ENSLAVED: This review gives you information about Ninja Theory...the games developer. Find out what you need to know.
1. Tell an intriguing story inside video game context
2. Design graphically beautiful people
3. Implement gameplay variety with near-perfect pacing
ENSLAVED should be a game of the year candidate.
BUT...NINJA THEORY does have an issue that seems to be their "calling card". And it focuses around boss battles.
They love boss battles...they insert them into their games religously and make them tough as nails. Some....to the point of absurdity. Without too much detail, case in point is the final boss king in Heavenly Sword...Ninja Theory's previous game. For those who have played it, you know what you had to go through to finally come out victorious from that battle.
In ENSLAVED....much of the same. Without spoiling, there are two such battles that were simply designed poorly and more....seem to have had minimum time going through any sort of "live game testing" phase. These boss battles turned out glitchy, unexplainably hard and many do-overs later, to me they seemed to be a "broken" design. One boss even "froze" my Xbox just as I was about to beat it. He stood there....and I hit him 5,000 times with my staff....and he stood there..oblivious to my attacks. I finally restarted from the last checkpoint.
On the contrary, other boss battles in the game are excellent. But Ninja Theory seems to go crazy at the thought of developing a boss battle sometimes and they let their imaginations far surpass their abilities to put them together. It's a much better game when the player can keep moving and keep the momentum....rather than coming to a screaching halt for an hour as you try to figure out WHAZZ UP with one of the over-the-top bosses.
Still....LOVED THE GAME. Just think with perfect boss battles, what this could have been.