“Enslaved: Odyssey to the West” delivers a bland and lukewarm perspective on the end of the world.

The story is set 150 years into a post-apocalyptic future, and focuses on two characters, Monkey and Trip, who wind up working together towards a common goal.

Along the way, the two are met with hundreds of enemies in the form of mechs. These mechs range from androids to robotic creatures that most resemble 7 foot iguanas, dogs and even dragons.

Trip can’t often make the jumps and climbs that Monkey can, so the player is given the ability to carry her. She hops onto Monkey’s back and he’ll piggy-back her across long winded jumps, and he can toss her up to certain ledges she couldn’t normally reach.

Trip isn’t completely useless though. Using technology, she sets up holograms that distract mechanized turrets.

Monkey fights with a staff that doubles for both long and close range combat. There are two different projectiles available in colored cylinders; orange for damage and blue to stun. These projectiles are limited, but for some enemies they’re necessary. The player cannot defeat certain mechs without these projectiles.

There were so many methods in combat, but they were all so glaringly different it just felt cluttered. It might’ve worked better had they kept just two of the options. The projectile cylinders and the button-mash staff may have been enough so long as the upgrades were still available.

The game also features upgrade options to beef up your character in strength, speed and health. They are purchased using orange spheres placed all over the terrain.
Overall, the combat was severely lack luster. It was more or less a button masher for the first hour and a half. The platform hopping gets old as Monkey’s climbing animation takes forever, and the landscape can get very confusing as it’s mostly comprised of rusty pipes and moss.

It’s very obvious that the developers put a lot of effort into trying to make this game unique. There were a ton of puzzles put in place to try and spice things up, but it just got tedious. Some of the parts weren’t so well explained and then puzzles became more trial and error, which easily gets frustrating.

Trip has zero personality. Yes, she’s clearly brainy, but her demeanor is frustratingly timid and one dimensional. It was hard to form any kind of character/player bond with her at all. She barely showed any emotions other than fear and it came across as bland.

The set designs were pretty but not spectacular.

The game can currently be found for $15, and that’s about as much as it’s worth.