SPOILERS AHEAD.
I am one huge sucker for post-apocalyptic media; Fallout 3 and The Last of Us are two of my favorite games. It’s no surprise that Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is now a part of that list. The world that Ninja Theory has created looks absolutely magnificent; rife with indicators of man’s failed relationship with technology and how nature takes back what’s hers. Even the characters are expertly-designed, with accurate facial animations and all. (Rightfully so, since there are literally just three characters to animate in the game.) What strikes me most about the game is its faithfulness to the genre.
I’m referring mostly to the ending, where the sense of isolation are the constant “Where is everybody?” question are justified by what had been revealed. Trip and Monkey are provided a way out of their current struggles, but Trip refuses to relinquish her humanity for fabricated bliss. At first glance, you probably will side with Trip but if you give it further thought, the world is pretty much fucked up already. Is it worth rebuilding?
That is a question raised by a lot of post-apocalyptic narratives. The dilemma of choosing optimism versus choosing pragmatism, and I believe Enslaved’s story, although not at all original (it’s based on an ancient Chinese text after all) channels into this concept spot on. This is personally why I love post-apocalypse: the deconstruction of morality and the irony of survival.
the lone ponderer 