Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is a story that has been told many times and each in its own unique and inspiring way. The title "Enslaved" was inspired by an ancient Chinese book about a monk controlling a monkey through a headband to do his bidding. The latest adaptation is this game, which comes to you from the same guys that brought you Heavenly Sword. Read on for more on this unique adaptation of the legendary story.

Ok, so to straighten things out right away that a lot of people are stating, no, this is not like Fallout 3 or New Vegas. Yes, it is a post-apocalyptic Earth game, but it is completely different to that in Fallout. It's bright, colourful and exotic. Rather than all trashy and dark like Fallout is (which we all love), it is a world that has been overgrown by plants and shrubs and is truly beautiful to view. Now that issue is out of the way, on with the review.

For those of you that played Heavenly Sword, you will know that Andy Serkis (famous for his role as Gollum in Lord of the Rings) had lent his voice and was the motion capture for the game. Mr. Serkis returns this time in multiple roles: voice acting, motion capture, director of the game and also another element which we will not say as it will ruin the surprise. Mr. Serkis does a wonderful in each aspect that he contributes to the game; his voice talents are incredible and, along with the great facial displays that the developers put into their characters, it makes the lead character a joy to behold.

The game starts off as you wake up on a slave ship and make your escape chasing after a female who is also escaping. The slave ship crashes in the middle of New York City and you get knocked out; when you wake, the female character is sitting near you and to your surprise you have a headband now on your forehead and are now a slave. The female character has decided she wants to go home and is going to use you as her slave to get her there, as she would be unable to do so alone. This begins your hilarious action-packed journey through the game. The story keeps up a good pace throughout the game; there are very few twists -- it is just a nice story told straight. The fighting is what you would expect from this type of game -- an all out staff swinging bash to the face epic -- and of course there is your usual upgrades element to add new abilities, increase health, etc, etc.

Enslaved, unfortunately, is not the longest game in the world, but there still are quite a good few hours put into it from start to finish, especially depending on how much you like to explore around looking for little extras to collect. The only other issue with the game is that the camera likes to jump to a strange angle, but this is a rare event and does not cause a constant problem. Overall, Enslaved is a fantastic game for anyone who loves post-apocalyptic action style games, and if you are new to that type of game then Enslaved might just be the best game for you to start with. Lots of beautiful scenery, stunning cinematics (which there are plenty of), great fighting action, great story and LOTS of hilarity throughout the game, which was a great change to most of these games. If given a rating I would go for 8.5/10 and say give me more games like this. Truly one of the games I have enjoyed most lately, which says a lot, as there have been some big names released at present.

If you want to know more about Enslaved: Odyssey to the West then check out the video below and then go get yourself a copy.

Until next time nerdlings Ax