Here's one from a few years back that I was able to finish off this morning. It's an action-adventure game with lots of platforming and hand-to-hand combat and even a few puzzles. You play as Monkey, a musclebound dude recently captured by a slaver ship in some post-apocalyptic future. The ship crashes and Monkey is able to escape alongside a fellow capture - a girl named Trip. Together, they must make their way back to Trip's hometown.
But there's a catch! To ensure that Monkey won't hurt her - and moreover, that he'll help her - Trip has locked a slave headband onto Monkey's head. If Monkey strays too far away from her or lets her die, the headband will kill him.
At first this game mechanic had me wary. My least favorite part of Ico was taking care of Yorda - and who among us enjoyed carrying Princess Ruto's entitled ass around inside Jabu-Jabu? As it turned out, aside from lending the game its title, the slave crown didn't really do much. Trip and Monkey worked like a beautiful team and, sure enough, developed an admiration and respect for each other along the way. In my entire play through I think the slave crown only killed me once, and it was when I dropped Trip off of a ledge by mistake. Wouldn't virtually every other game out there give you a game over for allowing a vital NPC to die in such a way? The game's tone didn't play into any master-and-slave dynamics either - there were plenty of other tropes to hit.
When it came to gameplay, Enslaved was just fine. It was smooth and easy to control without ever lagging or glitching, and in that respect it more or less met my baseline expectations of what a video game should be. Solid all around, even if it brought nothing new to the table. An easy low-risk B-plus with ordinary gameplay, generic post-apocalyptic environments, and three memorable characters. That's right, three! In addition to Monkey and Trip, there was this guy named Pigsy who joined up about two thirds into the game and provided some very welcome comic relief.
No comments:
Post a Comment