Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

My impressions based on the demo haven't really changed much. Enslaved boasts some of the best-written and -acted story elements of any video game, and the world is a real thing of beauty, entrancing me with its natural majesty even as my curiosity is piqued by the ruins of a bygone civilization. On the other hand, the platforming and action gameplay, while certainly passable, simply don't offer anything that many other games haven't done better.

If I had to pick my biggest problem with Enslaved so far, it would be the upgrade system. Not that the upgrades themselves are bad: to the contrary, they all feel like meaningful enhancements to my character, and the strategic decision-making of what upgrade to get next is something the game does really well. But upgrades are fueled by Tech Orbs: utterly generic glowing dots just sitting around in the levels, which Monkey's nerd-girl companion Trip can use to make his shield stronger, or his ammo capacity higher, et al.

Apart from being one of the few immersion-breaking elements of the game - it skillfully explains the HUD as part of the slave headband's interface, but never makes the Tech Orbs seem like anything more than Sonic's rings - running around to collect them makes the game world feel small, distracting me from the gorgeous skies and horizons. Meanwhile, they also unnecessarily slow down the game's platforming and action sequences, as I have to take a break between jumps or enemies to collect more orbs. Since the gameplay doesn't have any really unique gimmicks, it works best when it's flowing quickly, and the orbs tend to be an unwelcome interruption.

Basically, I think the game would be more fun if I could just ignore the orbs completely. But then it would also be fucking hard, because I already feel like the only way I get through some fights is because of all the upgrades I have. Maybe the upgrades could just be replaced with Zelda-style items, that occur naturally as the game proceeds (although that would remove the element of player choice).

But three paragraphs is really too much complaining about some glowing orbs. If you're expecting Enslaved to be a revolution in video games, you're going to be disappointed -- if you've played any acrobatic-platforming or button-mashy-action game in the past ten years, Enslaved's gameplay isn't going to surprise you. But the narrative quality just might.

Progress: Chapter 9