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Ninja Theory's Enslaved detailed News

PC Xbox 360 PlayStation 3
News by Robert Purchese

18 September, 2009

Ninja Theory will work with Hollywood rubber-face Andy Serkis on new PS3 and Xbox 360 game Enslaved, as the Gollum actor fills the central role of Monkey, a man whose life is spent running from robots.

That's according to the first details of the project, which tumble from a Game Informer preview read by Destructoid.

The story, written by The Beach author Alex Garland no less, takes heavy inspiration from legendary Chinese novel Journey to the West, or Monkey as it's sometimes called. This follows a monk on a divine quest; he's helped by disciples and a dragon prince which joins the journey as a white horse for the hero to ride.

Enslaved, on the other hand, takes place far in the future - decades and decades after World Wars three and four made a mess. Eventually, Monkey is captured, by robots still pursuing objectives issued years ago for a war long finished.

He awakes on an airship in the company of Trip, a young lady who needs his help to return home. Knowing his penchant for a solitary life, she's popped a skull-crushing headband on him that she will use should he object. Thus begins a fragile relationship.

Action-adventure, then, and apparently with combat similar to Heavenly Sword, only more focused on tactics. Monkey can scout areas with a reconnaissance drone-type machine to see how best to approach, and tear weapons from robots to use for himself.

Enslaved sounds to be safely on the path of cinematic storytelling that Ninja Theory displayed a knack for with Heavenly Sword. Let's hope that this time, the game mechanics match up.

Our Heavenly Sword review explains.

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Comments: 1-19 of 19

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BadBoyBonner
18/09/09 @ 11:21
#1
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Born from an egg on a mountain top
The punkiest monkey that ever popped
He knew every magic trick under the sun
To tease the Gods
And everyone and have some fun
myiagros
18/09/09 @ 11:34
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Get damon albarn onboard, so you can use the mucic from his monkey opera.
MrMarbles
18/09/09 @ 11:45
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Written by Alex Garland?

Colour me interested.

Although colour me less interested by the fact that it is set in the future. With robots.
Firvulag
18/09/09 @ 11:48
#4
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i have to say, the villain in Heavenly Sword, portrayed by Serkis, is probably one of the coolest videogame villains of all time!
zarglu
18/09/09 @ 11:51
#5
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All this makes me miss an Heavenly Sword sequel even more...
vegard
18/09/09 @ 11:54
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hey, this sounds interesting!

even though there's still no mention of viking metal
Edited 1 times, most recently on 18/09/09 @ 12:54
sneetch
18/09/09 @ 11:58
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Hopefully, the nature of the monkey will be irrepressible.

Surprised there's no mention of Pigsy or Sandy here, I'm sure they'll be along.
Kenshin001
18/09/09 @ 12:04
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The mention of Serkis has me worried. Was quite interested in HS but got the impression the gameplay suffered as all the focus went on to theatrics instead. I'm not against good VA and characters by any means, but make a good game first.
mkreku
18/09/09 @ 12:35
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Let's hope this turns out to be a longer game than Heavenly Sword.
Doctor_What
18/09/09 @ 12:37
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@ Firvulag: Seriously? You liked Serkis in HS? You must be an enormous fan of BBC's Robin Hood then, because Serkis seemd to be emulating the Sheriff of Nottingham as closely as he possibly could. Serkis is a good mimic, and I actually thought that Keith Allen was performing the role for the first half of the game. I quite enjoyed the camp Robin Hood series, but the character didn't fit with the game.

I've no idea why they decided to have mostly serious, intense performances for all the good guys and then ruined that with pantomime characters for bad guys. When I reached the final confrontation and the characters faced off I couldn't help but feel that the whole thing was pointless - why was she going through it all to defeat someone quite so ridiculous?

Tonally, the story of HS was all over the place. It had lots of elements that could have been great, but there seemed to be no narrative control, like a film where the director has let every actor rehearse by themselves, then films all their performances separately without guind them to a uniting vision.

(And yes, sometimes I do this stuff for a living.)

EDIT: Sorry Firvulag, I didn't mean to pick on you, but the pretty universal praise that HS gets in the industry really irritates me. It just reminds me how incredibly far behind other story telling mediums we are when that kind of glaringly inconsistent writing is considered worthy of praise.
Edited 1 times, most recently on 18/09/09 @ 13:39
cianchristopher
18/09/09 @ 12:39
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Heavenly Sword was a forgettable game.

I remember 2007 well, the absolute low-point for the Playstation 3. Almost every cross-platform game was significantly worse than its 360 counterpart - and Sony's big exclusives were shite like Heavenly Sword and Lair. (Okay, Uncharted was great, but that's about it!).... But that launch price! Jesus, I despaired for pretty much that entire year! I'd look at the 360 jealously with all their rave reviews for Halo 3, BioShock, Forza 2, etc. We had nothing! And that fucking launch price!

We've come a long way baby! (Or have we? Not quite far enough, tbh!) At least I also have a 360 now.....
Widge
18/09/09 @ 12:52
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Sounds great!
Darkedge
18/09/09 @ 13:20
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hmm sounds interesting but DO NOT get Albarn involved the music to that Monkey Opera was terrible.

I think the cross platform-ness of this will help make it a better game than Heavenly Sword - I think sony meddling and pressure made that more of a graphical showcase than a good game
ybfelix
18/09/09 @ 13:27
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Maybe Ninja Theory has some unused Chinese-ish material leftover from Heavenly Sword.
Journey to the West is insanely popular in China. We have its TV adaptation rerun on every single school holiday:D Everyone know Monkey from as a child. I think this game is going to be imported (and pirated, have to admit that) a lot.
Edited 1 times, most recently on 18/09/09 @ 14:28
Retroid [mod]
18/09/09 @ 17:22
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Razorus
18/09/09 @ 21:56
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Andy Serkis is WIN.
And the best thing is that he is my mum's friend's cousin. We''ll probably invite him round for tea when he's not so busy.
Natas_Enasni
19/09/09 @ 04:20
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I'm not afraid to say it; I'm in love with Alex Garland. One day his screenplay for Halo shall be produced, and the lord shall smile that day. Also his books were what destroyed sodom and gomorra, and that's a compliment.
metallicorphan
19/09/09 @ 10:24
#18
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Andy Serkis has been busy in the video game voice department lately..he and John Rhys Davis(Gimli in LOTR)are voices in next months 'Risen' game
MrsPacMan
20/09/09 @ 19:13
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Think I've done everyone now

Comments: 1-19 of 19

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