Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is a hidden gem and you should try it!

Enslaved is a game from 2010, originally released for the Xbox 360 and PS3. Personally, I didn’t get to it until 2014 on PC, since a port was released the year before. It’s made by Ninja Theory, a studio most of you probably know thanks to the Hellblade series. Unfortunately, the only way to play it on consoles today is via backward compatibility on Xbox, and I’m afraid it may disappear from the Xbox Store in the future as well. Namco has never once discounted it and it honestly seems like they don’t care about the title at all. Still, the price isn’t high and physical copies are fairly easy to get, so if you haven’t played it, you should definitely give it a shot!

I’m replaying it now after many years and it’s still just as fun as it was the first time. As the name suggests, the game is inspired by the Chinese novel Journey to the West. Gameplay-wise, it’s a third-person action game with light puzzles and some platforming. Combat is fast, and so is the platforming, which is very fluid. You basically just need to press one button. Some might dislike that, but in my opinion it keeps the game smooth and snappy instead of slowing you down. That way you can fully enjoy the well-written characters and story, which is something Ninja Theory is known for.

The plot follows two protagonists. The playable character, Monkey, wears a headband given to him by the other character, Trip, which allows her to control him to a certain extent or shock him if he refuses to cooperate. Monkey is thus forced to help Trip reach her home through a post-apocalyptic world full of robots. Their initially hostile relationship slowly changes, and the game turns into a wonderfully written road trip, with the second half often bordering on outright comedy.

Not only the story, but the world’s art direction is excellent in my opinion. For its release year, it was quite original, since post-apocalyptic settings used to mean gray wastelands drained of life after nuclear war. Here, everything is vibrant, overgrown with grass and flowers. The developers even flirt with a bit of dieselpunk. Fans of the Horizon series might find something to enjoy here.

From today’s perspective, it’s a perfect example of a hidden gem. And from what I’ve noticed, hardly anyone remembers this game, which is a massive shame. It’s absolutely my favorite game of the 7th console generation. Give it a chance!