Enslaved in the spotlights

Driftwood
Tuesday, September 7, 2010 | 7:30 PM
22 comments

Images Xbox 360 PS3

One of our most favorite games of last Gamescom was undoubtebly Enslaved, the new game by Ninja Theory, the makers of the disappointing Heavenly Sword. Needless to say we have great expectations for the game and we are really looking forward to finding out if we were right. Some will find a kind of family resemblance between Trip and Nariko, but I'm sure all of you will agree that it will be difficult not to fall in love with Trip considering how lovely she is. That being said, Namco-Bandai just released what can only be called an avalanche of colorful new screenshots showing Monkey in action to convince us of the real potential of the game.

30 images

lastdual

Commented on 2010-09-07 19:37:22

This is one of those games I have to play just to experience the world. Looking forward to the gaming overload I will have from picking up both this and Castlevania at the same time...

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This message and account have been deleted at the user's request

Zarsky

Commented on 2010-09-07 19:50:32

This might just be one of the games I have to buy when I buy my first console...

In reply to

abcgamer

Commented on 2010-09-07 20:00:18

Not getting this but I think art is really good and it looks nice

In reply to

nepton

Commented on 2010-09-07 20:09:02

Some in-game screenshots: http://www.spelmedia.se/nyhet/466/en-radda-egentag...

In reply to

KORNdog

Commented on 2010-09-07 20:19:35

i just can't make my mind up about this one. it sometimes looks really nice visually, and othertimes looks bland and crappy, but the gameplay just looks clunky and boring. i saw footage of monkey man climbing all over a ship hurtling to the ground, smashing through buildings. a scene that should have been suspensful, intense and exciting, just looked devoid of life. just seemed by the numbers and boring. it's weird.

even the platforming (by far the best bit imo) looks really clunky, with odd transitions between animations. i dunno. need a demo i think. so far it's a definate rental. seems like it's worth the time, but not necissarily worth the money.

In reply to

nepton

Commented on 2010-09-07 20:36:20

KORNdog: I suppose you know the reason behind the visuals that sometimes looks fantastic and sometimes crappy: Unreal Engine 3 :P

In reply to

KORNdog

Commented on 2010-09-07 20:46:24 In reply to nepton

Posted by nepton

KORNdog: I suppose you know the reason behind the visuals that sometimes looks fantastic and sometimes crappy: Unreal Engine 3 :P

well that explains a lot. what engine did heavenly sword use? i dont remember it being the UE3 engine? but if it wasnt, why didnt they just use that again? optimise it, improve upon it, job done.

In reply to

nepton

Commented on 2010-09-07 21:09:29

Nope, Heavenly Sword used their own engine, or otherwise some of Sonys I suppose. Not Unreal Engine 3, atleast, I'm sure of that.

Too bad they chosed to use Unreal Engine 3 for this game, but I guess it was since it was already optomised for 360 which made the development process easier... :(

In reply to

java4ever

Commented on 2010-09-07 21:36:33

Heavenly Sword performance wise sucked ass... some of the worst tearing ever, something really baffling for a game not-fps. Hopping NTheory gets it this time, at least make it so the fighting animation isn't as horrid, even if this isn't a 100% hack n' Slash, it shows like a sore thumb.

In reply to

Freditor

Commented on 2010-09-07 21:45:45

What bothers me is that the preview of the PS3 version on gametrailers showed a LOT of screen-tearing.

In reply to

KORNdog

Commented on 2010-09-07 21:49:12 In reply to java4ever

Posted by java4ever

Heavenly Sword performance wise sucked ass...

...and yet looked better. but that's why i said they could have improved upon it and optimised it. seems weird to just drop an entire engine that i assume they worked on for years only to move to the UE3 engine of all things.

unless of course sony somehow owned the engine? but i'm sure heavenly sword was running on the 360 at one point when ninja theory where trying to find publishers, so it couldnt have been sonys. maybe sony took the engine with the IP when they signed the published contract?. could explain why ninja theory seem so bitter towards sony these days. they say it's down to sales. but i doubt that. i mean, it sold well considering it came out when the userbase was so small. what did they expect? 8 million sales?

In reply to

Splicer261

Commented on 2010-09-07 22:03:59

i liked heavenly sword, apart from being too short, i enjoyed it

The artstyle was stunning, gameplay was great and it had a great story.

Enslaved looks to be a fun and great game, we need more action/adventure games..the problem with this generation of gaming, we don't have enough of them and when we do get them, they only quench our thirst for more and leave us in wonder (take Uncharted 2, God of War 3 for example)

In reply to

dohr07

Commented on 2010-09-07 22:52:22 In reply to KORNdog

Posted by KORNdog

...and yet looked better.

Better than Enslaved? You are dreaming, my friend!

In reply to

Driftwood

Commented on 2010-09-07 23:13:27 In reply to KORNdog

Posted by KORNdog

The engine is indeed Sony's property.

In reply to

KORNdog

Commented on 2010-09-07 23:32:32 In reply to dohr07

Posted by dohr07

Better than Enslaved? You are dreaming, my friend!

granted, it's more an art thing. less luminous, WAY better facial animations (facial animations that have yet to be bettered) but even technically heavenly sword seemed more accomplished then this (hardly surprising considering WETA's involvement). this looks pretty nice as far as UE3 games go, but it sadly retains a lot of the usual UE3 issues which spoil it (weird shimmerlyness, inconsistent texture quality, texture pop-in). if they had used the heavenly sword engine (which would have been an impossiblility it seems if what drift says is true) and built upon it, i think it could have looked amazing.

atm it seems par for the course for this gen. nice, but not as great as it could have done.

ultimately it all means nothing when the gameplay itself doesnt look all that appealing. could be the nicest looking game in the world, but if it plays like crap, i'm not really going to care.

In reply to

dohr07

Commented on 2010-09-07 23:57:20

your are kidding:

just look:

http://images.gamersyde.com/image_heavenly_sword-5...

http://images.gamersyde.com/image_heavenly_sword-5...

http://images.gamersyde.com/image_heavenly_sword-6...

http://images.gamersyde.com/image_heavenly_sword-5...

In reply to

munkini

Commented on 2010-09-08 09:15:31

Very unsure about this one...demo or no purchase.

In reply to

OpiZA

Commented on 2010-09-08 10:46:24

First 15 min. http://gamekit.co.nz/?p=5905

In reply to

OpiZA

Commented on 2010-09-08 10:53:13

Looks epic

In reply to

catfish

Commented on 2010-09-08 13:23:12 In reply to dohr07

Posted by dohr07

Those screens don't actually show off the game to best advantage...with that said, I have no doubt that if they continued with the HS engine it would look more impressive than this.... I do think this looks pretty good graphically, easily one of the best with UE3...the scale and the art are great, and overall I am satisfied...It certainly isn't on the level of games like U2 and GoW3 however...

In reply to

gow_fan

Commented on 2010-09-08 20:44:00

I think it looks average. Heavenly sword is great for its time.

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Enslaved in the spotlights

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