Enslaved: Odyssey To The West

This latest imagining of the classical Chinese story Journey to the West delivers an immersive cinematic gaming experience, with author Alex Garland's touch creating fully-fleshed, lovable characters.

The tale begins when tech-savvy teenager Trip escapes the grasps of the slavers who've captured her. Knowing she'll need help to get home, she enslaves fellow escapee Monkey with a headband that ties his life to hers, promising to release him should he escort her back safely. Unsurprisingly, this relationship turns from animosity to affection as they grow closer through their ordeals.

Forget the drab post-apocalypse worlds we're used to exploring; developer Ninja Theory has created a lush green landscape full of vivid colour that is a joy to explore. More than 150 years after a devastating war killed off most of humanity, nature has reclaimed the cities, leaving you to find ways to safely traverse its leafy concrete and steel skeletal remains.

Controlling Monkey and occasionally directing Trip, gameplay consists of platform action that sees you clambering around crumbling buildings and fighting off the last vestiges of the war – mechs that still follow their orders to kill on sight. Although the path forward is quite linear, the experience never stops being fun, especially with the use of the game's teamwork mechanism that sees you working with Trip to make progress.

As well as simple puzzles that can be solved by guiding Trip to the right position, the characters have their own individual abilities. Monkey must use his strength to fling Trip across large gaps and up to high ledges, while Trip uses her tech skills to create a dragonfly mech that can search out mines and enemy weak spots. She also has a handy hologram that can grab mechs' attention, allowing Monkey to make a run for it across dangerous open ground.

Combat is simple but effective. You can button mash your way through most fights, but collecting tech orbs unlocks new and improved abilities, which skilled gamers will enjoy putting together as eye-grabbing martial art combos. Mastering "takedowns" is also the best way to level the playing field when faced with a fresh wave of enemies.

Unfortunately, the game hasn't overcome the camera angle issue that can often irritate platformers, and you'll regularly find yourself spinning the camera around to reposition yourself. Although not a deal breaker, when climbing a crumbing wall this can be frustrating. But its variety of brilliant set pieces more than make up for this weakness, with cinematic pace-changers such as fighting a giant mech dog in a Broadway theatre and chasing a robotic rhino through a mech graveyard.

Enslaved provides a rollercoaster adventure wrapped up in a brilliantly told story, which sees you grow as attached to the characters as they do to each other.