If you may have noticed over the past few months, I’ve grown a soft spot for Ninja Theory’s surprise hit, Enslaved. While it may have needed much more time in development than it received, it still wove some excellent narrative and delivered a few expertly crafted characters. If you find yourself harboring the same love for the game, than you might want to take another glance at the recently released DLC Pigsy’s Perfect 10. The DLC takes us to a time before the oddball Pigsy travelled the country with Monkey and Trip, when he was just a lonesome fellow. Pigsy, being an expert in the field of mechanics, decides to construct himself a perfect female robot companion. At his side, is the trusty and disgustingly cute robot “Truffles” who aids Pigsy in the search for some missing components. The story tells the tale of the duo’s day out and touches heavily on the topic of companionship. Pigsy overlooks Truffles as no more than an aid, but it takes loss before Pigsy realizes his best friend may have been right in front of him the entire time. Much like the main campaign of Enslaved, it’s all about the finish.
Perfect 10 ends in unexpected manner, and the story leading up to it is charming, straying from the darker tones set in Monkey’s journey. Ninja Theory is churning out some intriguing narrative, but the game’s mechanics once again turn out to be the weak piece of Enslaved. The best and worst of Perfect 10 is the drastic change to gameplay mechanics. Since you are taking over the clunk body of Pigsy, things play out much differently than when running through environments as the acrobatic Monkey. Pigsy carries a sniper rifle that packs a punch, as well as four different gadgets, each with varying effects against the robots that plague our fallen country. One gadget is a decoy, another stuns enemies, while another is cpable on turning an enemy against its own kind. There is a heavy emphasis on stealth and playing enemies against one another. Pigsy also uses his robotic claw to pull himself through environments, but the fluidity of movement that was present in the main piece is not found in Perfect 10.
Pigsy is really slow dies far too quickly. I found little challenge beating the main game, but in Perfect 10, I died more than I’d like to admit. Pigsy’s sniper rifle is capable of laying an enemy out with two zoomed shots, or with a handful of shots fired from a 3rd-person perspective. The main problem being that Pigsy feels so much more fragile and cumbersome than Monkey ever did, with most combat situations feeling unfair for Pigsy unless you are able to get a really good drop on your foes. I have my complaints, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying some more time spent in the world of Enslaved, especially with getting to know Pigsy’s character a little better as well as being introduced to the hilarious, silent companion Truffles. This is how DLC should be done, it adds new mechanics to the game, adds another 4 hours, tells a great story and it’s ONLY $10. It may not be perfection or a 10, but it stands out as one of my favorite pieces of DLC this year.
Final Recommendation: Buy It
