Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

You know how a lot of third-person games involve the annoying task of protecting an NPC one or more times in the game? Well, imagine doing that for the entire game! Now you can with Ninja Theory's latest lackluster title, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, an action-adventure/platformer that seems to have all the same flaws as Heavenly Sword.

The game takes place 150 years in the future, where the world is a wasteland ruled by machines and slavers. You play as Monkey, your typical lone badass who wanders this post-apocalyptic world while fighting for his own survival, blah blah blah. One day he wakes up imprisoned on a slaver airship, but manages to escape when it crashes in what used to be New York City.

He awakens to find himself wearing a slave's headband. It was applied by another crash survivor, Trip, a techie who looks suspiciously similar to the main character of Heavenly Sword. (Guess Ninja Theory has a thing for scantily clad women with red, braided hair.) Trip has modified the headband to work for her. If Monkey doesn't follow her orders, she gives him a headache. If he still resists, the pain kills him. And if she dies, so does he. So...basically they're married. Zing!

Anyway, if Monkey wants his freedom, he'll have to help Trip get back to her village, which is located somewhere west of New York. Along the way, they have to help each other fight their way through hordes of mechs that know only one thing: kill all humans.

What makes Enslaved different from Heavenly Sword is it's smaller focus on combat and story, or greater focus on platforming and puzzle solving. Does that make it any better? Of course not. It only takes about seven hours play, and there's zero replay value. While everything is upgradeable, the combat is still pretty stale. And the story balances between unoriginal and boring.

Now, I can't say I hated everything about Enslaved. Like Heavenly Sword, the backgrounds are breathtaking. The enemy AI is also descent, and weapons like the laser shooting staff and the hover board are fun for a while. You'll also occasionally have the chance to choose stealth over direct combat, which can sometimes make things more interesting. There's also a third character who brings some comic relief to the game about halfway through, making the dialogue a bit more entertaining.

Besides the main story, the only other thing there is to do is the downloadable content, and it's not even out yet!

While I can't say I can't say this game was completely horrible, I also can't even recommend renting Enslaved:Odyssey to the West. There's nothing original or impressive about it, so don't waste your time.

Available for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Rated T for Teen. Published by Namco Bandi Games, developed by Ninja Theory.