Ninja Theory's new game: Enslaved

[patsu]

Sorry Mobius1aic I missed your post. Yes lots of studio appear to be putting huge amounts of time and money into scripts and production, but I maintain that many are losing the sight of the fact that they are game developers and not motion film production studio's. Its seems to me that games of this type and now worringly other genres also seem to be driven from the bottom up by the story, with the aim of fitting a game play structure around it. Maybe I'm old school but gameplay should be the starting point and everything follows from that.

It's "worrying" because they are still feeling out the approach. I'd say something like Heavy Rain opens up the possibility instead of limiting the experience.

I don't mind the simple platforming because it allows me to get closer to the landscape/props. I can enjoy the views better. In Heavenly Sword, sometimes I wish I could get closer to the beautiful landscapes but all I could do there was gawk in between fights. In Uncharted, this is done very well. In Enslaved, they have some rough edges but it's still more interesting than watching cutscenes throughout.

 

[patsu]

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/10/28/enslaved-dlc-3d/

The critically well-received action adventure Enslaved's first piece of premium DLC will include "Pigsy's Perfect 10," a playable side-story, and add TriOviz 3D support to the game. Namco Bandai announced today that the $10 (800 Microsoft Points) DLC will be available "later this year" on PlayStation Network and Xbox 360.

Pigsy, the zaftig companion of svelte Enslaved characters Monkey and Trip, will encounter an adventure focused on "stealth and sharp-shooting." As long as there are no long stairways or narrow columns, we figure he'll be just fine. The quest will involve Pigsy assembling parts to create the "perfect woman."

 

[Rotmm]

How is the TriOviz support going to work, as the only way to buy the glasses is via the Batman special edition?

Anyway, bought the game at the last week based on the comments of patsu and overall I was pretty happy with the purchase. As has been mentioned, the platforming was very "Uncharted" in that it took no skill at all, and graphically it was ocassionally ropey. However, the story (and especially the acting) carried the weaker elements of the game enough to make it a fun experience.

 

[RenegadeRocks]

I like how they are implementing the Trioviz suport rather than the expensive shutter glasses 3D for us brthrens with no expensive 3D TVs. But how will they implement this via DLC? We'll have to buy th glasses on our own?

 

[patsu]

Gah... the blue-red glasses may cause more disappointment than entertainment. Is the patch out yet ?

 

[Sigfried1977]

Yahtzee's take on Enslaved is so spot-on it's painful.

 

[patsu]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/2409-Enslaved-Odyssey-to-the-West

 

[Cornsnake]

Yeah, I saw it yesterday, it's hilarious. I wonder if he'll do a follow-up in Extra Punctuation.

 

[Mobius1aic]

I beat my friend's copy of Enslaved yesterday. It certainly is enjoyable from the movie like aspect, but at best a rental in terms of how good a total game it is.

 

[RenegadeRocks]

Gah... the blue-red glasses may cause more disappointment than entertainment. Is the patch out yet ?

Trioviz is magenta-green , not red-cyan ! Supposed to be better than the red-cyan experience !

 

[patsu]

Ah, I didn't know that. They kinda feel cheap to me. If the effect is good, then naturally I won't reject something that's cheap and good.

 

[Sigfried1977]

And where do you get the glasses from?

 

[RenegadeRocks]

The only place I have seen them uptill now is with the Batman:AA GOTY Edition ! Tempted me to buy it ! That is the only game on ps3 which supports Trioviz 3D which I know of ! Sadly, they didn't include it in the PC GOTY Edition, otherwise I would have got it.

 

[Bigduo209]

Played it back to back with Naruto, which I also thought was far and away the more entertaining (not to mention polished) game. I was especially impressed with the story: a fighting game manages to make me tear up a little at one point. How weird is that? I definitely want to check out the anime now.

The anime has it's highs and lows, but the animation is at times crap, and compared to the game's cinematics it's definitely crap. The manga is better since it doesn't contain any filler (extra scenes or episodes not related to the actual plot), but the anime is good enough to watch if you know what to skip.

I think it's pretty clean by now that NT need to focus less on style and more on substance, if they plan on making more action games. At some point people actually want to play the game.

That was my biggest fear about this game waiting for it's release. I know NT is plenty capable of telling a good story, but I wish they'd focus more on the gameplay aspect of the titles they develop.

^I kinda agree with you. Platforming that doesn't involve skill is rather pointless. At least Uncharted masked this rather well (and unlike in Enslaved you can still fall to your death if you are careless) and also didn't separate the traversal mechanics from the gun-play. Having the ability to climb a nearby structure and pepper bad-guys with bullets from above made it a worthwhile addition despite the simplicity. Snappy, responsive controls, coupled with clever level layouts capable of highlighting the proper path without the need for blinking structures were another reason why I didn't particularly mind the traversal mechanics.

That's what I loved about Uncharted 2, the set pieces weren't as fixed as other games and it's traversal system was (as ND made it) dynamic. While there wasn't skill in the platforming and puzzle sequences, it was definitely in it's gun-play. Enslaved just doesn't have the kind of gameplay where one aspect of it works better than another.

 

[Sigfried1977]

The anime has it's highs and lows, but the animation is at times crap, and compared to the game's cinematics it's definitely crap.

I think I can deal with some crappy animation. I think the only anime I've seen where the animation was outstanding for the whole running time was Akira anyway.

 

[patsu]

http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/11/08/namco_bandai_sales/

Expected sales:

Enslaved Odyssey to the West: 1,000,000 units

Actual:

Enslaved Odyssey to the West: 800,000 units

Naruto sold better than expected (1 mil instead of 700K)

 

[Sigfried1977]

Their expectations are surprising. Their results? Not so much I'm afraid.

 

[deathindustrial]

I think the only anime I've seen where the animation was outstanding for the whole running time was Akira anyway.

Off topic but wow. . .I gather you have not watched much Anime then? Trivially easy to find examples of slick animation would include Ninja Scroll (movie), Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Afro Samurai, Samurai 7 or Last Exile. A truly beautiful Anime (both in art and sound design) would be Shigurui: Death Frenzy, very sparse but totally captivating.

Somewhat back on topic, for those who have played the full game does your opinion of this game go up if the price is lowered? I liked the demo and was thinking of picking up Enslaved once the price drops.

Cheers

 

[patsu]

I'm in it for better "acting" (character facial expressions and eyeball animation). I like the beginning better than the later part of the game. They are all button smashing but the simpler moves react better IMHO. Had to upgrade to advanced moves because the enemies got tougher.

If you like Heavenly Sword, this may appeal to you. If you hate Heavenly Sword or even LBP's sticky control, then you may hate it.

For a cheaper price (how cheap ?), I think it may be a good buy. However, do you have other games in mind ?


I thought the sales was as expected too. It's a new IP and a "new" multi-platform team. There are still room for improvement. I hope they figure out a cheaper way to do the acting and mo-cap.

 

[Sigfried1977]

Off topic but wow. . .I gather you have not watched much Anime then? Trivially easy to find examples of slick animation would include Ninja Scroll (movie), Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Afro Samurai, Samurai 7 or Last Exile. A truly beautiful Anime (both in art and sound design) would be Shigurui: Death Frenzy, very sparse but totally captivating.

Somewhat back on topic, for those who have played the full game does your opinion of this game go up if the price is lowered? I liked the demo and was thinking of picking up Enslaved once the price drops.

Cheers

I've actually seen almost all the animes you listed, and I don't think they even compare to be honest. I think the only ones that come reasonably close are the Ghibli movies, but even they suffer from cheap 3-frame dialogue animations and choppier animations in general. I'm pretty sure they don't run at 24 fps most of the time, unlike Akira.

Come to think of it, I think the closest ones in terms of quality are actually Metropolis and Steamboy. Both by Otomo as well and both produced just as lavishly (or almost at least)