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Enslaved: Odyssey to the West |OT| I Die, You Die.

The demo left a very bad taste in my mouth, but I think I'll pick up Enslaved eventually. Probably not until after I get through Black Ops though.
 

Stampy

Member
So far I am nearing the end of the chapter 3, and my impressions remain the same. For me Enslaved is turning up to be the most pleasant surprise of this year. I hope the latter chapters are as equally engaging and wonderful.

Only negatives so far are the controls (which are not all that tight) and some technical hiccups (although they are not really that obtrusive, just noticeable here and there). But both of these negative aspects are not that much important, since the game does not aim to excel in combat – which is not even the selling point here, nor does it have to be. (Just for an example, I have recently finished Uncharted 1, and in direct comparison, Enslaved has a lot less combat.) The point is that those negative aspects do not cause frustration, nor do they hinder the experience, they are just noticeable, and that is all.

But minor technical and control issues are really irrelevant, because what makes the memorable impact in this game is the experience of the beautiful world that resembles a painting, the engagement in the story (which is driven by strong characters who have interesting personalities, a pillar which can be seen as a necessity for believable interactions, although, unfortunately, it can be rarely found in today’s games). The characters constant communication in the cut-scenes and during the in-game totally sucks you into the world and creates that wonderful feeling of playing a game like an interactive story, without even noticing it, because you are really having the control, unlike, for example, Heavy Rain, where the interactive control is too mechanical and directed for players not to be aware of it.

I would also like to point out that the music really helps build the mood while investigating all the abandoned areas that are reclaimed by nature. It feels like an unobtrusive echo of the past. The world feels alive, you are somewhat aware of the cataclysm, and you just want to find out what will happen in this beautifully created journey. Although, to many people this comparison will seem totally out of place, but the last game which awarded me with this feeling of being completely pulled into the world was Ico. When I think about it, what I like the most about this game is how it handles progression. Battles so far never seem like fighting against random enemies, but they are well planned obstacles that are standing on your way to pass certain areas, which will enable you to continue with the journey.

I am sorry if these impressions are a complete mess, but I have just made a pause while playing the game, and have tried to transfer my experience here.

Also, I would like to strongly point out that the demo does no justice to this game. The game is beautiful, deep, it has excellent pacing, and while playing it you just feel that a lot of love and thought was put into creating this experience (you know, those little and almost unnoticeable details which show that a game was created with passion.)

nemesun said:
That's good to hear. I have a question regarding the camera, is the demo good representation of camera movement throughout the game? Demo was giving me an awful headache.

The camera control is only problematic in that beginning parts, because you are confined in a small space, but since latter on the game is placed in a more opened world, there is no issue with the camera (it is functional and it creates no problems). You purposefully use it to admire the scenery. :)
 

Fantastical

Death Prophet
This looks to be one of the biggest surprises (for me at least) this year. Thought this would turn out to be crap. On all the podcasts I've been listening to they've been saying mainly positive things and the reviews look good so I may pick this up at $40.
 

Canova

Banned
I'm very much conflicting about this game. It has beautiful level design, which I'd love to see, but the shallow combat mechanic turned me off.

I have this as pre-ordered along with Castlevanie, but in the past couple of days, I've been flip-floping between keeping the order and canceling it.

Is the beautiful level design and yet shallow combat really worth 60 bucks? I don't know.

On top of that, I want to support this developer, and yet their involvement in butchering, DMC, one of my favorite fanchises really makes me mad.

I'm confused
 

Oli

Registered User
canova said:
I'm very much conflicting about this game. It has beautiful level design, which I'd love to see, but the shallow combat mechanic turned me off.

I have this as pre-ordered along with Castlevanie, but in the past couple of days, I've been flip-floping between keeping the order and canceling it.

Is the beautiful level design and yet shallow combat really worth 60 bucks? I don't know.

On top of that, I want to support this developer, and yet their involvement in butchering, DMC, one of my favorite fanchises really makes me mad.

I'm confused

Just buy it. I was in the same boat, but the good reception convinced me to pick it up. No turning back!
 

GeoramA

Member
Went with this over Castlevania, mostly due to Amazon taking away the $20 credit before I had a chance to pre-order it. I'd buy both if New Vegas wasn't coming out later this month as well.

Also I enjoyed the Enslaved demo a little bit more than Castlevania's. I haven't played a good story-driven game in a while, not since Heavy Rain.
 

Stampy

Member
The part with the Dog on the 4th chapter was really cool. This game is something special. If anyone has any doubts, throw them out of the window. Although Enslaved is probably a 10-12 hour game, the experience it offers is more than worth it.
 

Despera

Banned
The combat is very basic. But if you play the game on Hard I'm sure it'll provide a challenge to a certain extent. One of the problems that keeps reoccurring though is how Monkey shifts attacks from an enemy to another even if I didn't want him to. Some times I try to finish off a mech and I find myself attacking the one besides him which is kinda frustrating.

Anyways, I'm currently in chapter 7.
 

shwimpy

Member
GeoramA said:
Also I enjoyed the Enslaved demo a little bit more than Castlevania's. I haven't played a good story-driven game in a while, not since Heavy Rain.

Same reason why I'm choosing this over Castlevania. Serkis and Alex Garland? I'm in.
 
Just beat the demo. Quick thoughts:

Graphics are unbelievably gorgeous
Comat is fun
Voice acting is very good
I love the way the character controls. Kind of like your horse in SotC, he feels organic and moves in a realtistic manner and not in a perfect soul-less videogame way
The evacuate sequence was thrilling, loved when I had to jump around to avoid crashing into buildings and the Statue of Liberty (so awesome)

Framerate had some trouble but whatevs. I love when a breath of fresh air comes along and gaming can get so monotone and boring. This was so compelling.

I'm so buying this.

The main character is ridiculous though. He's like the Barbie of videogames. Keep your fantasies out of my gaming you character designer person.
 
So I tried to look in the thread but I couldn't find anything in the last few pages - is there a consensus about which version is better? I saw that the ps3 version was worse in the demo, I presume this carried to the final version, but I just wanted to check if mayyybe they had last minute optimization to the code.

On another level, what about sound? Any marked differences?
 

DSmalls84

Member
Tried the 360 demo today and thought it was good. Graphics and platforming were great, and the combat had a good feel to it as well. I was kind of wary of this game because I didn't care for the gameplay in Heavenly Sword, but this seems like a marked improvement. Ordered it for $45 after my amazon credit, looking forward to next week.
 

Stampy

Member
Despera said:
Chapter 8 almost complete now...

I think this game is more of a rent than a buy.

Well I guess then all action-adventure games that last 10-12 hours should be a rental type of game, no matter the quality of experience. -_-
 

GeoramA

Member
DSmalls84 said:
Tried the 360 demo today and thought it was good. Graphics and platforming were great, and the combat had a good feel to it as well. I was kind of wary of this game because I didn't care for the gameplay in Heavenly Sword, but this seems like a marked improvement. Ordered it for $45 after my amazon credit, looking forward to next week.
I didn't care for Heavenly Sword at all. I tried to force myself through it, but the sixaxis stuff was the final nail in the coffin.

Enslaved on the other hand looks brilliant and will redeem NT in my eyes.
 
jonnybryce said:
Just beat the demo. Quick thoughts:

Graphics are unbelievably gorgeous
Comat is fun
Voice acting is very good
I love the way the character controls. Kind of like your horse in SotC, he feels organic and moves in a realtistic manner and not in a perfect soul-less videogame way
The evacuate sequence was thrilling, loved when I had to jump around to avoid crashing into buildings and the Statue of Liberty (so awesome)
.

*high-five*
 

Jocchan

Ὁ μεμβερος -ου
jonnybryce said:
I love the way the character controls. Kind of like your horse in SotC, he feels organic and moves in a realtistic manner and not in a perfect soul-less videogame way
Agreed, I love when my character has his own AI and takes his time to think "should I?" before responding to my input.
 
Jocchan said:
Agreed, I love when my character has his own AI and takes his time to think "should I?" before responding to my input.

:lol

Aklamarth said:
GOTY contender for me.

Agreed. I didn't really care for Heavenly Sword but this has me counting down the hours.
 
the voice acting and facial animations are some of the best this gen. no surprise since heavenly sword was the same way but shit man it's really good stuff.
 
Stampy said:
Well I guess then all action-adventure games that last 10-12 hours should be a rental type of game, no matter the quality of experience. -_-

I think people tend to play through action games with satisfying combat several times.
 
I would consider buying this if it were 4-6 hours long, but I can´t see myself spending 10 hours or something like that with this and not getting bored, based on my impressions of the demo.
 

Kolgar

Member
CecilRousso said:
I would consider buying this if it were 4-6 hours long, but I can´t see myself spending 10 hours or something like that with this and not getting bored, based on my impressions of the demo.

:lol

Something tells me the story, characters, acting, and scenic vistas will make the extra 4-6 hours less of a hardship than you expect.

I bought Heavenly Sword and enjoyed its six hours in three sittings. I'm looking forward to a 10- to 12-hour jaunt with this baby.
 
Kolgar said:
:lol

Something tells me the story, characters, acting, and scenic vistas will make the extra 4-6 hours less of a hardship than you expect.

I bought Heavenly Sword and enjoyed its six hours in three sittings. I'm looking forward to a 10- to 12-hour jaunt with this baby.

I just spent over 20 hours on Mass Effect 2 almost only for the characters and acting, so now I want to spend at least the majority my gaming hours on games with gameplay that´s actually fun. 4-6 hours is ok for cinematic games like this (I mean, the demo made the game feel like a platform version of a railshooter), but double that? No, not right now.
 

JimboJones

Member
Played the demo, was really nice to look at, very cinematic and the way they move is very fluid.

Although everything felt a little too automatic, especially the bits where you where jumping from pipes or on the plane wing, all I was doing was moving the stick in the general direction and hammering A.

But it was the demo so maybe it was just easy start of the game stuff, does it get better as it progresses?
 

Kolgar

Member
JimboJones said:
Played the demo, was really nice to look at, very cinematic and the way they move is very fluid.

Although everything felt a little too automatic, especially the bits where you where jumping from pipes or on the plane wing, all I was doing was moving the stick in the general direction and hammering A.

But it was the demo so maybe it was just easy start of the game stuff, does it get better as it progresses?

A few folks who've played the full game have said that the game really takes off after the "demo" part of the game, and that the demo is actually not a very fair representation of the awesomeness that ensues.
 

Stampy

Member
Just finished the game. Second part is not as good as the first 6-8 chapters. Although it has more of a comedic vibe to it, the gameplay is more actiony, while platforming is mostly based on right timing and puzzles. The majestic feeling of the atmospheric first part of the game was somewhat lost, but still the overall experience was great, even though the idea for the ending is just a copy-paste of one sci-fi movie,
Matrix
, and could have been done in a more original way.
 

sn00zer

Member
Typical Neogaf...
Trailer released: OMGOMGOMGOMG looks beautiful!...oh wait UE3 and Ninja Theory it gunna be shit

More Info: LOL Ninja Theory...framerate/vsync/AA/UE3 sucks

Demo: WTF is this shit? Its so shit people cant you all see ITS SHIT!!!!! (insert more framerate/vsync/AA/UE3 sucks)

Game Actually comes out: Hey this game is actually pretty good. (Completely remove any negative comments)

Few Months After Game releases: framerate/vsync/AA/UE3 sucks

Few more Months: Yeah that game was awesome don't even remember people hating on it.:lol

EDIT: Based on the demo I REALLY REALLY like the art style remind me of Jak HD
 

watership

Member
From Twitter:

GarnettLee
what the hell?! the first thirty minutes of Enslaved are cool as shit. Is this game actually...good?
 

Nemo

Will Eat Your Children
watership said:
From Twitter:

GarnettLee
what the hell?! the first thirty minutes of Enslaved are cool as shit. Is this game actually...good?
Way for a reviewer to go into a game :lol
 

Oli

Registered User
My K-Mart ad today didn't mention the $25 coupon, or enslaved at all for that matter, And CAG changed the offer to be listed under a Kmart.com deal, and I really don't want to use their website. So I just went back and pre-ordered it again on Amazon.com, $1 release date delivery, $10 credit, and a soundtrack. Not too shabby.

Really looking forward to Tuesday. :)
 

thetechkid

Member
Oli said:
My K-Mart ad today didn't mention the $25 coupon, or enslaved at all for that matter, And CAG changed the offer to be listed under a Kmart.com deal, and I really don't want to use their website. So I just went back and pre-ordered it again on Amazon.com, $1 release date delivery, $10 credit, and a soundtrack. Not too shabby.

Really looking forward to Tuesday. :)

Really hoping Amazon gets it to me early, I CANNOT WAIT FOR TUESDAY!
 
Got my copy... :D :

Playing it right now.... but boy boy, they picked the wrong part of the game for the demo!! because the part right after it is totally amazing :eek:

If they picked the part right after the demo to be the demo... I know a lot of people would change their minds about the game.

anyway... the game reminds of ICO mixed with Uncharted and PoP ... Can't wait to see what the game holds for me :)
 
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