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Had a go at Enslaved.

(Housemate has a PS3. I have a big stick.)

The gameplay is alright. Combat is rather generic, but still fun. Has a few nice little touches to spice it up. Platforming is usually a bit too linear, but, once again, is still fairly fun.

Has a couple of issues though.

First, the camera. Jesus fucking Christ. When will game developers learn that fixed camera angles are for bloody movies? This is a game. Let me control the damn camera.
Second, the movement controls. They're a bit clunky and sometimes unresponsive. For example, Monkey has a terrible habit of rolling when you want him to jump.

Okay, praise time.

Story and characters. Simple, but good. Surprisingly good.

In short, this is what an adventure game should be. Two likeable characters with an interesting relationship going on a big ol' journey through an awesome landscape.

Speaking of awesome landscapes, this game has bloody gorgeous visuals. With actual colour. Fuck the Capital Wasteland, this is what post-apocalyptia should look like.

Also, before I forget, the voice acting and motion capture is excellent.

...

Come to think of it, Enslaved reminds me of the Uncharted games. Except the main character isn't an arrogant prick. And the story is more interesting. And the visual design is prettier. And the setting is better.

Zhukov wrote:Story and characters. Simple, but good. Surprisingly good.

In short, this is what an adventure game should be. Two likeable characters with an interesting relationship going on a big ol' journey through an awesome landscape.

Speaking of awesome landscapes, this game has bloody gorgeous visuals. With actual colour. Fuck the Capital Wasteland, this is what post-apocalyptia should look like.

Also, before I forget, the voice acting and motion capture is excellent.

...

Come to think of it, Enslaved reminds me of the Uncharted games. Except the main character isn't an arrogant prick. And the story is more interesting. And the visual design is prettier. And the setting is better.

Yeah, the story, setting and characters is what really drew me. The gameplay is decent enough, but not the main selling point of the game. What really has me sold was the art direction I saw in the game. As you said, with actual colour.

At the same time, I LOVE Fallout 3, but Enslaved is amazing in terms of setting in its own right. It reminds me of a question a guy I just became friends with from my course asked me yesterday: which is better, the moment you come out of the sewer tunnel at the start of Oblivion or the moment you come out of the vault in Fallout 3? It's hard to decide.

Also, I did love the voice-acting. I love Monkey's voice. And I like how the relationship between the characters seems real. At the start they were trying anything and everything to sell each other short.

Renegade_Turner wrote:And I like how the relationship between the characters seems real.

Ditto.

In particular, I like how Trip is very apologetic about the whole headband scenario. Also, the way that Monkey is rather accepting of his situation. He doesn't like it, but he clearly understands why she did it and he doesn't get all angsty over it.

In my mind, that alone puts him ahead of about... ohh, say, 70% of all video game protagonists ever.

Renegade_Turner wrote:Also, I did love the voice-acting. I love Monkey's voice.

He's voiced by Andy Serkis. Best known as Gollum in the Lord of the Rings movies. Presumably Mr Serkis did the motion capture as well.

In terms of protagonists, I still think God Of War's Kratos is superior. Why? Because he is a homicidal psychopathic maniac who stabs the hell out of anything and everything in his way or slightly out of it, including harmless animals and civilians. Other video games protagonists seem to have an on/off switch for their badass mode, if they even have a badass mode to begin with; Kratos is stuck in automatic badass mode. I don't care if it's fueled by rage for the deceptive slaughter of his wife and child, that's just how he rolls.



...oh, not that I'm saying that he's more deeply developed or has a better personality than Monkey, I just thoroughly enjoyed repainting half of Greece with blood over the course of a few hours.

As far as the Enslaved demo goes, I haven't played it yet and therefore can't contribute to the thread with anything other than arbitrary comparisons to God Of War

Kratos? Wait... what? When did...?

Oh fine, I'll bite.

Kratos was good in the first game. But then they went and made a sequel. And the sequel was written by a different guy. And that guy who was about half as competent as whoever wrote the first game.

Besides, the strength of his characterization is undermined by the fact that video games are hopelessly saturated by homicidal badasses out to avenge the deaths of blah blah blaaarrrhg. Kratos almost gets lost in the crowd.
Also, he's kind of a bastard. Granted, he's a well realised bastard, but as the end of the day I would still prefer a protagonist with a bit of... I dunno... humanity? Decency? That general kind of stuff... whatever.

Aaaannnd now I'm getting so tired that my post structure is falling apart. So instead of a proper post, here is a highly entertaining video and an article. (Clickity - click.) They explain everything better then I ever could.

Basically, Trip & Monkey > Kratos.

So there.

Jesus Christ, I need sleep.

Look, all I'm concerned about is the fact that Kratos could probably level a mountain with his dick. Not even Yahtzee can change my opinion on this, misguided as it is. Hell, I remember playing the GoW3 demo- there was one section where you're moving on the ledge of a burning building, and about halfway through an innocent civilian hops out of the window and onto the ledge where he shits his pants and cowers in fear. It's not even possible to jump over him or get him down safely- the only course of action is to grab him by the back of the head, slam him face-first into the concrete until said concrete is saturated with blood, and then throw him off into the depths of a valley overrun by creatures from the underworld. Monkey would not do that. Maybe it's because Monkey has a soul, but still.

Ragdollmaster wrote:Look, all I'm concerned about is the fact that Kratos could probably level a mountain with his dick.

with his dick.

his dick.

dick.

And so Ragdollmaster sums up the entire God of War series in one sentence.

Hey, he's not that big of a dick. Granted he slaughters a lot of gods for no reason, and maybe he drains an innocent civilian of their life force every now and then for his own purposes, but at least he makes it all look cool. I think that justifies it all.

One hip thrust could level a city.

That's debatable. Also, I have no idea how the above picture relates at all to the topic at hand, I just found it rather humorous.

Freshbite wrote: I get a feeling that I didn't miss out on much more than an unprovoked slaughter, with a touch of nonsense on the top, that's been added just for good measure.

A very fun unprovoked slaughter :u

Nah, slaughtering humans with guns and anthrax-infested cow heads is boring. Slaughtering zombies, demons, cyclopeses (cyclopi?), ogres, griffins, Medusas, goblins, Titans, Gods, snake people, minotaurs, Chimeras, sirens, and Gorgons with giant flaming swords, hammers, spears, and humans, on the other hand, is quite entertaining.

Especially since God Of War looks fucking amazing. Next to Shadow Of The Colossus, the MGS series, and the Ace Combat series, GoW 1 + 2 are probably the best looking games on PS2.