ENSLAVED: Odyssey to the West Coming to the PS3 on October 5, Win a Limited Edition Statue

Hello everyone! My name is Laili Bosma from NAMCO BANDAI Games America, and I’m the Brand Manager for ENSLAVED: Odyssey to the West. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Ninja Theory during the creation of ENSLAVED, and watching this game come together has been awe-inspiring. We’ve got new content to share with you as we lead into the October 5th launch of the game, and a contest we know you’ll be excited by.

As PlayStation fans, you probably remember Ninja Theory as the studio that brought you Heavenly Sword, one of the early launch titles for the PS3. Ninja Theory has upped their game with ENSLAVED: Odyssey to the West, with their development focus on merging story-telling and gameplay. ENSLAVED features a rich narrative, deep and believable characters, some of the best talent in the video game, music and motion picture industries, and a production value that’s second to none. It also combines puzzle-solving, combat and platforming to keep the gameplay varied and intriguing.

ENSLAVED: Odyssey to the West takes place 150 years in the future, after several wars have obliterated nearly all of the planet’s population. In this post-apocalyptic future, mysterious slave ships harvest remaining survivors and take them out west, for unknown reasons. You’ll take on the role of Monkey, a loner who has spent his whole life on the run. Monkey finds himself captured by one of the slave ships and uses his brute force to break free from his cell. Meanwhile, he notices a young girl named Trip who uses more refined hacking skills to also break free, though she inadvertently sets the ship on a crash course to New York in the process. Knocked unconscious from the crash, Monkey wakes up to find that Trip has placed a slave headband on Monkey’s head which forces him to obey her and whether he likes it or not – help her get back home safely.

The brilliant team at Ninja Theory enlisted the help of heavyweight Hollywood talent to bring ENSLAVED to life. Andy Serkis, the genius behind Gollum in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, helped us with co-directing the performance capture and also acting in the lead role of Monkey. Alex Garland, screenwriter for 28 Days Later, co-wrote the story. The team has built a truly deep and memorable experience that we think you’ll be amazed by. But don’t take my word for it. Have a look at our latest trailer.

Now that ENSLAVED: Odyssey to the West has gone gold, we’ve given the press an early look at the game, and they’ve come to love it! Destructoid loved their hands-on time with the game, and even named it their Game of the Show for Gamescom 2010. G4 loved their preview experience of the game, and GamesRadar was so impressed that we left them reeling.

We have a lot of special content planned for ENSLAVED. You’ve probably already seen our retailer bonus item specials, which will give you enhanced bonus costumes for Trip or Monkey when you play the game. We’re releasing regular Developer Diary Videos on our Facebook page to help give you an inside look at what went into the creation of the game directly from the team. We also plan to offer some side-story premium downloadable content for the people that want to explore more in the world of ENSLAVED beyond the main storyline.

Another thing we’d love to do is answer some of your questions about ENSLAVED: Odyssey to the West, and there’s no time like the present!

We’ve set up a special ID on the PlayStation Network to take your questions… just send a message to “EnslavedOTTW” from your PS3. We’ll take the best questions and answer them in a follow-up blog post here, in a few weeks.

To kick things off, we have a special treat we’re offering first to PlayStation.Blog readers. We’re creating a series of unique, limited edition statues commemorating the game’s launch. These will NOT be available for purchase anywhere. We’re only making 200 of these statues, and we’ll only be offering them in special giveaways and promotions leading into launch. Here’s a prototype:

Do you have the perfect place in your home for one of these statues? Then send us a question! Even if we don’t pick your question for the Q&A, you’re automatically entered into our drawing to win one of the statues. We’ll pick the winner at random and announce it in two weeks, when we answer your questions. Ten other winners will receive redemption codes for all of our pre-order downloadable content, giving you access to alternate costumes for Monkey and Trip that are enhanced with some special bonuses like unlimited ammo. Contest available in North America except Quebec.

And even better, North American PS3 owners will get first access to the demo for ENSLAVED: Odyssey to the West when it comes to the PlayStation Store next Tuesday, September 21st.

ENSLAVED: Odyssey to the West has been a labor of love, and we can’t wait for members of the PlayStation family to get their hands on this wonderful game. We hope you’ll take the time to check it out when it launches on October 5th!