Enslaved: Odyssey to the West hits PC, with a stick

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West hails from 2010, an era of over-enthusiastic bloom effects, when Uncharted 2 ruled as the go-to model for third person platforming. It's prescriptive clambering sections may lack the fluidity of the Prince of Persia and Uncharted games that inspired them, and the stick-heavy combat is reminiscent of Beyond Good and Evil, but it is set in a glowing, colourful post-apocalypse that warrants exploration, especially at a budget price.

Also, you play a guy called Monkey. Yes, a warrior called Monkey wielding a stick. That may remind some of a certain television series . Both are based on Wu Cheng'en's Chinese novel, Journey to the West, the story of a Buddhist monk's pilgrimage to retrieve important Buddhist scriptures. In Enslaved the monk, Tripitaka, is a young woman trying to reach her home town, and the whole thing is set 150 years in the future, in post-apocalyptic New York overrun by mechs.

It's a game with neat ideas, then, helped by Ninja Theory's satisfying thwunk-heavy combat and lead performances from Andy Serkis, of Gollum fame, and Lindsey Shaw. Enslaved is on Steam now for £15 / $20, and comes with the "Pigsy's Perfect 10" DLC mission. It looks a bit like this:

Tom Senior

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.