
	Platform Xbox 360 Genre Action Publisher Namco Bandai Developer Ninja Theory ESRB T (Teen) Released October 5, 2010

- Great graphics - Interesting well written story - Good level design

- Not a lot of replay value - Occasional graphic glitches - Checkpoint save system a minor annoyance

Review: Heavenly Sword (PS3) Review: Alan Wake (360) Review: Vanquish (360)
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Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

Score: 8.5 / 10

I’m going to cut to the chase. Go out and buy this game. At the time of this review it is not selling all that well and has seen a recent price drop. Don’t think about it, just go out and get it and then wait to find out why.

Great! Now that you’re back from the store let’s discuss your shiny new purchase. First of all, if you were hesitant to buy this game because you heard it was short I have a few words for you. A 10-12 hour experience to me is not short. Although

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you may not have a lot of reason to replay the game after that initial experience, I’d rather have 10-12 hours of good quality entertainment then 20 hours of mediocre entertainment. It’s all about the dollar for dollar entertainment bang for your buck.

In this game you play as a character named Monkey. You’ve become attached to a beautiful young lady that requires

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your assistance to make it home and has put a headband on you that allows the two of you to communicate. If she dies, you die and she has the ability to give you great pain if you disobey. Fortunately, you’ve decided that this good looking woman (who is very reminiscent of the protagonist in Heavenly Sword) is someone you are going to help out and so you both go into a post-apocalyptic world. I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to get tired of all of these “post-apocalyptic” worlds but at least this one isn’t dreary and drab, Rather, it’s full of lush greens and doesn’t feel so bad but the disaster that happened before we step into the story kind of explains why there not really a lot of other people around. That makes the tech of the game easier I suppose although we are never really sure why the world is the way it is. Regardless, the landscape is littered with mechanical creatures called mechs who are very nasty and want to take you out.

The combat in the game is a tad on the weak side and prevents me from giving this game a higher score but you can make it work (even if it’s not much more than a bunch of button mashing). I also appreciate the fact that you can approach certain encounters in a more stealthy way or just run in all kamikaze like. In some cases, you will have to pick one method over the other but in others you have the choice.

Many of the mechs will call for reinforcements so you are wise to take them out first – adding some focus to an otherwise crazy battle fight at times. The action is varied at times when you will face bosses as well as take control of the enemy guns and so on. It’s nothing that hasn’t been done before but it’s competently executed.
I appreciated the fact that sometimes what you think is going to happen doesn’t, and the mere thought of what will happen is actually scarier than reality. A perfect example is a level where there is a tyrannosaurus-type mech who is clearly much bigger than you. You are chased by him and defeat him in the end, but it’s never in the traditionally way you fight other enemies and I thought how this was integrated into the game and story was clever and well planned out.

The game is not perfect but it’s extremely well done overall. I bet that once you get playing, like me, you won’t be able to stop until you finish it and although the ending may leave you wondering I am glad you went to the store earlier to buy the game so that we are ensured of a sequel to this game.

- Syd Bolton

(December 3, 2010)

Syd Bolton is Canada’s top video game collector and surrounds himself in technology at the Personal Computer Museum (http://www.pcmuseum.ca) in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.