast damage and blue cylinders used for stunning foes. Monkey can also stay stationary and charge his staff to use the same stun attack in close-combat. Enemies come in different varieties of combat mech, some of which may have shields and can only be damaged after being stunned while others cannot be stunned at all, requiring different approaches to combat. Certain mechs can also be used as weapons- Monkey can perform a finishing move on them when they are low on health, such as tearing the gun off a turret or throwing an explosive foe at other combat mechs. Other abilities of Monkey's include his force fieldForce field
A force field, sometimes known as an energy shield, force shield, or deflector shield is a concept of a field tightly bounded and of significant magnitude so that objects affected by the particular force relating to the field are unable to pass through the central axis of the field and reach the...
-like shield that can block certain amounts of damage before requiring a recharge and the "Cloud" device that manifests as a hover board that can be used to glide across the water or land at great speeds, gaining speed if it passes over blue orbs of energy littered across the area. Other than combat, the gameplay also heavily focuses on platforming where Monkey can scale and leap across the ruins throughout the game. Some areas and platforms will collapse shortly after, requiring faster scaling before potentially falling to his death.
During the game, Monkey is accompanied by Tripitaka, or simply "Trip" who is to be escorted and protected as they travel. Monkey has a device attached to his head that is linked to Trip, that if killed can result in Monkey's own death. In some instances even just going too far away from her can result in the same fate. Trip however helps at times to overcome obstacles, some of which are performed upon command of the player. During key sections, Trip scans the surrounding area revealing hazards such as landmines or mechs on standby, allowing the player at times to attempt to avoid combat altogether. Trip can also project a temporary hologram to draw the enemy's attention away from Monkey as a decoy. In instances where Trip herself can be attacked by enemies, she can only initially protect herself from harm using a quick counter attack to stun them, other than this Monkey must fight them off when needed. Trip also plays a part in the platforming sections of the gameplay. While she is not as athletic as Monkey, she can crawl through small spaces and can be thrown up to platforms out of his jumping range, along with flipping switches out of his reach, making some sections of platforming more akin to puzzle
Puzzle
A puzzle is a problem or enigma that tests the ingenuity of the solver. In a basic puzzle, one is intended to put together pieces in a logical way in order to come up with the desired solution...
-like forms of gameplay. Other instances where Monkey can make jumps/climbs, Trip instead will need to be thrown to the other side or ride on his back. Some sections of the game have Monkey and Trip separated, thus disallowing the use of her abilities for the player.
When enemies are defeated, they drop tech orbs that can be used to upgrade Monkey's abilities, allowing the player to learn new moves and abilities for combat and devices, along with increasing overall health and shields and damage that can be inflicted on enemies. Orbs can also be found littered across levels, sometimes hidden out of noticeable sight, requiring extra exploration at times.
Plot
Enslaved is a story set 150 years in the future where a global war has ravaged the Earth, destroying much of the human race and leaving the world to be plagued by robots left over from the conflict, known as "mechs". Although they are from a bygone era, they are still following their programming and seek to completely eradicate humanity.The game opens with the main character, Monkey (Andy Serkis
Andy Serkis
Andrew Clement G. "Andy" Serkis is an English actor, director and author. He is popularly known for playing Gollum in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, for which he earned several award nominations, including the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Two Towers...
), awakening in a containment cell aboard a slave ship just as the vessel is about to crash. He and a woman named Trip (Lindsey Shaw
Lindsey Shaw
Lindsey Marie Shaw is an American actress. She is known for her starring television roles as Jennifer "Moze" Ann Mosely on Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide and as Claire Tolchuck on Aliens in America.-Career:...
) leave the ship via escape pod, but when he regains consciousness after a fall, he discovers that she has placed a slave headband on him, which forces him to follow her orders and that if Trip dies, so does Monkey. Trip explains that she wants to return to her village, which is 300 miles away, and that she needs his help to get there. Monkey is angry, but complies when he realizes that he has no choice. The two travel across New York City towards the crash site, where Monkey hopes to recover his motorcycle. Along the way, glitches in the headband expose him to visions of what appears to be life before the war.
After visiting the crash site, the two travel the rest of the way on Monkey's motorcycle, but when they reach Trip's village, the place is deserted and overrun with mechs. After clearing the village of them, Monkey and Trip break into the safe room where they believe survivors are hiding, only to discover that Trip's father is dead and no other villagers can be found. Assuming everyone to be dead, Trip breaks her promise and refuses to remove Monkey's headband, explaining her intent to find and kill the person responsible.
Trip takes Monkey to meet up with a friend of her father's named Pigsy (Richard Ridings
Richard Ridings
Richard Ridings is a British actor and is best known for his portrayal of Allan Ashburn in the ITV television drama Fat Friends, and for playing Bernard Green in the BBC1 comedy-drama Common as Muck. He trained as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.Ridings was born in...
), whom she believes can help them. Pigsy agrees to join them, and explains that a nearby mech base is currently housing an enormous and incredibly powerful weapon called the Leviathan. He gets a flying vehicle up and running, and the three follow a slave ship all the way to the base where the Leviathan is being held. They infiltrate the base, break the restraints off of the Leviathan, commandeer it and steer it in the direction of Pyramid, where the slaves are being held. Along the way, Trip apologizes to Monkey for breaking her deal and deactivates the headband, but Monkey tells her to turn it back on.
When the Leviathan reaches Pyramid, they are confronted with several giant scorpion-shaped mechs. The Leviathan's main cannon fends them off for a while, but one eventually climbs aboard and tears the cannon off, forcing Monkey to destroy the mech himself. With the Leviathan now defenseless and surrounded, Pigsy announces that the only way for them to destroy the opposing mechs is for him to overload the engines, which would blow up the Leviathan and kill Pigsy in the process. Trip frantically tries to convince him not to, but Pigsy demands that Monkey take her away from the blast radius, and Monkey complies. They make it away just in time to watch the Leviathan explode, bringing down all of Pyramid's mechs with it.
In the epilogue, Monkey and Trip enter Pyramid and discover that the slaves are under the control of a single individual. The man introduces himself as Pyramid (Andy Serkis) and explains that he lived before the war, and that he offers the slaves solace from the cruel world by sharing with them his memories of a happier era. He believes he is saving them, and pleads with Monkey and Trip not to take away what he has given them. Monkey recognizes the memories as the visions he'd been seeing with the headband on. Pyramid shows Monkey what he has given the slaves through a mask. Monkey becomes enthralled with the images, but Trip violently disconnects and kills Pyramid, shutting down the system and freeing the slaves. The scene ends with Trip asking Monkey if she did the right thing, leaving those in the pyramid and their future unknown.
Development
Enslaved was first announced in September 2009, initially as just "Enslaved" for release on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2010, revealing the plot, first screenshots and other details including the involved Andy Serkis and Alex Garland, the fomer having worked on Ninja Theory's previous title Heavenly SwordHeavenly Sword
Heavenly Sword is a video game developed by Ninja Theory exclusively for the PlayStation 3 console and published by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe...
. Serkis first involved himself with the studio as motion capture was becoming more prominent in video games. The gameplay was developed to include more variety than their last projects, with multiple approaches to scenarios, such as stealth to avoid combat altogether and/or using Trip's own abilities to their advantage. The design choice behind this according to creative director Tameem Antionades was to make portions of the gameplay more "tactical", being at times "a puzzle game in disguise" outside of the actual puzzle portions of gameplay. The combat itself opted less for the combination-style of attacks in most combat-heavy action games, being more accessible/stream-lined while including the different abilities, equipment, enemy types and scenarios to not become too easy either, still requiring thought. The involvement of Trip was to not make her a "dead-weight" to the gameplay, with her abilities instead being helpful with her own unique abilities, making her the "brains" while Monkey is the "brute".
The use of motion capture was considered by Serkis to be akin to that in film where it supposedly helps craft a story in a virtual world. With the same method being carried over from their development on Heavenly Sword, the studio utilized the motion capture to benefit the story and characters, particularity with facial animations to capture better realistic emotions. The technology itself was said to be advanced, even requiring a mathematician for the more complex portions of coding. Beyond facial animation, most of the motion capture was utilized prominently during the cut-scenes as many of the actions within the gameplay itself were considered "physically impossible". Serkis felt that the motion capture also allowed for better performances in the dialogue itself; that "if you don’t feel in the moment of filming that the character is moving you or engaging you or transporting you somewhere, it won't work. So you take that right into the recording of the dialogue. So it's about trying to keep that dynamic - that relationship on stage - going, rather than having this scenario that normal games have where you just go to the booth and record your lines."
Writing
One of the key aspects of the development according to creative director Tameem Antionades was "trying to change the course of gaming in terms of storytelling, with emotionally engaging characters". Serkis was involved in the development of Enslaved from the beginning while Garland came involved 6 months later yet was fully involved in the script as previously only concept and character designs were created thus far. The story itself however is originally based on Journey to the WestJourney to the West
Journey to the West is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. It was written by Wu Cheng'en in the 16th century. In English-speaking countries, the tale is also often known simply as Monkey. This was one title used for a popular, abridged translation by Arthur Waley...
by Wu Cheng'en
Wu Cheng'en
Wu Cheng'en , courtesy name Ruzhong , pen name "Sheyang Hermit," was a Chinese novelist and poet of the Ming Dynasty, best known for being the attributed author of one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, Journey to the West.-Biography:Wu was born in Lianshui, in Jiangsu...
, one of the Four Great Classical Novels
Four Great Classical Novels
The Four Great Classical Novels, or the Four Major Classical Novels of Chinese literature, are the four novels commonly regarded by scholars to be the greatest and most influential of pre-modern Chinese fiction. Dating from the Ming and Qing dynasties, they are well known to most Chinese readers...
of China, where two characters of the same name; Monkey and Tripitaka must travel across a landscape with Monkey also at command, the novel being used more as a basis on the plot rather than a straight adaptation. One of the more important aspects of the script was the characterization and interaction. In regards to character relationships in video games, with other mentioned examples including 2001 PlayStation 2 game Ico
Ico
is an action-adventure game published by Sony Computer Entertainment and released for the PlayStation 2 video game console. It was designed and directed by Fumito Ueda, who wanted to create a minimalist game around a "boy meets girl" concept. Originally planned for the PlayStation, Ico took...
, chief of development Nina Kristensen described theirs as at first opposites whose relationship evolves as they learn to rely on each other in the hostile setting. The script itself was for durations developed separately before joining with the gameplay developers in order to "mesh" both the story and gameplay. In order to achieve this a cinematologist was employed to teach editing, camera and film language techniques. Such techniques along with the use of music were used to in order to make coherent transitions between cut-scenes and gameplay.
Release
Prior to the game's release, a playable demo was released over Xbox Live and PlayStation Network on 21 September 2010. The demo features the first playable chapter of the game where Monkey escapes the crashing slave ship, the level also acting as a tutorial for the gameplay mechanics. Along with the standard edition of the game, various video game and general retailers offered exclusive extra content to those who pre-ordered the game. In North America alone, there were five different versions depending on the retailer. EB Games Canada and GameStopGameStop
GameStop Corporation is an American video game and entertainment software retailer. The company, whose headquarters is in Grapevine, Texas, United States, operates 6,500 retail stores throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New...
offered a downloadable extra costume for Monkey called Ninja Monkey that came with "rare stun and plasma blast staff ammo", while Walmart offered a "Classic Monkey" costume based on the original tale's protagonist and Best Buy
Best Buy
Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States, accounting for 19% of the market. It also operates in Mexico, Canada & China. The company's subsidiaries include Geek Squad, CinemaNow, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, and, in Canada operates...
offered a robot skin for Trip, both with their own perks. Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
however offered the official soundtrack to the game while Target Corporation
Target Corporation
Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...
offered a miniature paper back comic.
In the UK, other retailers and websites like GAME
GAME (retailer)
The Game Group plc is a British video games retail company. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index....
and Play.com
Play.com
Play Ltd., trading as Play.com, is a Jersey-based online retailer of DVDs, CDs, books, gadgets, video games, DRM-free MP3 downloads, and other electronic products, as well as clothes and accessories. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Rakuten Group....
offered similar bonuses while HMV
HMV
His Master's Voice is a trademark in the music business, and for many years was the name of a large record label. The name was coined in 1899 as the title of a painting of the dog Nipper listening to a wind-up gramophone...
released the "Talent Pack", which came in an exclusive presentation packaging and included the official soundtrack and a copy of the novel The Tesseract written by Alex Garland. Across Europe, a "Collector's Edition" was also released that featured both the soundtrack and a hard-back art book of concept art and character and level designs. The game itself was finally released on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on 5 October and 8 October 2010 in North America and Europe respectively.
Reception
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West has received positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
gave the Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
version 83.66% and 82/100, and the PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
version 82.23% and 80/100.
Much of the praise was directed at the art style, described by McKinley Noble of GamePro
GamePro
GamePro Media was a United States gaming media company publishing online and print content on the video game industry, video game hardware, and video game software developed for a video game console , a computer, and/or a mobile device . GamePro Media properties include GamePro magazine and...
as "vividly detailed... that teem with color and light", that "for a post-apocalyptic world, Enslaved shines with gorgeous landscapes, bright scenery, and colorful environments. It's a world where nature is slowly growing over the ruins of the modern age, and the levels all look incredibly vibrant as a result." Edge echoed this view in what they felt was the game's "greatest achievement, standing out in the crowded field of me-too, colour-sapped videogame apocalypses, serving as a vibrant oasis in the otherwise murky brown wastes." Along with the colourful, detailed setting, further praise came from the characters themselves, particularly their dialogue and facial animations. Matthew Keast of GamesRadar
GamesRadar
GamesRadar is a multi-format video game website featuring regular news, previews, reviews, videos, and guides. It is owned and operated simultaneously in the UK and US by worldwide publisher Future Publishing...
felt that "what Enslaved represents is a more mature approach to storytelling, and by being more subtle (and even ambiguous in many of its character’s reactions to each other) it develops quite an emotional payoff", summarizing that it was "a game to justify the gaming medium as legitimate for storytelling". Game Trailers also praised "the voicework and motion capture, much of which bears the mark of the inimitable Andy Serkis, is several notches above what you'd expect from a game. The characters frequently sell you on their humanity with subtle facial gestures, which is truly a superb achievement."
In regards to the combat, while Jim Sterling of Destructoid
Destructoid
Destructoid is an independent video game-focused blog based in San Francisco, California that was founded in March 2006. It has since grown into one of the most widely read video game sites on the Internet, reaching more than 3 million unique visitors per month...
called it "varied enough despite the simplicity of the commands", the more positive aspects came from "the interactions between Monkey and Trip that really put Enslaved ahead", along with Monkey's cloud disk that "it's so easy for "vehicular" sections of an action game to fall apart, but by keeping the controls for both Monkey and the Cloud uniform, Ninja Theory has crafted an excellent little steed for our nimble hero". Tom Mc Shea of GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
felt that "neither the combat nor the platforming are great on their own, but smart pacing ensures that you're always experiencing something new. Thrilling set-piece sequences are injected between the standard action fare, which create rousing moments of unbridled excitement." Arthur Gies of IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
however felt that the controls were "loose" at times, along with "charitable" platforming being more of puzzle-based portion of the gameplay and relatively non-hazardous.
Some critics found a number of technical issues at times, reportedly being more prevalent in the PS3 version, including jagged textures and some characters missing during cutscenes.
Sales
Namco Bandai hoped Enslaved would have sold a million units by November 2010, but the game sold only 460,000 copies.Pigsy's Perfect 10
Pigsy's Perfect 10 is a downloadable expansion to Enslaved. Acting as a prequel to the main story where players take control of the character Pigsy, being a side-story than directly linked to not interfere with the events of the main game that followed. In addition to the new chapters, the DLC also provides the option to display and play through both the main game and add-on in stereoscopic 3D. It uses the TriOviz for Games Technology which allows to display the game in three dimensions on 3D-HDTV set (via HDMI 1.3 or HDMI 1.4 connection) as well as on traditional 2D-HDTV set with the Inficolor 3D glasses. The DLC was first released on both platforms on November 23, 2010.Since the player takes the role of Pigsy, the gameplay has also changed due to his difference in character and build compared to Monkey. While Pigsy can still climb over terrain, he cannot scale buildings as fast or athletically. Instead, Pigsy utilizes a mechanical grappling hand attached to his own to reach higher places and swing over obstacles and large gaps. When in combat, without the same fighting skills as Monkey, Pigsy instead wields a long-ranged rifle and grenades. Stealth is also a preferable approach to gameplay, requiring at times to avoid combat altogether.