A well-told story, emotionally rich characters, and satisfying combat come together, but stumble in key areas (just like this sentence), resulting in a good, but not a great game.

SPOILER ALERT - this post includes spoilers. You have been warned.

Enslaved is The Canonical 7. Even on metacritic, as of 5/25/2016, it has a score of exactly 70. At every turn and in every department, the game has a strength that is offset or held back by some weakness. The combat is weighty and satisfying, but lacks depth. The characters are likeable and expressive, but never really achieve catharsis. The collectibles are provocative and interesting, but amount to nothing in the end. The world is expansive and enticing, but the levels are unflinchingly linear and confining. The developers released DLC, but it focuses on Pigsy, a crude sidekick that I have no interest in.

The game opens with an exciting prison-break sequence, as the player is introduced to core mechanics while trying to survive and escape a slave ship aircraft careening out of control on a one-way trip to the ground. (Actually this introduction is even more exciting when you replay the game on hard, because you are already familiar with the mechanics and are able to become engrossed in the story and action in-the-moment.) If you know nothing about the game’s story going into it, this introductory sequence includes a significant Wow Moment, as the ship hurtles past the tip of the Statue of Liberty’s torch, instantly orienting (or shocking in my case) unsuspecting players about where the game takes place.

You play as Monkey, who starts out as a self-sufficient, brash loner. He is an every-man in the same way that Nathan Drake is an every-man. Soon, though, you are enslaved by Trip, the tech-savvy hacker girl who started the prison break, when she slaps a headband on you that can kill you at her whim. They also use the headband as a narrative device to explain the game’s HUD, which is a neat touch. After that, Monkey quickly evolves into more or less the most stoic, well-adjusted man who ever lived. While the game is not his story, Monkey is nevertheless a hero who should be emulated IRL for his helpful, supportive, forgiving, caring way. Take note, narcissistic denizens of the internet cesspool (which is another way I say “note to self”).

Along their journey and throughout the story, Monkey and Trip (and eventually the sidekick Pigsy) experience and express a wealth of emotions across the spectrum of the Human Experience. That sounds obvious, even banal, but it matters in Enslaved, because the emotions are communicated through masterfully executed facial animations. And that is on top of good dialog and a good story. And on top of that, the developers paid attention to details in the character full-body animations, infusing them with even more life. In one scene, Pigsy hops out of a boat, bobbing and lurching, as is his manner, while Monkey and Trip simply step out and walk away.

The combat in Enslaved has weight. It nails the sticky friction at the end of each encounter, with a slow motion kill shot and closeup of Monkey, capturing and channeling the player’s own “Yes!” moment through the gritted teeth of determination. That release is the player’s catharsis through combat - action - which carries the game. Longing for the next dance with enemy Mechs keeps the player moving. It is true that you can button-mash your way through most of the encounters. But combat is slightly deeper, allowing you to uncover nuance in the action if you care to dig.

And yet the combat is too shallow. Monkey has light and heavy attacks, each with a chain of moves, along with dodge, block, and a charge-up sweeping attack that can be purchased in the upgrades.

The upgrades. This system felt incredibly pointless, aside from unlocking the one move, or adding a stun to it. I suspect Tough Guys play this game NSG-style a la FFX (that’s No Sphere Grid, AKA no upgrades). Except that “NSG mode” in Enslaved is a far less substantial challenge. It might even be a challenge achievable by Casuals, and heaven(ly sword) help you if you should bear the shame of being branded a Casual.

“Shallow” is too vague a term to explain. The crux of the problem with combat is that each enemy is essentially the same formula: hit, or induce the enemy to attack, then dodge-roll and counter attack to open up a chance to launch a chain of moves. This works for all the non-boss enemies. Eventually you can purchase a high-powered attack chain that is charged up by landing several hits in a row. This super combo is simply held in reserve for the toughest minions who show up during encounters, so they can be unceremoniously dispatched shortly after they arrive at the party. While various enemy types have different abilities, they all fall prey to this same methodology, reducing combat to a simple formula. Even though exciting fights are still found in the campaign (at least in the initial playthrough), this formula ultimately holds the combat back and made a subsequent playthrough uninteresting for me.

Finally, a word about the collectibles. I have no way to transition to this topic from combat, so you will have to accept this awkward segue, because I must grouse about the visions. (Or if this were a YouTube video, perhaps I would say, in a post-modern marketing way, that you can smash the like button below and recommend a better segue in the comments!)

Toward the end of the campaign, one thing became increasingly obvious: the “visions” that I had been collecting were going nowhere. These visions, which you find hidden in various places in each level, are impressions, 1-2 second glimpses of photographs - moments of “the way things used to be” - seen through a zooming fish-eye camera before zapping back to the normal game world. In the beginning I asked myself if these were flashes of insight about the future. Nope. Later I thought they might be leading me to some deeper understanding of “how the world got here”. Not that either. Finally, I realized, with Great Frustration and Disappointment, that the visions meant nothing. Yep, that. In the end, the visions are explained away as a random bag of unrelated “memories” people were holding of the past. Disgusting.

Speaking of disgusting, after beating the game, I unlocked “Pigsy’s Perfect 10” DLC. I played that for about two minutes, quitting right after the opening cutscene, because I have ZERO desire to play as Pigsy.

Also after beating the game, I unlocked different costumes for Monkey and Trip. Allow me to put on my [despicable, sexist] Pigsy hat and say that the greatest replay value in this game can be summed up in the name of one costume: “Sexy Robot Trip”.

While playing this game, I wrote notes to capture my thoughts for this writeup. I knew early on that this game would be a seven. It started as a seven. It ran its course and ended as a seven. It is a seven out of ten on any scale. You should play it.

screenshot 1 here

screenshot 2 here