Enslaved

Kind of reminds me of...

Hhmm. What system is this for?

They're pilfering from the other Journey to the West adaptation Dragonball's sense of hair design?

If Garland did the script, I would definitely give this a look. Guy's a big gamer (I think he is still attached to the Halo movie), so I'd be interested to see what he could come up with for an actual video game.

Kind of wish he would write another novel though.

Definitely looks interesting. Has the feel of Shangri-La in Uncharted 2.

Hopefully, it'll be much better Heavenly Sword, which was pretty, but empty.

Life After People is exactly the vibe I got from those shots. Fine with me. I could stand a little action in a pa cityscape that wasn't 99% colorless rubble.

The dude looks a lot like Jack from Jack & Daxter.

A post-apocolyptic retelling of Journey To The West?? Colour me very, very intrigued.

I'm just excited that it is a post-apocalyptic setting that isn't burned out and drab. I like the vibrant and colorful version of a post-apocalyptic setting that this game seems to be going for.

I know I'm in the minority, but that was one of the things that I found a real grind with Fallout 3 after a while. Frankly it became kinda depressing and left me longing for some for the more dazzling, colourful moments of Oblivion.

"After conceding that gameplay and story were inseparable, Garland - "a massive gamer" in his own right - became more involved"

Garland "intimidated" the developers into making the game better? Awesome...

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/ga...g-ninja-theory

"This is what I didn't expect Alex to do," recalled Antoniades, "basically go through the entire game when we had everything in place and talk about the gameplay logic: Why's that there? Why's that door there? Why's it got power? And he would do that all the time and we were tripping over everywhere."

Man, I didn't think it was that far along already. Thanks for the heads-up.

I can't wait! This game looks like it could be awesome.

Great news on a forthcoming demo.

The game releases in less than 3 weeks, I need to decide if it's good enough for me to try and cram it into my gaming schedule. The demo will certainly be the deciding factor.

If you can find yourself a Brit PSN log in, you can play this now.

It looks gorgeous (minus a few bad textures), the voices are fun (dig the accent of the lead), the animation is pretty great. It plays like the platform-y bits of Uncharted mixed with, wait for it, the melee combat from Jak. Yep. And then, once you see the bits after you beat the demo, the Jak 2-nes really comes on hard.

It was fun, but I totally get the feeling that it'll be a 6 hour game with mechanics you'll be bored of within half that. Like Alan Wake.

Also, I'm pretty sure I know exactly how it's gonna end.

Still, totally worth trying the demo.

Wasn't impressed with the demo. Platforming lite.

I'll have to remember to download the demo tonight and try it out.

The demo appears to be the first level of the game. I really liked it, despite a wonky camera and the controls feeling a bit stiff (the button layout was fine, just the responsiveness from button presses felt a little slow). The game looks stunning, especially once you get off the crashing ship and onto the ground. Hopefully reviews on this will be favorable because I think it has a lot of potential to be really good.

I always felt that something was a bit off with Heavenly Sword and I still feel like that here. Just missing that thing that will really make it a fun game.

Yeah, based on the reviews I've read and without the deeper gameplay of Uncharted I think this would be a rental or something I'd pick up on the $20 shelf.

Come on, let's go this way...stfu I'm collecting orbs here.

Love the game. Sat down and lost an afternoon with it. Great level designs, good characters. Curious to see where this all ends up.

The first time you lend Trip a hand with a jump, was an unexpected oh shit moment. The voice acting really sells the relationship between the two leads.

This is what the cel-shaded PoP remake could have been if it weren't boring to play or if they didn't make Nolan North's guy a smarmy ass.

One thing that bugged me from time to time in Heavenly Sword was the audio sync issues. A few cut scenes here and there would not match up to the animations, which is a shame because they look great. Whether it's an issue with the slow bd-rom, why not install game content to help (?), but on the ps3 the same problem shows up.

Not exactly a dealbreaker, the game is still good, but I'm surprised any modern developer shipped a game without 5.1 support. Looked through the menu's, my console settings, checked the cables...still, the sound presentation works but could've added a little bit more to the game.

Just escaped New York. Now I'm at a point where I have all these orbs but the game won't let me spend them.

Wow, not only does Trip always nag me about taking my sweet time looking for orbs - last night she fired up the headband and killed me for doing so.

I'm really enjoying the game, early on, primarily due to the relationship of Monkey and Trip, and the dialogue rings true. As opposed to the recent PoP with the horrible banter between lead characters. Biggest complaint I'd make against Enslaved is the automated platforming.

This game is absolutely gorgeous. I picked up the game today and spent several hours playing it. Some of that time was spent just gaping at the environments. Also, the dialogue in Enslaved is great. There have already been several fun one-liners and a few emotionally powerful moments. Seriously, everyone needs to pick up this game. I really enjoyed the demo, but I am having a blast with the full game, especially the sections with the hover board thing.

Alex wasn't kidding about the handholding. It went on all the way to the end.

And what a god damned end it was. Not spoiling anything for anyone, but it was an epic sequence to play through.

The epilogue was great too. Though I wish it were playable.

If you get a chance to play this, do so. Now I can start my run on Castlevania.

I'm getting a bit closer to the end now. I finished Chapter 11 last night, so I am assuming there are only a few more to go. The story seems to be ramping up towards a climax anyway. I am loving how sleazy the Pigsy character is. The voice acting totally sells the character. Also, that fat man can MOVE.

Email sent.

I beat the game last night, and I have to say that the final couple levels were damned awesome. The final boss was especially fun if not overly difficult. I am planning on going back through on the hard difficulty soon and find all the collectibles I missed the first time around. Thankfully the chapter select screen tells you the percentage of orbs you found and the exact number of masks for each level. Apparently I was a good collector the first time around as most of the levels were 90% or above.

Here's a quick tip for anyone wanting a little more out of the combat: buy the counter attack and the focus attack as soon as you can. I didn't buy them until later in the game, and I found myself wishing I had bought them earlier. The counter attack is especially useful once you figure out the timing, and the focus attack is just overly flashy awesomeness. Despite the name, the focus attack can hit multiple enemies if done in a crowd of mechs.

While a bit on the short side, Enslaved is definitely worth playing. Everyone should at least give it a rental.

I'm trying to bust through the game this week before New Vegas.

Definitely get the Heavenly Sword:God of War - Enslaved:Uncharted analogies Alex put out there. Unfortunately, like Heavenly Sword, I'm not loving this. Coming from a Final Fantasy fan I really have no capital to say this, but the relationship story is coming up poor (and yes I realize it's based on an ancient novel).

Trip pulls a pretty dominating move by putting the headband on Monkey and then immediately becomes the damsel in distress for the next 5 chapters. Maybe it's just the voice acting for Trip that makes her into a cliche, but it's not working for me. I'm interested to see where it goes, but if I drop the game in 6 days, I won't be regretful.

Meanwhile, the fighting controls are basic at best and the game counts on the players' neurosis to collect orbs to provide a sense of exploration. Heavenly Sword was one of the most dynamically animated games of the generation, this does not rise to the level.

It's fine enough so far, but it's circling a C+.

I never played Heavenly Sword, so I can't make any comparisons to it. Maybe it's partially a case of good timing as I was in the mood to play a game like this after playing a ton of shooters recently including Reach. I don't know. I didn't expect great combat going in, so I wasn't disappointed by it. Like I said, buying a couple of the advanced moves helps the combat feel a bit more varied.

The more I think about it, the more Enslaved reminds me of Beyond Good & Evil. Both have similar use of color, especially the greens and yellows. Both have fairly well-written characters. Both have simplified combat with a staff. Hell, both have "pig people".

I wouldn't say that Enslaved is as good as BG&E (and it certainly isn't as long), but I would say that Enslaved is a game with some rough edges that are more than redeemed by the things it does well. As an entire package it is well worth playing at least once.

I finally found all the tech orbs in the game last night. I had every chapter to 100% except for Chapter 9. It had been at 99% ever since the first time I went through it. So I've scoured it many, many times becoming very efficient at carving my way through the level. I tried to go through it methodically to find the last orb I was missing well over a dozen times. I would go through the first area, double-checking all the nooks and crannies I could find. Then I would move on to the second area and search it top to bottom. Same with the third. Then I would go through the final chase sequence many times in a row, looking for any alternate paths that could hide an elusive orb.

So where did I finally find the last pesky orb? In the first area of the level in a small alcove I must have passed by dozens of times. Perhaps my orb collecting skills aren't as good as I thought.

Great game so far. Was floored by the first level and then the game settles into a pattern of sorts. Call me crazy but I'm getting a little "Abe's Odyssey" vibe to the whole getting your partner through dangerous obstacles game play.

FYI, this game is $25 at Amazon today only. I still had a $10 coupon from RB3 so I managed to get it for like $15 so it definitely put it in the range of my impulse purchases.

Ha, just came to post this!

Floating credit + Prime = Enslaved arriving in two days at no charge. <3 Amazon.

Ok, this started out decent but man does it get worse as it goes along. Anything that requires the "Cloud" device sucks, Pigsy is annoying, and the ending is just idiotic. I'm going to have to disagree with Riviello giving this an 8 out of 10.

I think what may make this game so frustrating is that they want you to 'explore' but they give you fixed camera angles and really obvious handholds that make it feel really unnatural. I spend all my time trying to find a spot where I can maybe jump onto something. And there are so many invisible walls that exploring can just get frustrating.

The jumping is almost obviously an Uncharted 1 ripoff and all of the improvements made in Uncharted 2 to give you multiple ways to approach situations are ignored by this game. Navigating by jumping is just a matter of moving the analog stick in a 360 degree circle until you happen to find the right angle to hold it on so it'll lean for a jump. And the distances you can jump really are just random. Sometimes a gap is too far or too high on one section but in the next he'll just jump right across it.

The fighting is simple and alright but often the camera gets too close or there are too many mechs and telling what's going on gets difficult.

And I don't know if the 360 version is better than the PS3 on this but the textures and framerates were pretty bad.

I enjoyed the game some at first but as they added more crappy sections (on rails shooter, Cloud maneuvering through mines, jumping through obviously useless machinery) it just started to get annoying.

The actors who did Trip and Monkey generally did a pretty good job. Trip was a little shriek-y at times but otherwise well acted.

I don't know if I'd recommend this game at anything over $20. If I had to find something to compare it to, I'd have to say that I couldn't help thinking of last year's 3D Bionic Commando as I played it. The story is definitely more coherent and the acting better but the action is weaker and at the end of the short playtime you can't help but think that the whole experience was just a bit fluff.

We were on the exact same schedule for this game, I think I finished it at the same time you posted.

I can't disagree with most of the criticisms but I had fun with it, in almost exactly the same way I had fun with Prince of Persia 2008, which also basically played itself. That said, considering I bought it for $25 and its trade-in value as of today is.. $25, I can be pretty forgiving of a free game.

The controls could definitely be touchy but it was so difficult to die it didn't really make a difference. I don't think I had trouble with any part of it, except maybe the Rhino fight.

I think these "cinematic experience" games have a place and I enjoy them, but I do tend to pick them up in the bargain bin.

Andy Serkis, dude! Show some respect. Frankly, I give this game a couple of extra points for secretly being The Andy Serkis Variety Show.

Yeah, I thought it was Serkis but with him doing the last thing at the end I kind of became less confident in that.

I guess I didn't mean to be so down on the game. Most of the time I died in the game were either because I ran into a mine while on the Cloud thing or poor responsiveness in the controls. If the fighting had managed to be as tight as Heavenly Sword, this would have been a much better game.

So I'm trying to find all the orbs and I might go crazy. I could have sworn on the second level I looked everywhere but I'm still at 97%. I don't know if I have it in me to find them all on every level.

I finally got around to playing this and am enjoying it immensely despite it feeling as if its an action/adventure game on rails. Kinda wish I wouldn't have put it off until this long but at least this way there's no way in getting to play the Pigsy DLC.

This camera is raping my mother.

Wait 'till you see what he does to your sister if you go for the "Not hit by the Rhino's Charge" achievement!