It’s a shame when great video games fail to be profitable because they didn’t receive enough sales to make a profit or meet sales expectations. While it’s too late to change the fate of this game, the game should still be discussed instead of letting it fade into obscurity. One of those games is Enslaved: Odyssey To The West. I loved this game which is why I want to let many people know about this game and the only reason this game failed was because it flew under the radar of many gamers.
The first thing I want to cover in this game is the navigation. Not only do you jump long gaps that you wouldn’t expect your character to make but you also jump and climb structures to get around. You could be stumped on where to go next, jumping off something with a leap of faith and end up on the next item that you have to climb up or down.
There is more to the navigation than jumping gaps and climbing structures. You go through the game with a woman named Trip and you’ll have scenarios where one character must distract the enemy so the other character can sneak past the enemy. Your character is named Monkey and while Monkey can climb, there will be situations where there is nothing to climb so Monkey has to launch Trip so she can hit a switch to lower a ladder or something that would allow Monkey to get to where Trip is.
Monkey just doesn’t have Trip on his back when he is about to launch her to a higher platform. One fun part of the game is where Monkey is trying to outrun a boss with Trip on his back.
Monkey also has this cloud that he can float around on but he can’t attack or have Trip on his back while this cloud is activated. Monkey’s simple explanation for the cloud is it works in some areas but not in others. If you find yourself in a situation where you need extra speed or to go over water then the cloud is very useful.
While I covered navigation, you do fight enemies in this game. The first thing you do is get your weapons and items back. After you get your items and weapons back, you attack enemies with a staph. The staph is your main weapon.
You also need to collect orbs because the orbs give you points which you can spend on upgrades. There are other items you use in the game. There are enemy turrets you can use once you get close enough to the turret to use it. For some bigger enemies, you may have to lure them into an environmental hazard because your staph is not effective enough against these bosses.
Your staph can also shoot enemies with plasma blasts to blow enemies up and stun blasts which will disable enemy shiels and stun enemies momentarily. There isn’t a lot of ammo in the game so most of the time you will be using your staph as a melee weapon.
Some enemies will require a takedown that you have to do after beating the enemy up and enemies that require a takedown to be defeated will have a timer over their heads. If that timer runs out then enemies call reinforcements and things just become harder.
There is a part early in the game where Trip has you chase after a dragonfly. When you give Trip a dragonfly, Trip can put a camera on it and when Monkey or Trip aren’t sure what hazards lay ahead, They can send the dragonfly ahead to warn you of any traps that lay ahead. One example of this is when you have to get past a minefield. Trip sends out the dragonfly and thanks to your headband, you can see where the mines are after the dragonfly does its scan but Trip can’t see them so you have to navigate the minefield with Trip on your back.
I don’t have anything bad to say about the controls. I didn’t experience any problems with the controls so there is nothing I would change about the controls.
The story starts with Monkey and Trip being captured Trip can free herself. Trip messes with some computer settings and then you can get out of your prison pod. When Moneky tries to talk to Trip, she runs away but Trip eventually reaches the escape pod on the plane with Monkey stuck on the outside. After the escape pod crashes, Money wakes up and sees Trip, he goes to kill her but she can command you because of a slave headband she put on you while you were knocked out. She tells you that if her heart stops for any reason, the headband will kill you. Trip says if you help her get home, she’ll take the headband off you but she needs protection as she tries to get back home. As you go through the game, you see memories the headband shows you like momentary hallucinations.
When it comes to the graphics, they are just fine. The environments don’t change up a lot especially since you are outside most of the game. However, there are cool visuals in the game like when Monkey finishes off an enemy.
I only have one thing to say about the sound. The voices of Monkey and Trip do pull you into the story like when Monkey yells at Trip..Another example is when Trip finds out what remains of her home. You also see a bond strengthen between Monkey and Trip when Trip asks Monkey to help her get revenge for what happened to her family instead of letting Monkey go. While Trip changed the terms of their original deal, he understands why Trp changed the deal that she and Monkey had.
The gameplay is a lot of fun and the gameplay is mostly easy. I was only stumped a couple of times in the game when I didn’t know where I was supposed to go next. I have no problem with the controls. I found the story of the game interesting. It kept me wanting to see how the story would progress. The graphics were not that good because you are outside most of the game and many of the environments looked the same. The sound was great because I loved the voice acting of Monkey and Trip. The voice actors sounded believable in their roles and the story would not have been as interesting if the voice actors had not done a good job. So I give Enslaved: Odyssey To The West on Xbox 360 9 out of 10. There were a couple of things that annoyed me but I recommend that if you have a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 then you should find a copy of this game.
Jimmy's Deals 