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Every now and then there's a game that can best be described as a beautiful experience. Enslaved is one of these. It captured my mind from the moment I watched the intro and wouldn't let go of me until I had finished it - three times. Seeing that the first DLC has just been released and I'm exited to play it, I thought I'd write a review for those of you who've missed the game so far.

The story of Enslaved is set in the future after a global war, and if that makes you think, "Fallout," you're dead wrong. Many decades have gone by since the war and nature has reclaimed the planet. Thus, you won't see dead and cold surroundings - and no zombies either, sorry! However, you will see cities like New York City destroyed and overgrown by plants. To me, that immediately felt like a very peaceful and comfortable surrounding - if it weren't for the war robots which are roaming the world, still following their original programming to extinguish humanity.

You play as Monkey, a character which physically reminded me a little of Wolverine, that "beast" type of man - rawr. Waking up on board of a flying slave vessel before an imminent crash, you have no other choice than to try and find the escape pods in time. Unfortunately, when you reach the pods, a girl named Trip has taken the last one. She's definitely not willing to cooperate with you in this matter. However, she'll soon force you to cooperate with HER - by putting a slave band on your head through which she can control you. Now bound to her you must help her to get safely back home through the hordes of robots and ruins of human civilization. That sums up most of the plot without giving too much away.

What we have on the gameplay side is a solid and fun 3rd person action game that provides a nice blend of combat and platform sequences triggering memories of "Prince of Persia" and "Heavenly Sword" spiced up with a teaspoon of "Ico". As Monkey, your climbing and acrobatic skills will get you through almost every place, and while most of the time you'll help Trip to get past obstacles, she'll assist you as well with her technical knowledge and hacking skills. Combat is well scripted, easy to learn and is based on melee as well as shooter elements. You can purchase upgrades for your abilities and weapons by collecting "tech orbs". The battles are never unfair, but also seldom really challenging - even on the highest difficulty I dare say the game won't give most regular gamers a hard time except maybe for a few battle sequences towards the end.

So why should you play this game? I'd say because of its sheer beauty and its strong characters wrapped up in a captivating story, even if at times slightly predictable. The environments are visually and colorfully stunning, and the voice acting as well as the motion capture work is among the best I've ever heard and seen. You do truly believe the characters if they look sad or happy, and seeing small gestures like Monkey biting his lip or Trip raising an eyebrow adds to that believability. It's not a surprise anymore if you read the cast - Andy Serkis, famous for his role as Gollum in Lord of the Rings, is directing the game as well as doing performance capturing for the character of Monkey.

If everything is so awesome, then why did I only give it 4/5? Well - there are a few things that bugged me, and here they come. The controls can be a little fiddly, especially during the sequences in which you're riding the "cloud", some sort of fast hover-skateboard. Riding up narrow stone bridges on that thing and trying not to touch mines can be a real pain. The camera can be stubborn as well, so sometimes you'll have a situation in which you'd like to look around a certain corner but the game won't let you for whatever reason. I also experienced a pretty nasty bug that made me replay a whole lengthy boss battle twice, and you can imagine how thrilled I was. And even though the story is great and the characters strong and believable, it's all a little black and white, and nowhere near the depth that some other games provide. It was definitely enough to keep me caring for the characters and well entertained, though.

For you fellow achievement and trophy hunters out there, this game is a good one to try and get a 100% since everything expected from you is very doable. Enslaved offers a comfortable chapter select which makes it a lot easier to replay it on a harder difficulty, because you can bring all the upgrades and abilities you've already earned. The time needed for one playthrough is probably around 10-15 hours depending on your abilities, so it's not a long game - but it's one you'll remember, and one you might end up taking out of your shelf every now and then, like you would with a great book. I know I will.