Enslaved: Odyssey to the West ¨C Pigsy's Perfect 10
Truffle in paradise.
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West was a rare thing. No, not because it was fabulous and nobody bought it (although it was and nobody did), but because the story was good and well told, and ultimately meant more to players than the gameplay it dressed up.
In a genre where most developers struggle to instil basic humanity into their characters, Enslaved's cast found themselves overflowing with pathos. When you first met Trip and she was frightened and vulnerable, hugging her knees, that was a real human being, and a moment not worth trading for a thousand Lara handstands.
But it's Pigsy, the well-fed junkyard king Trip and Monkey band together with for the game's final act, who is the subject of the game's first downloadable add-on. Set prior to Odyssey to the West, Pigsy's Perfect 10 begins with a beautiful hand-painted animation.
Our hero admits he's quite bored on his own in Pigsyland and sets off with his sidekick Truffles – a sort of flying R2-D2 who communicates through emoticons. Their mission is to gather the parts necessary to build a new companion who will walk, talk and generally ward off loneliness.
Pigsy's search takes him to various corners of his trash-pile kingdom. Enslaved's gorgeous, bright-eyed take on the end of the world is dimmed somewhat beneath Pigsyland's autumnal haze, but even the rust still sings with warmth and colour.
Perfect 10 also introduces stereoscopic 3D options on both PS3 and Xbox 360, allowing players with the requisite kit to view both the DLC and the main game in a new light. Even if you have a normal TV, you can get a degree of 3D functionality courtesy of TriOviz if you have the company's INFICOLOR 3D glasses.
While Odyssey to the West focused on Monkey's platforming and hand-to-hand combat, Pigsy is not quite so athletic. He uses his grappling hook to get around, otherwise maintaining a low centre of gravity.
Grapple points are easy to spot in the game's linear chapters, which funnel and tunnel you through the warrens of twisted machinery that make up Pigsyland. Pigsy is equipped with a special night-vision style lens filter for his rather dashing monocle. This allows him to pick out items of interest such as collectable snacks and centrefolds pasted around the environment.
Monkey evidently never introduced Pigsy to his choreographer. He's no good in a fist fight and he can't run and gun – his mech adversaries are too powerful and accurate with their own weapons to permit progress in the open. Pigsy's rifle, Mona, can take enemies out with a single headshot, but creating that opportunity is where most of the game's challenge lies.
Over the course of the adventure Pigsy builds up a small arsenal of gadgets to help distract and outwit the opposition. There's a Pigsy hologram for creating a diversion, an EMP device for temporarily frazzling mechs, a gizmo that turns enemies into allies for a brief period and a bomb for blowing holes in the environment or angry robots.