➤ Traveling with the monkey 🎮

Version tested: PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West it took some time to put itself in the spotlight of the video game world. At the beginning it was, simply, the new work of Ninja Theory, those guys from Cambridge who with Heavenly Sword had aroused a lot of interest with a title with an excellent graphic layout, but plagued by too short, to maintain the very high expectations that had been set. created around. This time the opposite happened, with a game that through a series of tests has been able to make its way into the imagination of journalists and players, always kissed by an artistic care and an attention to style which, apparently, distinguishes every Ninja Theory production.

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, right from the premise, it is an ambitious project since it is the action transposition of that same story, Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en, from which a thousand variations have been drawn, not least Akira Toryiama's Dragon Ball. Only this time the novel is bent to the inspiration of probable human characters, full of emotions, who move into a future devastated by the aftermath of a nuclear war, in which a threatening congregation of slaveholders sifts what remains of the surviving men to kidnap them. and subjugate them to a mysterious will.

Monkey e Trip

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West opens with the two protagonists trapped aboard one of the slave ships, at least until Trip, a heroine with the ability to manipulate even the most complicated technologies, causes an energy overload that also frees Monkey, the active protagonist warrior of the game. After a daring escape, they both end up in a New York covered by a virgin forest and completely deserted, if not for the deadly robots scattered everywhere, which have long since turned against their creators, killing them on sight. The whole adventure is based on the dichotomy between the two heroes, with Trip being too weak to be able to survive the journey that separates her from reaching her father's village, from which she was kidnapped, and therefore manipulating one of the bands of which they use the slavers to subjugate the humans to ensure that Monkey is inextricably linked to her. If Trip dies, Monkey dies. Behind the promise to free him once he reaches his destination, a journey begins that passes through beautiful settings, emotionally touching moments, even funny, and the meeting of bizarre characters.

In fact, for those who remember it, in addition to the little monkey and the Buddhist monk (who here is the beautiful Trip) there was also a pig, who here becomes the sniper Pigsie, whose figure is soon resolved in the ironic counterpart of the trio, lightening otherwise too dramatic atmospheres. Without wishing to talk about one of the most successful aspects of Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, that is the care with which the relationships between his characters are built.
The player directly controls Monkey, who is entrusted with all the fights and interactions with the seabed, in which a series of red spheres are scattered which are used to accumulate the credits necessary to develop his skills, divided between the power of the shield, the efficiency of the energy stick, which also fires stun and plasma shots, the unlocking of a series of increasingly powerful moves and the increase of life energy. Trip follows him through the levels, asking for help only when it comes to reaching higher parts or crossing chasms that are too deep, literally letting himself be launched to overcome them. It can also be taken on the neck at any time and not only when the conformation of the maps requires it, so that a real bond is soon created between the player and our heroes. Pressing L1 activates a submenu with which to give simple orders to Trip, which can draw the enemies' attention to itself, allowing Monkey to advance unnoticed by the robots, and activate on its behalf the levers and gears necessary to solve the environmental puzzles that constitute one of the elements around which all the gameplay revolves.

Curiosity

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is full of references to steampunk, a literary genre that developed mainly in the 80s born around the idea of an alternative future in which Victorian steam-powered gadgets evolved towards imaginative innovations, often in a world devastated by cataclysms, starting from the previous technological visions of writers such as Giulio Verne. One of the authors that we recommend, to those who fall in love with this atmosphere, is Tim Powers, a leading exponent of the movement who has even influenced the Final Fantasy saga, with two novels: The Doors of Anubis, a true masterpiece of the genre, and Invito at the Palazzo del Deviante. They are difficult to find, but above all the second seems to be a literary version of the game, due to the setting and the air you breathe there.

Fighting, platforming and puzzles

Clashes with robots are one of the pivotal moments of Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. Monkey has at his disposal a series of strikes with his bare hands and the combos that he performs by interspersing the use of the energy stick which, when it lights up, can release a devastating rotated move. The robots are able to parry themselves, and with the stick, holding the square for the necessary time, a stun blow is charged that opens the guard allowing you to put one fist after another. By leveling up, you unlock a dodge, a counterattack and the ability to use the stick as a real sniper rifle, capable of firing plasma armor-piercing shots and stun bullets, since the simple fighting game alternates sections in which it is it is essential to clean up the seabed staying at a safe distance from enemies. The artificial intelligence of the robots is unfortunately low, since they limit themselves almost exclusively to coming under and being filled with sticks. I mean, to be a beat'em up most of the time, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West it does not offer a great challenge and at the end of the adventure the deaths during the clashes can be counted on the fingertips of one hand ... of Pigsie, who, like a good pig, has only three fingers. Different is the discourse with the bosses at the end of the level, to be faced each with a specific tactic and which require a careful study of the background and its elements. Which, however, can be done after a few attempts.
On this structure are implanted driving sections, spectacular and choreographic, aboard the energy cloud of Monkey, a sort of overboard, and long sequences of platformers. Here, too, as during the clashes when the camera highlights the end of a combo with bullet time, the work done on the shots is almost always masterful, given that the evolutions of Monkey between poles, overhangs and increasingly giant structures leave several times with a nice feeling of wonder. To encourage this continuous flow of jumps and somersaults, the team has chosen to make evident with a flash the elements of the backdrop to which to cling, so much so that it is enough to press the cross and the analogue in the direction of one of these to see Monkey jump without possibility. of error. In short, except for a couple of cases where there is a time limit to overcome the various sections, you cannot die by missing a hold or jumping in the wrong direction. This leads the player, in the long run, to concentrate solely on the spectacularity of the action, while continuously pressing the jump button, absentmindedly directing Monkey to the point on the stage where he is likely to move. Except for the times when you have to coordinate with Trip to activate the levers with which to solve the environmental puzzles that change the continuation of the adventure.
Despite this low difficulty, it certainly cannot be said that Enslaved: Odyssey to the West it is a short game, since the levels are 14 and it takes about ten hours to finish it at normal level. What matters, then, is the quality of this time. Keeping in mind the variety of settings and the continuous changes of pace and situations that Ninja Theory offers, it is unlikely that those who play will feel the need to abandon the adventure without having finished it. After which the highest level of difficulty remains, the complete enhancement of Monkey and the collection of a series of hidden items, which we prefer not to talk about so as not to ruin the ending in anything.

PlayStation 3 Trophies

It's also not bad in terms of collecting trophies, as at the end of the game we found ourselves with more than 40% of the cups collected, trying to collect as many energy orbs as possible and trying to carry out all the challenges based on the fights, such as killing a certain number of enemies with one move rather than another. Platinum is a more complex matter, given that all the spheres and all the hidden objects must be collected, not to mention having to finish the game even when difficult.

Characters with author

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West it's a great game to watch, there's little to say. The engine that moves the animations of the characters and their facial expressions is now a trademark of the Ninja Theory and, despite having transported the tools that are at the base within the Unreal Engine 3, the transition took place without any trauma. . Colorful, with varied landscapes and full of details, even with the now known limits that have been learned about the Epic engine in terms of interaction with the seabed, there are not a few moments in which he leaves the player to enjoy every glimpse and framing.

Above all on PlayStation 3, however, there are problems of fluidity, even during the cutscenes in which the frame widens for panoramas where the lack of Vsync is noted (the vertical synchrony which, when not present, breaks at half the screens ed). Things are better on Xbox 360, but it spoils a bit the work done by the team, which has otherwise managed to infuse real lifeblood into a series of characters that you can't help but get attached to. This is also thanks to the great effort made in the characterization and in the dialogues, well dubbed in Spanish, and which, together with the sound commentary, close a really good package from all points of view.

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An excellent setting, several interesting ideas and a great attention to descriptive detail make up Enslaved: Odyssey to the West the most successful game in Ninja Theory history. The Cambridge team continues to want to combine the purest action with a thick narrative and a research on the psychology of the characters that is more reminiscent of the world of adventure than that of action. Were it not for some technical flaw and for a level of challenge that is set too low, limiting the potential of the different game situations, the adventure of Monkey and Trip would have everything necessary to give them a good reason to the best exponents of the genre . Even so, especially facing it immediately at the most challenging level of difficulty, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West it is a title that you will be happy to have played and experienced in one breath.