I just beat this game after a marathon session last night. Here are some thoughts in my usual shitty format.

Good

- HOLY SHIT IT'S BEAUTIFUL!! Enslaved might be one of the best looking games of the last few years. The lighting effects, texture work, animation, level design, etc. are all stellar. The art direction in particular really bowled me over. It's so nice to play an action game that isn't brown/gray and actually has unique looking characters and environments. The character faces are also some of the best I've ever seen. Really, really great work here.

- The audio is fantastic. The soundtrack is gorgeous and really adds to the experience. Even better than the soundtrack is the voice acting. Maybe it's because there are only 3 characters in the game, but the voice acting is some of the best I've heard in an action game. Andy Serkis and Lindsey Shaw should probably win some sort of award for their work, assuming such an award exists.

- I actually gave a rat's ass about the characters! What? An action game where the characters have depth and personality? Yes, as strange as it sounds, the characters in Enslaved are downright charming. I actually felt like they were real people instead of just the ridiculous caricatures that you see in most action games. A lot of this has to do with the aforementioned voice work by Serkis and Shaw, but the writing also deserves some credit. I wanted to keep playing the game not because of the gameplay, but because I wanted to see Trip and Monkey make it.

Bad

- If I could use one word to describe the gameplay, it would be "unrefined". The combat is pretty repetitive since you fight the same basic set of enemies over and over again and once you develop good tactics, the fights become more of an annoyance than a challenge. I honestly kinda hated the last few hours of gameplay because of how dull the combat had become. The platforming is also not really good. There's no real skill involved. If you just kinda keep pushing A you'll get where you need to be 90% of the time. It felt like a severely dumbed down Assassin's Creed.

- The last 1/3 of the game are not as good the first 2/3. The setting isn't as interesting and you can tell the developer is just trying to wrap things up.

- The camera is ing terrible.

- It seems to take Monkey like 9 years to respond to you commands.

Conclusion
Enslaved is a 5/10 action game with 10/10 characters, setting, and graphics. The characters will suck you in to the point where you want to finish the game, but the gameplay leaves an absolute shit ton to be desired. But, given how rare it is to play a game that genuinely doesn't look like every other game out there, I wholeheartedly recommend Enslaved as a rental or a cheap pick up. Let's just hope for a sequel.

Score 7/10
Value $15