Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee

The Good
I always like a game where you can make the PC fart (check out GTA)! This was one of my first PS games, and the intro really blew me away. After having gathered myself from the bits and pieces splattered on the walls, I was struck with awe by the in-game graphics and sound. Still recovering from the massive head trauma I started playing...

The Bad
...and also wondering how people capable of making a game this beautiful, both aurally and visually, can't write a bloody manual!? It took me several weeks of playing to find out that you could take over the bad guys' bodies by chanting for a while. Now this is something those of you who read the tips columns in magazines or on websites would find out on day one, and normal console game players would probably get to the point where the game tells you this in about two hours, but for someone accustomed to the easy-going playability of Duke Nukem (the real DN, not the crappy ones), this game is dead hard. And it doesn't get any easier once you get the hang of the controls (all those different buttons for burping, chanting, jumping, etc), since a lot of screens require split-second timing, and even when you get it right the level designers have decided you deserve a kick in the teeth: I played this with a friend (both in our twenties), and we nearly shitted our pants when a shrieking squid-headed alien jumped from the roof in a dark part of a level we THOUGHT we'd cleared.

Otherwise, all the usual console game gripes apply.

The Bottom Line
For a "cute" platform game this certainly has an atmosphere awfully close to the original Doom. Whether this is a good thing or a pain in the ass is up to the player, but I found this game to be well worth the time and effort (and laundry detergent, if you're very sensitive) put into it. The variety of gameplay and the fact that the designers have really put a lot of thought into the story and setting of the game combined with the solid presentation make this an instantly appealing game - especially if you don't mind popping a few bloodvessels in your head just once in a while.

The Good
Graphics in the game are what you'd get out of a steampunk movie with the grisly details of a slaughterhouse. Although the detail is top-notch, only the correct settings can allow you to fully enjoy the cutscenes without frame skipping. What adds to the level art is that the background is just as busy as the layout of the level, making it a convincingly realistic place.

While there is no proper tutorial in the game, the hint messages you get at least help you practice the moves. It will come as a surprise to find hidden rooms where you're expected to have forehand knowledge of the gameplay to rescue the Mudokons and escape them alive. The more you progress, the more interesting challenges await you, ranging from disarming traps to stealth to mind-controlling Sligs. You essentially have all the means at your disposal to get through the levels, which is half the challenge, and rescuing at least 50 Mudokons for the good ending is the other half. And if you get tired of the main game, it's fun to play with Abe's speech.

The Bad
The controls are nowhere near as tight as they should be. If you're accustomed to cinematic platformers like Blackthorne, you'd expect to be able to pull off a move or action with the light tap of a button, but then you find Abe killed before you've made your running jump or climb. You can make better jumps on Prince of Persia. And the running is so sensitive, you'll find yourself thrust forward to the middle of the screen before you have the chance to stop. While it's okay for getting across rooms faster, it's not okay when trying to hurry from one dangerous room to the next. When throwing a grenade, pressing up makes you throw it forward and pressing the opposing direction makes you throw it upwards. That doesn't even make any sense. The throwing direction should correspond with the arrow keys. Furthermore, there's no arc indicator to tell you exactly where the grenade will land, you just have to experiment.

As if the game wasn't difficult enough, there are some annoyances that should have been stamped out, such as secret portals permanently vanishing if you skip them and platform edges that don't let you climb down, you just crouch instead. The lack of checkpoints in the more desired rooms adds to the frustration, so expect Abe and/or other Mudokons to die lots of times until you've rehearsed the precise steps and moves, sometimes ruined by the unpredictable behaviour of the Sligs.

The Bottom Line
You think you're a master at cinematic platformers? Well you don't know Oddworld. The difficulty is ramped up way more than Broderbund's, Delphine Software's or even Blizzard Software's platformers. For the most part, you're going to need a lot more luck than reflex to play this one perfectly. But learning patterns and steps is where the fun really gets to players. No matter how hard it gets, you know you want this title. With the amount of carnage and meat processing, you'd best hope it doesn't put you off your next hamburger.

The Good
Recently, I have talked about the sequel (Abe's Exoddus) extensively, which is very similar to this game - looks similar, uses a lot of the same assets and gameplay mechanics, etc. Both are excellent games, but Exoddus polished out the rough aspects of Oddysee, and has a lot more content. Neither does help that playing Exoddus first made this one look a bit jankier. A.E. is the better game in general.

However, there is one aspect in Oddysee that I think is superior to Exoddus: The atmosphere! This game has such a uniquely sober, depressing, and contemplative mood to it, consistently in every aspect from the audiovisuals, down to the interactions with the Mudokons. It's a piece of evocative art come to life, even more so than Exoddus.

The Mudokon workers of RuptureFarms are... kind of creepy. You know that in Exoddus, the Mudokons can have different moods, and their voice sound more uplift in general. They also react with shock if they see the death of Abe or other fellows. However in Oddysee, they all sound so numb and deeply traumatised! It's a bit like they are dead on the inside. The little detail that they don't even bat an eye when Abe or a fellow dies a grizzly death right in front of them, implies that they see and live trough such horrid events on a daily basis, and they don't even care anymore. This is some North Korea level of sh*t.

Nowadays I find that in Exoddus, I don't care about the cutscenes. That is because the leisure manner and the childish humor in them (like "fourth wall" breaking moments) is bit distracting to the overall experience. Not that I hate it, Exoddus feels more liberated, where Abe is kind of a famous celebrity/terrorist, so it makes some sense. But here in Oddysee, the story in the cutscenes is told in a serious and poetic way, that is more appropriate with the oppressive feel of the gameplay. It makes the game's world more coherent and immersive overall!

Abe's journey is told in such an effective way, that we can easly sympathise with - even if the cutscenes are left out! Starting out as the punching bag of life, in the suffocating court of the dim and filthy slaughterhouse, with a desire to escape this horrid place to anywhere else. At this point, freeing the fellow workers is optional, just wanting to get away with your pathetic life, even if that means everybody else gets gassed for it. Then making a narrow escape from the inside of the factory, to the open air stockyards. Now we are able to see the smoke filled sky as the sun sets, but still not in safety, as the path is laid out with traps and corpses trough a wasteland. Finally making our way out into the nature, meeting with the natives, who propose you a challenge. Travelling to far away lands, to the ancient temples of the Mudokons, that are inhabited their sacred but wild (and deadly) animals, to ignite the all the flint locks and survive the trial. Gaining a mystical, Abe's life gets to a new goal: freeing the remaining Mudokons and shutting down RuptureFarms!

The Bad
That dreadful checkpoint system makes this otherwise hard game into extremely hard! There are very few checkpoints laid out troughout the levels. So if you die, you often are put way back, either to the start of the level, or to the last checkpoint, losing a lot of progress you made since. And so you have to repeat sections, that are often very difficult, and also have to keep saving the same Mudokons over again. Saving the game just saves the state of gameplay as it was at the last checkpoint when you reached it.

Worse yet in this game, you can command only one Mudokon at a time! That makes a lot of extra work to get all of them individually to safety.

The Bottom Line
Well, what can I say? Both Abe's Exoddus and Abe's Oddysee are my all time favourite games! They still hold up despite the remakes.

Many people complain that Oddysee is too hard, and a bit of chore to repeat things because of the checkpoint system. So now I want to brag, that I have beaten Oddysee the within the first week (of schooldays) I got it, saving all 99 Mudokons. That is because playing Exoddus before it was a very good training, and I have laboriously examined every inch and corner of platforms to find the hidden places and Mudokons. You can do it too!