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Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is a modern take on the traditional Chinese novel known as Journey to the West. This platforming cum hack-and-slash game was developed by Cambridge-based Ninja Theory, the company known for developing Heavenly Sword and the upcoming Devil May Cry reboot (aka DmC).

The first chapter of the game starts you off on a crashing slave ship, which you (as Monkey) need to escape from. Fortunately, you find Trip, a technological whiz who needs to return to her home; and unfortunately, you are enslaved under her command. The game centres around Trip’s journey to her home – and her need for an escort (or slave) to get past the rampant mechs that have taken over the world.

Perhaps one of the most notable things about Enslaved is the very high quality script that bridges the chapters. The scripting is what makes the story as incredible and emotional as it is, and really gives the player an incentive to move through the game – you care about the characters, you want to know what happens to them; and the interesting relationship that Trip and Monkey have only adds to what makes the storyline such a strong aspect, especially the development of that relationship as the game progresses.

Not only that, but there is a welcome element of humour which just slips into the dialogue every now and then. It isn’t so much that you no longer take the game or the story seriously, but there’s enough there to brighten up what would otherwise be quite a dark and depressing, if not boring, journey.

The storyline to Enslaved is perhaps one of its biggest strengths.

Which brings me on to my second point, the journey itself. The first section of the game brings you to a post-apocalyptic New York, one where all life has died out but plant life has managed to recover. It’s this that gives Enslaved a unique look at an apocalyptic scenario, by bringing the plant life back in, the game feels so much more lively and looks much more breathtaking simply because there is a much more vibrant setting – one that puts the likes of Fallout, and Resistance: Fall of Man to shame.

New York isn’t the only environment you’ll get to explore though, the journey will send you to very different places – there are mountainous areas, swamp areas, and even junkyards with piles of dead mechs – all of which are very well designed and graphically breathtaking.

And that’s partly what makes this game so special – the graphics. Considering the game is built using the Unreal Engine 3, a graphics engine notorious for its poor performance on the PlayStation 3, the graphics are pretty incredible, not to mention the attention to detail and moderately consistent frame rate. What you see really does put into question whether developers of other Unreal Engine games such as Bioshock 2 really are optimising as best they could for the PlayStation.

The set pieces are incredibly detailed and vibrant, making the game a joy to look at.

As I’ve just mentioned, when things get busy on the screen, namely when there are explosions or there are quite a few enemies in close proximity, the frame rate does tend to dip and there is a noticeable amount of screen tearing at these points (very much typical problems with the engine), although there’s not enough disruption to ruin the atmosphere of the game. There are several times, however, where the textures take time to load in – at the start of levels, the textures are incredibly blurred, but these are usually spooled in within 3 seconds of starting.

One minor niggle about the game is the quality of some of the sound. The voice acting is all incredible and recorded to a high quality; however when playing in-game, some of the music and sound effects have a distorted noise in the background (perhaps due to poor encoding) which does tend to take you away from the atmosphere of the game – despite the fact that the both the soundtrack and sound effects are superb in themselves.

The gameplay, however is simple yet effective. Your time playing the game is divided (roughly equally) into two flavours – platforming and fighting. The platforming sections look impressive but hold no real challenge (it is impossible to simply fall off from high ledges) and very occasionally it is difficult to work out where to go. The lack of a challenge seems to conflict with the nature of the game, and it takes away from the excitement (most of the time) since you know that it is very difficult to get yourself killed, even in several of the deadly situations you find yourself in. You’ll also find the odd ‘invisible wall’ in the environment, which is not so much of a problem until you find areas that look like they can be entered but in reality can’t.

The game will take you to several places, each with its own platforming challenges.

Also on offer in the platforming sections is the use of Monkey’s ‘Cloud’ device – a small blue disc allowing you to surf on the water of some of the levels. The Cloud provides a nice break from the other platforming sections and, like everything else, has a responsive and intuitive feel. It’s a bit disappointing that you can’t use the Cloud device across the entire game, but the device makes enough appearances such that you get a decent go at it. The platforming in general though provides beautiful environments and responsive, intuitive controls.

The fighting sections are just as impressive and provide an upbeat edge to the game. Again, it is questionable whether the difficulty is too low for what you’d expect (even on Hard mode) but this could be just a side effect of mastering the tactical flavour added to combat sections. Collecting tech orbs from the levels (and from dead enemies) allows you to upgrade various aspects of Monkey’s abilities – like health, shield regeneration, combat moves and more – and provide a small amount of replay value to the game if you’re a completionist.

The combat is smooth and satisfying once you've mastered your technique.

One final thing which I did find every so often whilst playing the game, was the presence of glitches and bugs – although they are fairly uncommon, chances are you’ll find one or two within a playthrough. None of the glitches seem to be game-breaking (we’re talking about some enemies not appearing, or Monkey jumping into some scenery), and you’ll usually be able to find a way to break out of the glitch without resetting the game but nonetheless, gamers looking for a perfect experience will not find it here.

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is a solid platforming adventure with a lengthy, entertaining campaign. The emotional story is well constructed and paced, and the slick voice acting along with excellent scripting really enhance its impact and believability. The gameplay is solid, providing a mixture of platforming and hack-and-slash whilst maintaining a post-apocalyptic atmosphere.

The fact that Enslaved was released with AAA titles last year like Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Call of Duty: Black Ops means that it is unfortunately very commonly overlooked. But if you’re looking for a thrilling, compelling and somewhat chilling (at the end) plot and a dozen hours of fun; look no further than this amazing odyssey to the west.