Enslaved: the little things I love and hate so far

I just got to the end of Chapter 2 of Enslaved, and there's already a lot I can say about this game. It's definitely enjoyable, despite the moments where it feels like an uncharted game (climbing, using signs as cover from gunfire). 

Here's what I love and hate so far:

Love:

- Monkey's facial expressions. I know we've come to expect this from Ninja Theory, but they're really awesome.

- Tripp's voice acting and general demeanour - she feels more lifelike than even Elizabeth in Bioshock Infinite

- Sci Fi setting, story involving mechs, slavers and a green NYC; generally wanting to find out more

- A game about two characters bonding after the apocalypse

(Hrmm... almost all of these relate to the story and not to the gameplay, and yet I'm struggling to add more)

Hate (and I use that term loosely):

- Monkey's weird amorphous accent. He's generally gruff which is fine but sometimes he sounds like an old mobster and sometimes he doesn't.  It's not very consistent.

- Combat is...repetitive (so far), and usually Ninja Theory games have decent combat, so I'll wait for this to improve.

- Fake platforming. If you're gonna make me press A to jump at the edge of a ledge, and not really allow me to fuck it up, then don't make me press A at all, just auto-jump it. Jumping always takes you exactly as far as you need to go, you can't over or under jump, so there's no tension in doing it. Sometimes I'd just mash the direction stick and A until Monkey would go where I'd want him to. I appreciate the game would've been too hard if you could fall off ledges, but the platforming kind feels a bit meh sometimes. It is a nice opportunity to check out the scenery though.

- That first boss. How many times did you guys fight him before realising you were supposed to get him to charge the statue? Maybe 10-12 deaths here. Did I miss some prompt immediately before the battle or was I supposed to just figure it out?! I did laugh when those fish died after Tripp literally just said they'd been alive for hundreds of years

Ok so maybe I shouldn't have written this up so soon after that first boss.