Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Grows on you"

With Enslaved: Odyssey to the West the UK based studio Ninja Theory establishes itself as a game developer that puts great focus on Character Development and Emotion, always delivering an experience and story that will make you play as if you were part of the universe, as well as care about the characters as if they were real.
In 2007 when the studio released Heavenly Sword it was pretty clear that the believability of the characters was the focus, and now this is also true with Enslaved, where Trip and Monkey, the main characters, have a relationship that evolves through the course of the game, and their features - great face animations, stellar voice work, and awesome writing - make this relationship almost real.
As it is to be expected also the Story is very gripping and offers great motivation for the player, offering a great narrative that doesn't distract from gameplay and some closure at the ending - and what an ending, may I add.

Now to the problems, as every game has them.
The fact that the story and characters are so great may be seen by some as the reason because the gameplay - mainly combat - isn't as interesting as it could be. Don't get me wrong though, the combat is immersive and satisfactory, but at some points it feels a bit simplistic, giving the impression that it hasn't reached it's true potential.
Another problem during combat is the camera. As soon as you start attacking an enemy the camera will zoom in into the action, and at some points loose the other enemies around you. This can be problematic, even more on higher difficulties.
The movement controls work fine, but sometimes Monkey moves too fast and that can put the player on uncomfortable situations, like walking straight into a mine or off a platform. But with practice this issue almost becomes non-existent.

Enslaved will provide you around 10 hours of gameplay your first time through - maybe less if you don't explore at least a little. But there isn't much replay value on this one, except for the collectibles (masks, that will provide you with story elements and explain the events that caused the destruction of modern society; and energy orbs, that will help you upgrade - except for the fact that you get those after defeating enemies, meaning the collectible ones are only useful to unlock trophies/achievements) and different difficulties.

To sum it up I consider this game's story and characters some of the best of this current generation, but the unimpressive combat may turn some people away from this great experience. A Must-buy for those who value Story/Characters over Combat.