Much of Namco Bandai’s upcoming slate of games seem to have a subtext of partnership to them. Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom pairs a human and a monster and Time Crisis: Razing Storm pairs gun-wielding commandos. But those duos want to be helping each other. That’s not necessarily the case in the Japanese publisher’s high-profile action game Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.
The game takes inspiration from the Chinese epic novel Journey to the West, which details the mythical Monkey King’s quest to retrieves Buddhist sutras from India. However, it’s only very loosely based the ancient text, taking the headband that forces obedience, the telescoping combat staff and the main character’s name of Monkey from Journey to the West. Enslaved happens in the far future in a world ravaged by a succession of large-scale conflicts. Slavers run rough-shod over this world, piloting huge ships that kidnap people and put them to work. Enslaved’s two main characters meet during a fateful escape effected by Trip, a female tech adept. When Trip hijacks a ship, a burly captive named Monkey tries to hitch a ride. They crash onto a post-apocalyptic New York City, tumbling into the remains of Grand Central Station. They both get knocked unconscious and things become radically different when each one wakes up.
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Trip got a look at how strong and rebellious Monkey was on the ship and slaps an obedience headband onto him to commandeer his free will. The frailer former captive figures that she’ll need his brawn to get back to her home commune in one piece. Their relationship’s a lot more complicated than the usual buddy-cop style partnerships in most action games. Monkey’s a loner who knows that people huddling in groups are just juicy targets for the slavers and just wants to fend for himself. And though Trip’s actions may make her seem less than virtuous, she’s just doing what she needs to in order to get home.
The section of the game I watched had Monkey and Trip trying to get across a part of Grand Central guarded by robotic sentinels leftover from one of the many wars of the past. In terms of gameplay, Ninja Theory’s trying to meld a smooth flow of acrobatic platforming, melee combat and environmental puzzle-solving. Monkey’s as agile as his namesake and the destroyed environments give ample opportunity for leaps, grabs, pole-spinning and shimmying. You’re rewarded for good traversal by making it harder for enemy gunfire to track you, and you’ll get shot off a perch if you stand still. Trip won’t be able to take out enemy bots by herself but she won’t be totally useless either. She’ll be able to use her wrist computer to project holograms that draw enemies’ attention away or stun them with an EMP burst. As she earns new abilities, players will be able to input certain actions for Trip through a Command Wheel mechanic. Each character sometimes need to distract enemies so the other can cross treacherous terrain so it might be Monkey using his shield to draw fire or Trip’s holograms.
Enslaved’s the product of Ninja Theory, the dev studio that made the PS3 launch game Heavenly Sword. While the gameplay got repetitive in HS, the presentation got raves with its use of performance capture. The tech took motion capture to the next level by simultaneously recording the vocal work and physical gestures of an actor; that data would then be mapped onto a character model for extremely realistic and emotive portrayals. WETA–Peter Jackson’s New Zealand tech collective behind the effects magic of the Lord of the Rings movies–helped build the first iteration of Ninja Theory’s performance capture capabilities. But, this time, the British developer created the tech themselves. Renowned motion actor Andy Serkis portrayed multiple characters in Heavenly Sword and directed all the performances, too. In Enslaved, he plays Monkey and supervises all the mo-cap acting again. The characters emote in amazing ways and the dialogue’s designed to give a constant sense of how their relationship changes throughout the adventure.
The post-apocalyptic world of Enslaved–with old landmarks like the Empire State Building being swallowed up by moss–looks amazing and overall, it stands to improve what we expect as far as how game characters look and feel. The game drops on October 5th for PS3 and Xbox 360. We’ll have more in the coming months on Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.