Enslaved: Odyssey to the West - Review

This is my first review so I hope you enjoy it. List are easier for the human mind to understand, easier to write, and easier to read. So here you go...

• Everything in this game is very cinematic. From the character models to the environments.
• Voice acting is great and characters have real personality to them. They are layered instead of stereotyped. Monkey has a cool and relaxed personality, Trip is charming and smart. 
• Trip seems bossy and loves to point out the obvious (woman, I'm I right fellas), she doesn't do it all the time but it makes you think that the dev team didn't have much faith in you. Also, even thought Trip controls you, you are given a command wheel to control her. (Irony) 
• Camera can change on you and turn your movements around, (the Resident Evil effect). Not a huge problem, but it happens when you least expect it. 
• Not knowing where to jump to next is confusing as you can see areas that look right for jumping on, but can't. And other areas that are too far to jump, but you can. This makes you feel really stupid when some areas are glowing for you. But they glow with a lite white and that mixed with the shiny Unreal engine makes it hard to see. I looked in the menu to see if I could change the color, but no. 
• There's one parts where you must control machinery by telling Trip to turn it on or off but it doesn't follow your commands very well and you have to flip the switch back in forth before is will do anything. And sometimes the off will work as the on and vis versa. 
• The combat system is by far the biggest problem in the game. The game seems to act as though your attacks do random amounts of damage. “X, X, X, X ,Y”, will kill a normal enemy no problem, but if you try, “X, X, X, Y, X”, you will have to hit it one more time. And the game doesn't add combos so you are not doing extra damage with the first combination. This game also suffers from, “Gang Rape”. Thats when you are fighting far more than you can handle. You can only focus on one enemy at a time leaving you open from the sides and back. And some targets are more important than others. Such as the one trying to summon more enemies when all of a sudden every villain in the room is in your face except the one you want! You also can't lock-on to enemies like in most action games now-a-days. Enemies with shields will be your biggest threat in this game. The game seems to encourage the use of your own shield but the only time you want to use it seems to be on the only attacks that can't be blocked! It's also doesn't help that your shield has a timer and it only faces one direction. So with no lock-on you have to run around with a shield that's about to go out while making sure that they don't hit you from the back or sides. And using the only thing that can remove shields will either be, out of ammo, or doesn't work after multiple shots even if you have the ammo. 
• The scenes of you on the bike look really cheap. I mean really, really cheap.
• The final battle will give you reusable ammo and health (as you'll need it). And throughout the whole fight they are in one place but at the most important part of the battle they move them! No reason. Just happens. 
• A surprising thing is that the game will also teleport enemies next to you. There is one event where you are running from a Dog (the thing from the cover) and he was on the other side of the room one minute and the next his in my face. Only happened twice to me but still, watch out!
• Good game, about 8 hours long and goes all, “Silent Hill 2” on you at the end. Game has an auto-save and you must replay the game to get some of the achievements.

[Fun Note] At one point there is a fence that has electricity holding some enemies at bay but as soon as you cut the power one of them jumps over the fence, is that not crazy?

In the end it would seem as though I ripped this game a new one. But in fact I really liked this game. With all of it's problems, they are ultimately very miner. For they are only the sum of it's parts. As a whole the game puts so much detail into the world, story, and characters that the “game” part of this game seems added on. I think this would have done great as a CG movie. I hate to say it as I would love to see more from this series and studio but wait for it to go to $20 and then jump on it.