Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

It's not all up-close-and-personal. Later on in our demo we pick up some ranged charges for the staff, turning it into a blasting weapon capable of stunning and destroying foes from a distance. When we come up against a group of shielded bots defending a fractured rooftop, it's these charges which allow us to create enough of a gap in their defences to close the gap.

For all his combat prowess Monkey doesn't always get his own way in a rumble, especially when he has the considerably more fragile Trip to consider.

After climbing a collapsing crane, giving us the opportunity to create a bridge across a ravine for our companion, Trip's terrified whisper for help comes across Monkey's headset. Something wicked this way comes.

It's a Dog, but no tasty pork chop is going to distract this fearsome canine. 12-foot tall at the robotic shoulder, and leering with the mechanical menace only a snarling, snaggle-toothed carnivorous junk heap could carry off, the Dog prowls ever closer to the trembling Trip's hiding place. A bellow from Monkey has it leaping towards his metal eyrie, slipping and tumbling from the loose pipe bridge which we've just created into a ravine below. Monkey 1, Dog 0.

In true slasher-flick style, though, the beast is soon back on its feet, clambering from the crevasse with murder in all six of its gleaming diode eyes. The chase is most definitely on.

Trip is quickly shouldered with a tap of a button and Monkey sets off towards the camera with the Dog in close pursuit. It bounds between piles of rubble, hurling a car towards me with force of its landing.

It's a close run thing, but the metal predator is evaded, just, as the pair come to a breathless halt in the shell of a building, Dog's progress is arrested briefly by some steel girdering. It's another example of how much Enslaved is trying to fit in, and perhaps another little IOU appropriately made out to Naughty Dog, but another surprise is swiftly on its heels.

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Attribution

Jumping forward in the story a little, we segue into the crossing of the Hudson, where the collapsing bridge has left gaps across the water too wide for Monkey to cross. No trouble, though - he's a man prepared for the task. It's time for Monkey's magic cloud.

There's no blowing on fingers to summon your personal cumulo-nimbus in this futuristic remake. Instead, Monkey whips a flat metal disc from his belt and flings it to the ground, where it extrudes a pulsing halo of light, whipping up a handy little Hoverboard which conveniently works on water.

Two seconds later, and I'm skimming around the surface of the river, boosting through glowing points of power and smashing out some pretty extreme air from the ramped sections of bridge which litter the Hudson. Fast and fun, this circular surfboard is a pleasing contrast to the vertical aerobics which we've experienced so far. We're not sure how often you'll get to use it (Monkey points out to a somewhat incredulous Trip that "it doesn't work everywhere"), but it's a lovely break in proceedings.

Ambitious, intensely visually stimulating and thoroughly engaging with its characters, Enslaved is definitely taking tips from some of the best games in the business for its run at the charts. Let's hope it possesses the protagonist's impressive climbing abilities.