Enslaved: Odyssey to the West Preview

He may look like any number of grizzly protagonists in gaming but at least he has an animalistic gait befitting of his name.

Going back to its source material, Enslaved sees you playing as Monkey, who looks more Gears of War than the nimble imp we’ve come to know him as, but the yellow tail-like sash and tribal make-up are comfortably familiar. Your adventure begins when you happen across Trip (more flame-haired heroine Nariko than ’70s Tripitaka) on a slave ship. When the tech-savvy eco-idealist reprograms your slave headband in another nod to the original tale, you are forced to accompany her westwards across America to help her return home or have your head exploded. What she lacks in direct combat ability she clearly makes up for in presenting persuasive arguments.

This is what your apocalypse needs. Trees growing out of sky scrapers.

We ask Antoniades how they approached fusing the classic with the futuristic: “The last thing we wanted to do was another medieval Asian-themed game like Heavenly Sword, so we really wanted to try something new. We thought we could replace all the magic with technology, all the demons with war drones and create our own world out of it”.

The land may be ripe with greenery, but the roaming droids and sentry turrets make 22nd century New York a very dangerous place to be. Like sentient landmines of the future, these deadly mechanised foes are products of a war long-since over, yet they remain active to carry out their most basic function of terminating any living target. Players will need to utilise Monkey’s brawn with Trip’s brains to overcome problems.

Levels are packed with multiple routes allowing you to adopt a more combat or cerebral approach to threats.

It’s important to appreciate that Enslaved is not a combat-driven action game in the vein of Heavenly Sword. Of course Monkey wouldn’t be himself without the ability to battle with his trademark staff, but many of the ambushes laying in wait will require forethought rather than combos to overcome. Thankfully Trip does much more than simply take up space on Monkey’s back – she can be thrown across gaps to activate switches, use her technical know-how to download enemy blueprints and cause distractions to take the heat off Monkey during a gunfight. Similar to Prince of Persia, a large amount of your time will be spent leaping towards, dangling from and acrobatically exploring your terrain in an effort to gain the tactical advantage.