Heavenly Sword dev Enslaved on 360, PS3

At Germany's GamesCom in August, Namco Bandai Games revealed that it was teaming with Heavenly Sword developer Ninja Theory on a new mystery project for release next year. The mystery was solved today, as Namco Bandai officially announced Ninja Theory's Enslaved for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Set in a postapocalyptic America, the game tells the story of slaves forced to work together for survival. The game's protagonist, the muscular Monkey, is captured by slavers along with the techno-savvy woman Trip. The pair escape, but Trip hacks a slave headband to tie her life to Monkey's, forcing him to protect her as they search for refuge.

Enslaved also marks a reunion between Ninja Theory and Andy Serkis, the actor who provided voice and motion-capture work for Gollum in the recent Lord of the Rings trilogy of films. According to Namco Bandai, Serkis will "direct" and "portray" Monkey. The developer and Serkis previously collaborated on Heavenly Sword, where the actor received praise for his performance as the sinister King Bohan (see video below).

Ninja Theory has also enlisted British music producer and club DJ Nitin Sawhney to compose the game's score. Sawhney worked on Heavenly Sword as well and has scored movies and television, including The Namesake and House, M.D.. To cowrite the story, Namco Bandai and Ninja Theory have tapped Alex Garland, the 28 Days Later screenwriter who may be familiar to gamers as the author behind the scuttled Neill Blomkamp Halo film. Enslaved will be Garland's first game script.