I’m on no account an aficionado of the franchise nor would I even faux to be. Oddworld, regardless of being one thing that I’d sometimes catch a glimpse of now and again which if I have been to even put it into context is as typically as I get guilt-tripped by my companion that I spend extra time testing recreation shops as an alternative of bringing her out to dinner… however regardless of what number of occasions it truly is, and who the frick is even counting, the intrigue within the title by no means actually bore fruit into selecting it up for takeaway till now. Was it a horrible concept to get into it this late? Who is aware of…
Abe?! Abe… temporary historical past to the place it began
However earlier than we even get down and soiled with the nitty-gritty of what Soulstorm has in retailer for us, my go to with good ol’ Google received me caught up with many of the questions I had after beginning this odd-venture. For starters, the sport begins you off scratching your head, figuratively and fairly actually, because it throws you off within the opening sequence considering who the hell is Abe and why does everybody saved shouting his identify? And apparently, not like most trendy recreation sequels these days, Oddworld is a recreation you’d have a significantly better time understanding ought to you’ve performed the prequel. Who would’ve thought proper?
And for the sake of filling up this text of phrases with out it being crammed with extra questions than solutions, let’s break the sequence down a bit. Oddworld was initially deliberate as a pentalogy nevertheless as destiny would have it, the sequence was halted to redirect its efforts elsewhere. Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee is the start of the sequence, bringing Abe, a cheerful but ignorant employee at RuptureFarms which is a meat-packing plant. Nevertheless the stated plant’s boss Mollock the Glukkon plans to show the manufacturing facility’s Mudokon slaves, your species, right into a supply of meat and in some unspecified time in the future in time, as most protagonists would, properly I assume you’d already know what’s about to occur so I’ll cease there to keep away from any extra spoilers. In the meantime Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus begins the place Oddysee ends and never lengthy after that, we get Oddworld: Munch’s Oddyssee. However quick ahead to 2014, 17 years for the reason that first one got here out, Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty brings again a full remake of Abe’s Oddysee whereas 2021’s Oddworld: Soulstorm breaks the sequence as a result of as an alternative of a remake of Abe’s Exoddus, it reimagines the sequel the place the Glukkons, the principal enemies of the sequence, is now out for revenge for what occurred again on the plant.
A novel platformer marred by points to see success within the trendy period
The Oddworld sequence not like most platformers that got here out in recent times brings methodical and slower-paced encounters at its core gameplay roots. You’re not going to breeze by means of sections of the map zipping up and down, left or proper whereas attempting to get probably the most exhilarating expertise with pixel-perfect precision. No, as an alternative, the bread and butter to its core mechanics revolve round working your approach by means of enemies and traps with numerous crafted gadgets and distinctive instruments whether or not that distinctive instrument simply revolves round you tiptoeing ever so slowly in the direction of sleeping enemies to tie them down or disarming mines with a superbly timed slap along with your naked arms that would doubtlessly and can most positively kill you the primary few dozens of occasions. That is the place Oddworld shines and breaks aside too… as a result of not like simply having an agile murderer zip by means of the display screen and take down enemies with fast and environment friendly slashes, Oddworld’s mechanics make the sport unwieldy and clunky at sure occasions. One such occasion is lobbing bottles to both delay fires or to begin one, at occasions, placing out a hearth is simpler stated than finished when lobbing a bottle would typically take a few tries when it fails to place it out regardless of being within the common space the place the bottle was thrown.
In the meantime, slap mines are most likely certainly one of my worst enemies within the early ranges of the sport simply the truth that the margin of error is fairly slim even for somebody like myself that on the very least has gone by means of a number of titles from the music rhythm style. It doesn’t assist both that dying to a piece restarts you again to if you first touched the checkpoints which in flip, forces you to refill your pockets with stuff like water bottles or traps current in that part of the map. Nevertheless, Abe regardless of not having the talent to strike down foes like a badass, makes up together with his arsenal of instruments and sacred powers to even management his enemies to combat one another earlier than blowing them up as soon as the deed is completed. This helps alleviate problematic areas the place you’d doubtlessly be slapping mines all day however as an alternative simply forcefully make them blow up with the our bodies of your personal enemies though there are additionally some restrictions to this as some areas disable your powers forcing you to strive completely different means to resolve them. One different key characteristic of the sequence is gaining followers and in contrast to Social Media followers, these are one thing which you could order round that will help you clear up puzzles as soon as you discover them scattered all through the hidden areas of every degree.
And visually, it’s not a very handsome recreation outdoors its cinematic sequences neither is it a very unhealthy one. Whereas you will discover your self glued to all of the finer particulars of Abe and the gang throughout a cinematic, when you’re on the helm of this complete wacky journey, it drops it down a bit within the high quality in some instances the place a few of the areas are bland, washed out and splashed with simply practically the identical coat of paint making it much less interesting to play when the discrepancy from the cinematic and the graphics is incomparable. Paired with its points like enemies getting caught within the partitions at one time limit or the truth that after dying, Abe respawned at a checkpoint like regular however as an alternative of having the ability to proceed the extent, he was caught in place stopping progress even for those who restart from the checkpoint. Although returning to the principle menu and going again to the checkpoint once more did the trick however for a recreation to even have this type of drawback particularly when deaths are aplenty, it positively questions the Oddtimized Version’s touch-up from final 12 months’s model which supposedly tried to repair most points the vanilla Soulstorm had.
Conclusion
Oddworld: Soulstorm regardless of having the Oddtimized Version slapped onto it by no means actually felt like a recreation that matches the trendy period and whereas it does have just a few notable designs and quirks on the way it works and performs, the clunky controls particularly with the motion and aiming positively hurts its potential success amongst just a few others that it might’ve tried to make higher. Its story regardless of my feeling misplaced at what Abe is or why he grew to become such a central determine to its narrative, supplies this distinctive attraction that type of makes you need to proceed increasingly more. In lots of regards, it has its flaws and weaknesses however the journey do you have to attempt to trek it places you in distinctive conditions that just about by no means appears like a track on repeat with how a lot it introduces new mechanics to maintain it fascinating but difficult.
Seize your copy right here https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Video games/Nintendo-Change-games/ODDWORLD-SOULSTORM-2283581.html
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