Played: Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
The palette of dystopias is usually so muted, but here the colors reach out and punch you in the face. A large portion takes place in New York City, reclaimed by nature (and mechs), and the overgrowth is just as important as the rusting buildings in terms of establishing the atmosphere.
If you’re familiar with Journey to the West, this follows similar beats, but still develops its own story. At the outset, you’re an extremely agile muscular man called Monkey, trapped aboard an airborne slave ship that’s been set to crash by a scared-looking teenager called Trip. When you come to on the ground, she’s fitted you with a headband that makes noncompliance with her requests extremely painful, thereby effectively enslaving you (and there’s the title). You journey together to first track down her family, and then destroy the slavers and find out their terrible purpose.
It’s a game with fairly straightforward gameplay - some platforming, some fighting, little variation - but a story that, while derivative, is at least interesting at every turn. It’s written by Alex Garland, who cut his teeth as a screenwriter (both 28 Days Later and Sunshine are under his name), and his penchant for injecting humour into dire situations is present here, along with some serious talent. Andy Serkis plays both Monkey and (in a bizarre sequence) another shadowy character, and nails the few lines he has; meanwhile, Lindsey Shaw (a television actress currently appearing in Pretty Little Liars) provides an emotional core that anchors the whole game.
Maybe the strangest thing about this game is that it ends on a point of uncertainty without any tidy resolution, but not in a way that feels unsatisfying - it’s the first time I’ve seen an attempt at a denouement in video games, and it works surprisingly well. Even better is the ending of the (considerably shorter) expansion, a prequel that focuses on the character of Pigsy (a deserved nickname) and his robot friend. In a sense, they’re both two distinct games in the same universe, but with similar beats. They both involve epic journeys, middling gameplay, and endings that are more food for personal reflection than satisfying air-punching victories.
I like that a game as silly as this made me think. There are surprises everywhere. Even in a game where one of the (human) characters has a tic where he can’t stop snorting, there are moments with considerable depth.