Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

 PC
User Score
7.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 309 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 205 out of 309
  2. Mixed: 80 out of 309
  3. Negative: 24 out of 309

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. runner
    Dec 2, 2016
    6
    Mind you, this game is NOT a bad one. It's just that, for several reasons, I just can't recommend it fullheartedly.

    Bottom line: +Amazing, lush, beautiful, graphics. Incredible locations +A very interesting take on the book "Journey to the West" +Incredible soundtrack +Nice, fluid and somewhat fun combat and "parkouring-ish", assuming you managed to get the game run well enough.    Mind you, this game is NOT a bad one. It's just that, for several reasons, I just can't recommend it fullheartedly.

    Bottom line:
    +Amazing, lush, beautiful, graphics. Incredible locations
    +A very interesting take on the book "Journey to the West"
    +Incredible soundtrack
    +Nice, fluid and somewhat fun combat and "parkouring-ish", assuming you managed to get the game run well enough.
    +An awesome WTF ending

    -Linear gameplay, and I mean VERY linear
    -Can get tedious and boring at times
    -Story is executed weakly
    -Characters barely develop. Relationships between them simply don't work and are growing awkwardly.
    -PC port is not optimized quite enough. I've encountered MANY technical difficulties before managing to make the game playable.
    -All in all, big portion of the game simply lacks substance, regarding depth of story and gameplay.    … Expand
  2. BusterMcKnuckle
    Nov 2, 2013
    6
    The combat is fun, the voice acting is really good, and the game does look great. However I find myself constantly being frustrated by a sloppy camera, insane amounts of scripted events and mini cut scenes that seem to interrupt actual game play every 2 minutes
  3. MrZero
    Oct 28, 2013
    6
    Well this game is almost a really good game. Almost. First off, it is a pretty bad port from console to PC; shocking I know. The controls are pretty wonky using a KB and mouse. The camera is equally as bad and confusing, re-arranging the direction you need to press on a whim, depending on the angle the game suddenly throws at you. The very first message you receive when starting theWell this game is almost a really good game. Almost. First off, it is a pretty bad port from console to PC; shocking I know. The controls are pretty wonky using a KB and mouse. The camera is equally as bad and confusing, re-arranging the direction you need to press on a whim, depending on the angle the game suddenly throws at you. The very first message you receive when starting the game on the PC is "Be sure not to turn the CONSOLE off while auto-save icon is active." So there ...

    The game is in the same vein as (tier II) The Prince of Persia Series. However, the gameplay is extremely linear, repetitive and predictable. There's a tech-tree is that is sub par, and you use a "buddy-system" with a NPC which is meh. You issue generic commands or have to throw her across to a bridge to drop a ladder basic stuff and usually annoying.

    On the plus side Voice acting is top-notch. Music is great. Graphics are decent for being a 2010 console port (but the shadows will drive you batty) Plot is so-so; however, again, the voice acting really, really drives the story and gets you involved. Andy Serkis, aka Gollum, plays the main character and hits it out of the park. The female lead does pretty awesome too.

    All-in-all, a fun game that is worth it for a run-though; however, after its won, a pretty forgettable one. Buy it on sale from Steam or something.    … Expand
  4. jelikey
    Aug 21, 2015
    7
    this game guaranttee standard action fun. it shows the original graphic, and storyline. i am happy with that. but, pc porting is poor. it has no even anti-alising option.
  5. llamayarmybar
    May 17, 2014
    6
    This is and will be (for a bit longer at least) the worst port known to mankind (again currently). It features a completely bare bones options menu with a couple of selectable resolutions and gamma settings alongside a volume control menu. If you actually want to customize anything visually speaking, you'll have to direct your attention to an .ini file in your computers "My Games"This is and will be (for a bit longer at least) the worst port known to mankind (again currently). It features a completely bare bones options menu with a couple of selectable resolutions and gamma settings alongside a volume control menu. If you actually want to customize anything visually speaking, you'll have to direct your attention to an .ini file in your computers "My Games" folder. Not that I'm complaining that its "difficult" to do any of this or that I "hate" not having complete control over my graphics options, but honestly who are we kidding here- the game should've had a graphics menu BUILT IN not hidden completely in MonkeyEngine.ini. After disabling all of the ridiculous blur, bloom, fake hdr bloom, and some other useless features that only serve to hide just how old the games engine actually is (as well as looks) I was ready to play the actual game. Now this is the surprising bit- its good. Its a good game. I wanted to finish it, it was compelling, it seemed like it was setting up something kind of complex for its ending, but of course I kept reminding myself that they'd probably screw it up, so obviously I kept my standards low. Our two main characters Trip and Monkey have interesting chemistry, but I'd say that the characters don't all balance out until the introduction of "Pigsy" a short fat man with a mechanical grappling arm and ironically a total pig in every sense of the word. Monkey on the other hand is your generic mysterious past beef cake with a heart of gold who doesn't have as much of an arc as I thought he would. Which overall is still better than "Trip" and her fairly boring, yet stunningly animated (at times) character. She goes between overly excited and extremely mournful without warning though which chucked a wrench in the narrative at times. Level design was "alright," puzzles weren't particularly challenging ever however its really the combat that shines through. Off course it would've helped if the camera actually acted appropriately during most of the fights with your robotic enemies, since as of my first playthrough I'm wondering if I really want to go through that frustration again just to play through the story on "hard." You're looking at a fairly short game, that should be decent for the money, but it will let you down for many a reason. Collision detection is a nightmare at times, seeking out platforms can be irksome (even if they do flash for you), Trip can get stuck in the level (happened a couple of times early on), "Mek" combat is fun for awhile until they start throwing in the shielded enemies and then its like the obnoxious factor ramps up to 20 for no reason.

    Final thoughts:

    Some of the early sections with the "Dog" fights (heh) were incredibly enjoyable and I liked the sense of teamwork with Trip- it did help the characters bond a bit as well. The aesthetics were great in many places, the levels were at least interesting to look at (though not terribly complex). The visuals were fine, but the additions of bloom and motion blur were not well implemented at all. The voice acting was stellar throughout the game and the games narrative benefited well from the more than adequate writing.

    However, the convoluted nature of some sections of the game, the ridiculous amount of literal handholding even after completing similar sequences many times over was not entertaining (it was more insulting actually). The pacing was also very poor with short cutscenes breaking up the action for no reason other than to introduce the same puzzle solution or to "scan the area with the dragonfly" schtick mechanics.

    The ending was a complete wash. Absolutely dreadful that that was all they could do with it. No real resolution vague endings are garbage and tell me one thing only- "our budget ran out."

    Final final thoughts:

    Andy Sirkis was a strange addition to this game (even stranger was his actual appearance).    … Expand
  6. Morogath
    Dec 3, 2013
    6
    How ironic that I played this game right after Castlevania Lords of Shadow. Since both of them are very poor PC-ports and have very similar gameplay, I almost feel like I'm being punished for trying to like these games. Odyssey does profit from a better story, but the same dated mechanics plague this game and prevent me from actually recommending it.
  7. bancandrei
    Apr 23, 2022
    5
    I guess I was wrong in judging this game would be of interest to me. It is too linear, and compares unfavorably to the uncharted series. Am a fan of neither the storytelling nor the gameplay.
  8. ave
    Feb 8, 2018
    7
    Enslaved was under my radar until I heard about the interesting way they designed Trip, the supporting character that is both an escort mission and a powerful ally in her own right.

    Entirely inspired by the classical legend of the Monkey King, Enslaved gives it a modern spin, in a post-apocalyptic context. The characters are well rounded and quite relatable. Gameplay wise, it blends    Enslaved was under my radar until I heard about the interesting way they designed Trip, the supporting character that is both an escort mission and a powerful ally in her own right.

    Entirely inspired by the classical legend of the Monkey King, Enslaved gives it a modern spin, in a post-apocalyptic context. The characters are well rounded and quite relatable.

    Gameplay wise, it blends platforming and combat, that gets a completely different treatment.

    At first, platforming feels great (especially with the fake time pressure at the beginning) but after a while you realize that it's mostly impossible to fail (except while associated with time limit or timing) because graps are highlighted and kinda "magnetic"; plus you have invisible walls that prevent falling.

    On the other hand, the combat feels ok at the beginning but quickly ramps up, forcing you to learn how to combine moves, staff punches and shots.

    Even if the game is some kind of a "storyplaying", I think there is a missed opportunity. Monkey is a strong and agile character that can climb almost anywhere... but during combat, he's suddenly way less agile. It's not possible to exploit the environment or even jump over an enemy to take him from behind - to do that, you'll have to perform a ground roll with slow recover.

    For me that's the lowest point of the game, that is otherwise really enjoyable.    … Expand
  9. Tomle1202
    Nov 17, 2018
    7
    Enslaved: Odyssey to the West packs an amazing post-apocalyptic story and incredibly lush visuals, but its overly simple gameplay leaves much to be desired.
  10. Vicente_ao
    Apr 13, 2016
    6
    Enslaved es un juego de acción/aventura bastante vistoso. Paisajes muy coloridos y atractivos, una movilidad y jugabilidad
    rápida y con una historia un tanto épica y simple. Si bien, el juego trata de hacer muchas cosas como hack n' slash o resolver puzzles, estos elementos quedan muy simples, siendo muy simple los puzzles y el sistema de combate se vuelve muy muy repetitivo. Además    Enslaved es un juego de acción/aventura bastante vistoso. Paisajes muy coloridos y atractivos, una movilidad y jugabilidad
    rápida y con una historia un tanto épica y simple. Si bien, el juego trata de hacer muchas cosas como hack n' slash o resolver puzzles, estos elementos quedan muy simples, siendo muy simple los puzzles y el sistema de combate se vuelve muy muy repetitivo. Además básicamente existen solo 4 tipo de enemigos, faltandole mucha variedad. La historia se queda corta, tratando de ser ambiciosa, se queda en algo muy simple y poco profundo.
    En resumen, enslaved es un juego divertido para pasar el rato pero que otros juegos pueden desarrollar de mejor manera los aspectos en el que éste carece un poco. Cabe destacar los puntos fuertes que son los ambientes, los personajes son carismáticos, la relación trip y monkey se da bastante bien, y el humor básico que aporta pigsy cumple. El epílogo también destaca, a mi parecer fue un punto fuerte del juego.
    Recomendado para cuando esté en rebaja.

    6.5/10    … Expand
  11. dandalis
    Oct 29, 2016
    7
    Its a fairly good game overall. When most UE3 games in that time were mostly abysmaly brown and grey looking, this boasted so much color variety and it really helped making a great looking game with interesting take on post apocalyptic setting where AI has wiped out most of humanity and those left alive turned into slaves, with few running free always in danger. But gameplay wise it in theIts a fairly good game overall. When most UE3 games in that time were mostly abysmaly brown and grey looking, this boasted so much color variety and it really helped making a great looking game with interesting take on post apocalyptic setting where AI has wiped out most of humanity and those left alive turned into slaves, with few running free always in danger. But gameplay wise it in the end became bit too repetative to my taste, there wasnt that much variety to the hack n slash combat. Animations were slick tho, especialy Monkey's which has mocap done by legendary Andy Serkis. Story was fun and overall enough with some noticeable character development and likeable 3 main heroes, but ending felt somewhat anti climatic with few questions of mine left unanswered.

    Can reccomend to anyone who likes solid action hack & slash games.    … Expand
  12. ElCucuy
    Jun 17, 2019
    7
    As a slasher, this game is primitive and monotonous. The combat system does not have a combo and is tied to 3 buttons, because of which long battles begin to tire.
    Parkour is rudimentary and too casual, it is impossible to fall, the character jumps only when the right direction is chosen, and this decision is strange, because any interest and suspense disappears when performing acrobatic    As a slasher, this game is primitive and monotonous. The combat system does not have a combo and is tied to 3 buttons, because of which long battles begin to tire.
    Parkour is rudimentary and too casual, it is impossible to fall, the character jumps only when the right direction is chosen, and this decision is strange, because any interest and suspense disappears when performing acrobatic jumps.
    Puzzles are a typical armwave in various places of the map and do not cause any interest.

    With all this, the game is completed to the end, as the situation is saved by an interesting non-banal plot, in which the interest in observing the glavnmi characters does not fade to the very end.    … Expand
  13. QuatokyTonberry
    Feb 22, 2019
    7
    Gameplay: - Normal
    Story: - Very Good
    Visual: - Good
    Music and sound: - Good
    Average time: - 10H
    Score: - 7
  14. MaxmilianKohler
    Jul 6, 2020
    7
    Mouse + keyboard control is poor. It doesn't move your view proportionally to the mouse movement you make. It first doesn't move at all until you reach a specific velocity threshold, then it moves the screen in a chunk. It seems to have additional mouse acceleration, which gets dynamically changed depending on your location. All very bizarre. It also forces your view in some spots which isMouse + keyboard control is poor. It doesn't move your view proportionally to the mouse movement you make. It first doesn't move at all until you reach a specific velocity threshold, then it moves the screen in a chunk. It seems to have additional mouse acceleration, which gets dynamically changed depending on your location. All very bizarre. It also forces your view in some spots which is really annoying. It also has very strong negative mouse acceleration.

    With a controller it's more stable/normal but I think a controller is not ideal at all for this type of game, and the game doesn't let you customize the controller settings either. So 3rd party software (DS4) is necessary.

    A problem I had with a controller is that panning is a constant speed, which means continual motion blur (144hz TN monitor). But with a mouse you can do quick turns and thus minimize the amount of time the picture is blurry. Thus, even with the major mouse problems a mouse + keyboard are preferable for me. But due to the negative mouse accel you have to play with really high sensitivity.

    I had mouse smoothing off. Turning it on makes panning more like a controller.

    The quality/textures get messed up during the cut scenes sometimes. The Steam community config section for the game has some config file tweaks that help. But even beyond that there are many low quality textures in the 2nd half of the game.

    The story is nice enough and raises various ethical and societal topics. But as others have said, the gameplay flaws are significant.    … Expand
  15. Phased
    Dec 26, 2019
    7
    A classic action game with some platforming elements (which are very linear and kind of play themselves). The fighting is fun if not a little easy with the available upgrades. The characters are likable and the acting is good. I thought the ending worked with the story. It's a little bland, but I enjoyed my playthrough.
  16. FRIST_008
    Jun 14, 2021
    7
    Игра на 6 балов, а вот длс на 8. Очень спорный проект, который пытается в анчартед, но с очень простой битемап боёвкой.
  17. nietzfk
    May 20, 2023
    7
    An unheard of game. It's a valuable game. The gameplay is enjoyable, there are average characters.
  18. Magical_Viktor
    Apr 30, 2023
    5
    Существуют просто Зло и Большое Зло, а за ними обоими в тени прячется Очень Большое Зло. Очень Большое Зло, Геральт, это такое, которого ты и представить себе не можешь, даже если думаешь, будто уже ничто не в состоянии тебя удивить. И знаешь, Геральт, порой бывает так, что Очень Большое Зло схватит тебя за горло и скажет: «Выбирай, братец, либо я, либо то, которое чуточку поменьше»Существуют просто Зло и Большое Зло, а за ними обоими в тени прячется Очень Большое Зло. Очень Большое Зло, Геральт, это такое, которого ты и представить себе не можешь, даже если думаешь, будто уже ничто не в состоянии тебя удивить. И знаешь, Геральт, порой бывает так, что Очень Большое Зло схватит тебя за горло и скажет: «Выбирай, братец, либо я, либо то, которое чуточку поменьше»

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
70

Mixed or average reviews - based on 8 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 8
  3. Negative: 0 out of 8
  1. CD-Action
    Jan 10, 2014
    70
    Today Enslaved is still a strong game worth getting acquainted with. [01/2014, p.67]
  2. GameStar
    Dec 2, 2013
    75
    Quotation forthcoming.
  3. NZGamer
    Nov 19, 2013
    65
    Its gameplay style and combat mechanic were clearly designed with the console player in mind. When transferred to the PC, the entire experience is undercut.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »