Cast your mind back a few weeks and you may remember my review of Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. Whilst I absolutely loved the game, it had a few niggles that dragged the score down a couple of points. When I first heard about the DLC ‘Pigsy’s Perfect 10’ I was intrigued; could the slower, ranged based attacks of the rotund Pigsy remedy my complaint  about Enslaved’s combat?  Would the glitches be fixed?  Would the camera still drive me insane?  With these questions floating around my tired brain I booted up the disc once again.

The DLC takes place before Pigsy meets up with Trip and Monkey in Enslaved, and starts with a rather sad scene indeed. You see, despite being an all-round super dude, Pigsy has no one to talk to. The monotony of  his predictable daily grind is getting him down, and all he really wants is a buddy to spend time with. In a ‘Eureka’ moment (that involves a light-bulb actually smashing him upside his head) Pigsy decides to build a friend; his ‘Perfect 10’. After slaving away creating blueprints, sourcing parts, and eating whole chickens it turns out Pigsy is missing three key items for making his perfect pal.  With a tangible sense of excitement he packs his trusty grapple hook, gun, and some cheesecake and heads out to track down what he needs.

Being on the slightly large side, Pigsy can’t perform the deft athletics that Enslaved’s Monkey can; instead he relies mostly on his grapple hook to traverse the many structures that stand in his way.  You can’t attach your hook to just anything though, and dotted throughout the landscape are points that glow green, indicating that you can grapple there.  Pigsy can jump, but only very short distances, and it also takes him an age to hoist his keister up ledges.  Fair play to him though, he can run pretty damn quickly when he needs to, and there are a few occasions when he really, really needs to.  Remember the terrifying robot dogs?  Let’s just say they enjoy the taste of bacon.

In Enslaved combat mostly relied on physical attacks using Monkey’s staff. It wasn’t the best implemented part of the game, and coupled with an appalling camera left many players more than a little disenchanted. This has all changed for Pigsy’s Perfect 10; as Pigsy is useless in hand to hand combat. When I say useless, I really mean it, and a couple of hits will see you heading off to meet your maker.  Luckily he carries a whacking great gun, which also doubles up as a sniper rifle. Taking out the mechs is now a tactical affair as you scurry from cover to cover, taking pot shots and finding vantage points to unleash your awesome sniping talents. As a last resort you’ll also be able to deploy a one shot electric charge that will stun a nearby enemy.  If you’re surrounded by a group of enemies and try to use that it’s too late, you’re already dead.

Being a mechanical kind of chap Pigsy has also created a number of gadgets to use during the adventure. ‘Trouble Vision’ makes the screen go green and will highlight any grapple points, exits, and enemies. You are also accompanied by a robot companion, ‘Truffles’, who will point out things of interest; think Zelda’s ‘Navi’ but without the constant “HEY LINK”. In terms of weaponry, you will eventually unlock a holographic distraction which will allow you to divert the attention of the enemy; an EMP blast that will disable the mechs for a short period; an explosion that will turn all in the blast radius into an ally, and a large bomb that is powerful enough to destroy armoured turrets. For the most part the combat works really well, and is immensely more satisfying than what came before it. The single gun feels meaty and packs a real punch, with well-aimed shots decapitating the enemy with ease. Things can occasionally get a bit fussy though when you need to quickly use multiple items, and on a few occasions I really wished I had been blessed with a third hand.

Visually the game is as gorgeous as ever, perhaps more so than Trip and Monkey’s outing. The colour palette and use of materials create some beautiful vistas, and never has a bunch of rusty girders looked so good. Thanks to the slower pace the camera is much better behaved; in fact I didn’t curse its mother once! The voice acting is top notch, and Pigsy gets some great one liners throughout.

The main downside is the length of the quest; in my opinion it’s too long!  I’m all for value for money, but the parts towards the end really dragged on and resorted to what happened in Enslaved; just wave after wave of enemies to the point where it’s a struggle to muster up the interest to continue. Ninja Theory would have been better off coming to a natural conclusion rather than artificially padding out the story.

Pros

• A good story
• Top notch animation
• Great voice acting (as usual)
• Looks beautiful

Cons

• The final part drags on

Once again Ninja Theory has created something magical.  Pigsy’s perfect 10 is a great example of how to do single player DLC.  Whilst I felt it did become a bit of a chore towards the end, there’s no escaping the fact that there’s at least three and a half to four hours content for your £7.99.  Add in the lack of camera woes and what we have here is something that surpasses the main games.  Perfect 10?  Not quite, but my word it was close.

Score: 9/10