Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

The story of Enslaved: Odyssey to the West dives fully into a classic Chinese tale known in Italy as "Journey to the West". The original story is about the journey of a Chinese Buddhist monk to India to retrieve texts not available in China. On his journey, the monk is accompanied by four beings: the monkey king, the pig Bajie, the demon Wujing and the monk's steed, who is actually the dragon prince of the South Sea. numerous films, novels, comics and cartoons and one of the best known works is the manga and anime series Dragon Ball.

The reinterpretation of this story in Ninja Theory sauce always places us on earth, but in a future where a nuclear war has destroyed everything. The world is now controlled by the group of Slavers, characters who travel the length and breadth of the world kidnapping the last human beings to exploit them obviously as slaves. The whole world is then infested with robots, anthropomorphic or animal-like metal creatures who, like Slavers, roam the world with the sole intent of exterminating mankind. In the midst of all this we will find Trip and Monkey, the two main protagonists of the story. The first is a young girl capable of manipulating any form of energy, the second a fighter with no past so called by the people for her ability to climb and jump between trees to escape robots. At the beginning of the story both are inside a slave ship but Trip, thanks to his skills, manages to escape from his cell and then send the ship into overload. Taking advantage of the problem Monkey manages to free himself and before the ship hits the ground, the two characters manage to escape from the ship using an escape pod. With Trip inside the capsule and Monkey outside, the two will reach New York and here the girl, taking advantage of a fainting of Monkey due to a blow received, will place on the man's head a control diadem thanks to which Trip will bind Monkey. if, if man wants to live, Trip must stay alive or the diadem will kill him. Behind the promise to free him as soon as he returns to his village, Monkey will begin his adventure with Trip and this is where the first chapter of the story, which doubles as a demo, closes.

From this moment on, the real game begins, fourteen chapters in which by controlling Monkey we will have to face beat 'em up game sessions and other decidedly platform games. In both cases the difficulty level is not high. The platform game is very simple given the presence of all the holds well marked on the screen - every hold or platform on which to jump glitters and jumping into the void is impossible since the arrival on the next target is totally automatic. A little more complex are the platform sections in which you have to coordinate with Trip, in fact, here taking the right times is necessary. The sector linked to combat is different. The game offers a typical beat 'em up fight with Monkey that will be able to execute quick but light or slow and powerful hits and of course there is the possibility to chain them all together. In combat, the man will use his stick which, similar to Darth Maul's lightsaber in Star Wars, has the handle in the center with both ends used to hit the enemy. In addition to acting as a stick to "beat" enemies, Monkey's weapon can use charges to fire real plasma projectiles capable of destroying an enemy or paralyzing him. For much of the time, however, the combat in the game translates into continually pressing the button for the heavy hit and that's it, especially if you choose the simple or normal difficulty as the difficulty - by focusing on the hard mode instead, you also need to learn dodging well. because the enemies will encircle us more easily hitting us at the same time. The fight then presents several final bosses that repay the players for the efforts made during the chapter, in fact these monsters always require specific tactics and shots, not a simple smash on the buttons.

All of Monkey's weapon-related skills, so anything that isn't a mere matter of physical ability, can be improved by collecting the red orbs that the game world is full of and that every beaten enemy leaves on the field. Thanks to the interaction with Trip, we can use these spheres as a coin to improve the amount of ammunition to carry, the power of the shots or the shield and more. In addition to this, the interactions between Trip and Monkey are continuous, the man can in fact always carry the girl on his shoulder or order her to continue, stop and act as a diversion to get around an enemy or be treated. Similarly, Trip has a control over Monkey, in fact we will not be able to go too far from her or we will suffer damage due to the diadem which, in addition to being a collar, also acts as a system to allow Trip to show Monkey details on the landscape that for us it turns out to be the HUD. Soon we will then discover the Ninja Theory version of the infamous cloud that allowed Goku in Dragon Ball to travel a bit everywhere. In the game this cloud is actually a magnetic field capable of making Monkey travel half a meter above the ground, be it water or land, and only these are the real game phases in which Monkey and Trip will be divided as he can travel on the cloud. only Monkey.

In short, therefore, the gameplay is always quite varied, we will hardly get tired because between fighting sessions, climbing and crazy races on land and water on board the cloud, the game always changes its aspect making us have fun for the ten and more hours necessary to complete. history. To these then we must also add the additional difficulty of the difficult level, the enhancement of all the powers and the collection of all the masks, secondary objects of which we do not specify anything else for fear of going a little too far. Therefore, whoever wants to complete the game one hundred percent while also trying to get all the trophies and objectives, get ready for an adventure of no less than fifteen hours of play.

EXCELLENCE WOULD BE AT HAND

Both on a graphic and technical level the game is potentially praiseworthy, but some wrong choice and a basic problem given by the engine used for the game, lead Enslaved to fall well below the coveted ten of perfection. Starting from what is not attributable to the boys of Ninja Theory, there are problems with pop-in, frame-rate and v-sync, all common defects in the major productions that use the now old Unreal graphics engine. These are not very serious defects since all three are occasional and rarely occur together, damaging the work set up for Enslaved. These technical problems are then combined with the wrong choices, in our opinion. We start from the almost zero difficulty level of the platform sections to then reach the combat, perhaps extremely simplified since it is enough to know how to press a couple of buttons in time to find ourselves at the end of the game without ever having worked too hard in simple mode.

However, do not take these errors as a signal that we are facing a bad game, far from it. Once Enslaved is started, the graphic impact is shocking, this world of the future that lives in an adventure like Jules Verne is able to breach every player and the relationship that is tightening more and more between Monkey and Trip leads the player to want it. more and more. The world of Enslaved was created by the guys of Ninja Theory to be pure show, as are the characters, their movements and their interaction with the world.

From ten and praise then the audio sector that presents a cured and more than decent dubbing in español - which today is increasingly rare for video games. This is then accompanied by a grandiose soundtrack capable of enhancing every moment of our journey to the village of Trip. Also excellent are the sound effects that, in the long run, allow the player to understand which type of Mecha he has to face simply by listening to the sound he makes.

CONCLUSION

Compared to their first work, Heavenly Sword, the guys from Ninja Theory have improved. The new game does not leave you stunned by its brevity, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is in fact an excellent title that develops between ten and twelve hours of play, continuously passing from simple platform phases to beat 'em up fights, for then finish with the level bosses.

The presence of extras, a good upgrade system for the powers of the characters and the possibility of facing the story in both simple and difficult mode, give Enslaved the necessary sprint to be a highly recommended title. The only flaw lies, as already specified, in the graphics with a dancer framerate and a v-sync that sometimes forgets to be there, all problems attributable not directly to Ninja Theory, but to the engine used.

The game is available for Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 systems.

VOTE 8.5 SU 10