Zero Punctuation: Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

Aiddon_v1legacy

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If I want to experience Journey to the West I'll read Dragon Ball or Saiyuki, because at least those have cities blowing up and a smoking, drinking, swearing, gun-toting priest respectively. I wish more people would give The Water Margin some love, even if Suikoden kind of has a monopoly on that
 

findler

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Jun 19, 2009
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I hate it when he reviews games like this. I've never even heard of Enslaved, would never have played it anyway and therefore was only mildly entertained/interested in this review. After all the big name releases that just came out, frankly I was expecting something much better.
 

tyriless

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Aug 27, 2010
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I starting to have an issue with Yahtzee and his criticism. He recommends nothing. I am all for him verbally dressing down the excesses of this industry but a critic tends to recommend something now and then. Now, I am not asking for him to go easy, but for Christ sake, he needs to find something he likes. The last game I remember him recommending was Bioshock and that came out years ago. Even in that case, he said something along the lines that, it didn't suck too bad so it must be GAME OF THE YEAR. Without any positives recommendation, his reviews tend to be less criticism and more observational humor. There is no purpose beyond his humor if he can't, once in a while, stake his rep on a game that he thinks is actually good. No flames please, or personal attacks. I am just looking for other thoughts on this issue.
 

TOGSolid

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k-ossuburb said:
Wow. And so many reviewers were praising the crap out of this game, most notably for its links to the folk lore it's supposed to be based off. Then along comes Yahtzee and tells them all they're a bunch of fanboy poopy heads for believing such crap and destroys the game like a furious kitten attacking a plushie. Colour me impressed.

Edit: Completely irrelevant, but what colour is "impressed" anyway?
Burnt Sienna

Pretty much exactly what I thought when I played the demo of this shit game. Good show Yahtzee. DMC is gonna suck so bad :(
 

Arkley

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Mar 12, 2009
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tyriless said:
I starting to have an issue with Yahtzee and his criticism. He recommends nothing. I am all for him verbally dressing down the excesses of this industry but a critic tends to recommend something now and then. Now, I am not asking for him to go easy, but for Christ sake, he needs to find something he likes. The last game I remember him recommending was Bioshock and that came out years ago. Even in that case, he said something along the lines that, it didn't suck too bad so it must be GAME OF THE YEAR. Without any positives recommendation, his reviews tend to be less criticism and more observational humor. There is no purpose beyond his humor if he can't, once in a while, stake his rep on a game that he thinks is actually good. No flames please, or personal attacks. I am just looking for other thoughts on this issue.

Well, the thing is, Yahtzee doesn't really do real reviews, that's not his job and that's not what people watch his videos for. You don't watch these vids if you want an actual opinion of the game, you watch them for a laugh, to hear about all the bad bits of it explained with hilarious vulgar analogies. The real humour comes from knowing that all or most of his criticisms are based on fact. For example; even though I actually really like Enslaved, it's still hilarious to hear him describe the platforming the way he did in this video, because I experienced it myself and thought similar things while still enjoying the game as a whole.

TL;DR: if you want a real review, watch something else, or better yet, demo or rent it and form your own opinion. If you want to laugh at hilarious analogies, watch Yahtzee.
 

Jake the Snake

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Mar 25, 2009
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This made me laugh hard. Also mechanical dick slapping sounds like fun.

....


That sounded a lot less gay in my head.
 

Cheery Lunatic

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Aug 18, 2009
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Poop, I'm betting now that after watching the new ZP, at least half the people on the fence about Enslaved suddenly fell off onto the "dun want to play it" side. I love Yahtzee's videos, but I watch them solely for entertainment value. People need to take his "reviews" with more than a grain of salt.

ENSLAVED WAS GOOD GUYSS. I really, really liked it. Just thought I'd get my opinion out there.
 

Tokokizora

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Aug 24, 2010
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I think I can safely say that when they "base" a game on any old material they're just gonna use only as few of the things from it as possible
 

PureIrony

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Aug 12, 2010
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While, that was disappointing. I was actually looking forward to Enslaved.

"Getting sucked off in a wind tunnel" is probably the funniest dick joke Yahtzee has ever made.
 

Vault Citizen

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I played the level available in the demo version and after seeing Trip screw Monkey over two or three times and then force him to work for her just made me think "wow, what a *****", does she get any better as the game progresses or is it just more of the same?
 

Arkley

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Vault Citizen said:
I played the level available in the demo version and after seeing Trip screw Monkey over two or three times and then force him to work for her just made me think "wow, what a *****", does she get any better as the game progresses or is it just more of the same?
Trip gets a lot better as the game goes on, as does Monkey. Yahtzee pointed out many gameplay flaws in his video, and while he may have exaggerated the simplicity of combat a little (simply putting the game on hard mode solves most of his complaints and the various purchasable extra attacks add more strategy, though you still shouldn't expect Bayonetta/DMC/GoW's level of depth), he was largely right about most of them - particularly the funnelled, risk-free platforming.

However, it's the characters, their interactions, their incredible facial expression animation, the stellar writing and acting that make this game worth playing. The relationship between Monkey and Trip is constantly evolving, and is extremely believable. They're both highly likeable characters and they drive the game and their plot subtly and effectively. Unfortunately, you can't really get a feel for this in the demo, which only really demonstrates that the game is very pretty and the platforming is very guided.

If you're genuinely interested, I'd recommend you read a few other reviews which go into more detail about the characters. I realise Yahtzee's criticisms about the way their personalities switch around may have put you off, but I never saw anything that could be described that way in the game. The characters react appropriately and believably to their constantly changing surroundings and situations, and to eachother. In this respect, the game really is something very special. In fact, if I ever wanted to convince someone that video games are a legitimate medium for storytelling, this would be top of the list of games I would show them.
 

gphjr14

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Aug 20, 2010
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From my understanding this game hasn't sold well at all. I was initially thrilled about this game when I heard it was inspired by Journey to the West but I played the demo twice and aside from the animations in the cut scenes it just wasn't any fun.
 

z3rostr1fe

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Aug 14, 2009
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So this was the game "Critical Miss" was referring to...

The Collectable Doodad Commandments [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/critical-miss/8230-The-Collectable-Doodad-Commandments]