Ninja Theory's new game: Enslaved

[Cornsnake]

Not all games need to have good stories. But games that they are willing to spend that much money on for motion capturing and voice acting should at least have a good story IMO. HS was just mess story wise if you ask me. On one side you have the villains with all their overacting, which works pretty by itself. And on the other side are the good guys, who with all their drama probably want to be taken seriously. Those two don't work too well when you put them together in the same cutscene. And Nariko is just bad a female lead as the usual stereotype. She an emotional wreck, often only motivated by angst. Of course that is quite a popular character trait these days as well.

I'm not asking for some hugely complicated storylines. Depending on the type of game a short, but good, story will do.

 

[Akumajou]

Not all games need to have good stories. But games that they are willing to spend that much money on for motion capturing and voice acting should at least have a good story IMO. HS was just mess story wise if you ask me. On one side you have the villains with all their overacting, which works pretty by itself. And on the other side are the good guys, who with all their drama probably want to be taken seriously. Those two don't work too well when you put them together in the same cutscene. And Nariko is just bad a female lead as the usual stereotype. She an emotional wreck, often only motivated by angst. Of course that is quite a popular character trait these days as well.

I'm not asking for some hugely complicated storylines. Depending on the type of game a short, but good, story will do.

I am guess you or your ideal character would not be an emotional wreck when your village and your people are being hunted down and killed for fun eh? ever watch a movie called Azumi, the character in that game is a female lead that gets her emotions wrecked with the reality of the times...real war when you are on the attacked and defending and losing side is not going to help keep your emotions nice and disney land healthy safe.

Its a fantasy world, in heavenly sword, now a days we have police officers that while some may abuse their power some do actually help to keep you safe and being a woman is not easy, the concept of being a chosen woman is even harder still as it means you cannot escape your fate, maybe you missed that part of the story, still its just a game that was released before the console's one year anniversary, a game that hardly is benefitting from the advanced develeopment tools available now on PS3

 

[nightshade]

the concept of being a chosen woman is even harder still as it means you cannot escape your fate, maybe you missed that part of the story,

Even more so when you realize that everyone expected a "man" to be the chosen person in the game world instead of a woman.

 

[Akumajou]

Even more so when you realize that everyone expected a "man" to be the chosen person in the game world instead of a woman.

Yeah that pretty much is the cliche it gets taken for granted, imagine if she was Afro American instead

 

[Billy Idol]

Tried this game at the MS booth. not impressed to be honest. Felt like a Prince of Persia clone (the one game which was so easy and had this cell shading look).
The graphics did not click with me neither...

 

[patsu]

What's in the demo ?

 

[Billy Idol]

The demo is called Escape or so. You playing Monkey and at the beginning cannot even fight. It is kind of platforming introduction until you get your power gloves + stick or something like this. But the platforming was exactly what felt Prince of Persia style: you could not do anything wrong? You could not fail a jump and everything felt non-challenging. Of corse it is a demo and I have to wait how it develops. But the graphics where not so great either...especially in character close ups, the shadows looked very ugly (flickering, a lot of artefacts, saw toothy....) - but it was somehow a cool setting because it was kind of air ship thing...and you even got outside this ship and platform there...fighting was ok, but enemies where a little bit boring in this demo, I think I have to wait until the reviews kick in (how is the diversity, how much gameplay and how much fighting, puzzles?)

 

[Black kolobok]

Not all games need to have good stories. But games that they are willing to spend that much money on for motion capturing and voice acting should at least have a good story IMO. HS was just mess story wise if you ask me. On one side you have the villains with all their overacting, which works pretty by itself. And on the other side are the good guys, who with all their drama probably want to be taken seriously. Those two don't work too well when you put them together in the same cutscene. And Nariko is just bad a female lead as the usual stereotype. She an emotional wreck, often only motivated by angst. Of course that is quite a popular character trait these days as well.

I'm not asking for some hugely complicated storylines. Depending on the type of game a short, but good, story will do.

Hmm, you give pretty accurate description to characters, but these things don't necessarily make them bad. I always thought of the story playing out as a scene play in front of an audience. Exaggerated monologues are intended and performed by excellent voice actors adding to memorable flare that so many people long for now that Heavenly Sword has been abandoned by developer.

 

[P on the rocks]

Sort of off-topic question here, but I keep hearing all this praise for HS's story and I'm wondering, am I the only one who didn't like it?

No, you are not. I finished the game and wondered about what kind of insight am I supposed to gain out of this. Nariko proves to her people that women are just as good as men but she does so by measuring herself by the same criteria that would apply to men: beating bad guys (while wearing not much more than a bikini). As if a woman couldn't prove her worth any other way.

This is the same naive (to use a kind word), videogamey picture of a "strong female" that Tomb Raider has and it is more insulting than anything else. Jade from Beyond Good & Evil does a much better job at this and it's not even trying that hard.

Other than that, I appreciate the work they put in their storytelling but thought the characters were flat, the dialogue mostly boring and getting predictable pretty fast and the over-acting tiring. Also, who does decide that it is a good idea to have five one-liners that are repeated in boss-battles on and on?

Lastly, I don't remember a fighting game that had a worse framerate than Heavenly Sword.

Still, I am pretty optimistic about their new game. The fights seem readable and more satisfying, the framerate looks better, navigation through the world more interesting and these guys made Kung Fu Chaos which was excellent.

 

[Cornsnake]

Hmm, you give pretty accurate description to characters, but these things don't necessarily make them bad. I always thought of the story playing out as a scene play in front of an audience. Exaggerated monologues are intended and performed by excellent voice actors adding to memorable flare that so many people long for now that Heavenly Sword has been abandoned by developer.

The villains were entertaining to watch at least. It's just a shame they serve mostly as boss battles. Just when you think your going to get some background story on them they're dead and forgotten. We know Flying Fox killed Kai's mother. We don't know why though. But then she kills him and that's it. It's a revenge story stripped to it's core.

No, you are not. I finished the game and wondered about what kind of insight am I supposed to gain out of this. Nariko proves to her people that women are just as good as men but she does so by measuring herself by the same criteria that would apply to men: beating bad guys (while wearing not much more than a bikini). As if a woman couldn't prove her worth any other way.

This is the same naive (to use a kind word), videogamey picture of a "strong female" that Tomb Raider has and it is more insulting than anything else. Jade from Beyond Good & Evil does a much better job at this and it's not even trying that hard.

It wouldn't have been so bad if they had at least shown her being "strong" in some other way in addition to beating up bad guys. And actual strong women usually don't go around actively trying to prove themselves to be strong. That just smacks of low self esteem.

 

[patsu]

The villains were entertaining to watch at least. It's just a shame they serve mostly as boss battles. Just when you think your going to get some background story on them they're dead and forgotten. We know Flying Fox killed Kai's mother. We don't know why though. But then she kills him and that's it. It's a revenge story stripped to it's core.

Well.. in that simple sentence, I think they have done exceptionally well in portraying the characters and acting out the events. The part where

Spoiler

Flying Fox snapped Kai's neck

, I instinctively went all out on him to try to save her in time although there's no timer on screen. The entire experience is rather engaging.

If they can do award winning story, it's even better. I think the fundamental challenge is it takes time to work a good fiction alone.

 

[Kittonwy]

The story in Heavenly Sword was pretty good, for a game that has to have the rating it has while featuring a female lead character.

The story while pretty good for a first year console game was not super duper mindblowing or original then again what is really can we make a comparison here? the voice acting and motion capturing combined together to deliver and make the story more of an experience than just waiting for the corny, predictable cliche hero moments and you gotta keep in mind this is from a game dev with at the time only ONE previous game under their belt and as well as a game that was released just under a year of the game console being in retail with the very limited knowledge of PS3 that now would give Ninja Theory a whole new take but yes the problem now is they are multiplatform to test the waters while using the Unreal Engine 3, a highly overrated engine but well see how it turns out. Im not buying it though, I would have preferred that they would have had a second PS3 only project hell it would have been nice if Factor 5 was still around but...

It was a real shame that Heavenly Sword got blasted as a 6 hour game with no online multiplayer and unfair comparisons (go back and read or watch the reviews, G4tv, Gametrailers, IGN, Gamespot, etc) I got the game as part of a free game with PS3 promotion, been gaming for over 10+ years and consider myself well skilled having beatend some really tough games even cheap ones yet the game took me a little over 8 hours, I could pick appart flaws but when I also come to my senses that its a near launch game it would be really nitpicking because this is cinematic action game.

But who knows she did not have Lara Croft's breasts (then again Lara has yet to have HS like graphics!!) Nariko was also not a male lead with a hood or bulky armor and the ending with its seemingly "the end?" tone could have turned reviewers off too, they tend to overcritisize yet over praise or give too much coverage to other games.

Uncharted 1 almost fell under the HS 6 hours online media curse (of anything in the first two or even up to now years of PS3 equals do not buy or bad media circus) too then again that game came out much later with a much larger installed base probably snapping it up allowing it to break even despite critisizim to get to Uncharted 2

I have been keeping a close eye on this game though, unfortunatly I am stuck in taking a wait and see how this game pans out, once the game is released i guess I'll know what Ninja Theory's scope is in making enslaved.

The problem with Heavenly Sword is that the gameplay lacked variety, combat was two dimenional, and the player moved through the environments via corridors with invisible walls and ladders that worked via button prompts, and there was little to no real traversal to speak of. Controls-wise Ninja Theory just didn't get why having a jump button would make the game way better.

Uncharted 1 was fundamentally a far better game, it had both gunplay and traversal/platforming working well and the two were a good fit, what's more was that the player was always in control of the character.

Heavenly Sword was reviewed relatively fairly, aside from the visuals and the production values, it brought nothing else to the table, gameplay-wise it took a step back from what this current generation should represent, more freedom, more player control, more player involvement.

 

[patsu]

Heavenly Sword has good use of SIXAXIS. I liked Kai's segment more than Nariko's.

 

[thop]

I can already tell sales will be poor.

 

[dragonelite]

first 15 min looks so epic but dont like the over done animation.
http://www.destructoid.com/see-enslaved-s-full-opening-the-escape--183204.phtml

 

[JB9861]

I can already tell sales will be poor.

How can you tell? I think this and castlevania will do pretty well. Can't remember when they release though so maybe I'll flip flop.

 

[kagemaru]

Just watched this video preview:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPKOy1m2yf8

And while the environments look like your typical UE3, the character models look pretty damn good IMO.

 

[Ruskie]

I dont know why everybody go so crazy about this game but it looks like your regular action game with ordinary graphics.Epic updated their engine quite good lately but this game still looks quite meh IMO ofcoruse.

 

[dragonelite]

I dont know why everybody go so crazy about this game but it looks like your regular action game with ordinary graphics.Epic updated their engine quite good lately but this game still looks quite meh IMO ofcoruse.

Think everybody is a bit done with shooters and a nice platformer is a welcomed change. Atleast for me i dont like the overdone animation swinging arms and foot when jumping who the fuck even does that when jumping a gap. Hope we can use the stick also for some platforming like Pole vaulting did this a lot when i was a child.

 

[Bigduo209]

The first 30 minutes of the game:
http://ps3.nowgamer.com/video/play/1191/enslaved-the-first-30-minutes