Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath

[mithriltabby]

Just finished playing Stranger’s Wrath, the latest Oddworld game. Unlike the previous Oddworld titles, this is not a puzzle game; it’s more like Ratchet & Clank Go To Oddworld (though with a much shorter plot than you’d expect from a Ratchet & Clank game). This is a first-person shooter with an entertaining variety of ammunition types, each one a small creature that has a particular effect on its target when launched from our hero’s crossbow.

The good stuff: the usual deranged Oddworld sensibilities are there, this time with an Old West theme (though the frontier has the occasional laptop and animated marquee). Our hero, Stranger, is a bounty hunter; in addition to a crossbow, he also has a device for vacuuming up disabled opponents (which is very satisfying). The opposition tend to have lots of explosives lying around, which makes for an amusing way to dispose of opposition that’s impractical to knock out and grab for bounty. Halfway through the game, you even get serious sniping capability (sadly, with a fairly small clip). The interaction with other characters in the game is pretty one-track for advancing the immediate plot goal; this is no Deus Ex where it’s worth talking to everyone you meet to hear what they say.

The not-so-good stuff: the game shifts between a first-person view (like Doom and Deus Ex) and a third-person view (like Ratchet & Clank), and it’s clumsy at times, as you can only engage in melee effectively in the third-person view and only shoot in the first-person view. This makes combats quite tricky when the opponents that are immune to gunfire show up and you need to punch them out. (The controls for melee in first person mode are different from the ones in third person mode, which just adds to the confusion.) The boss fights aren’t my cup of tea, as they don’t reward the sneaking and sniping I enjoy. The game is in the habit of using cut scenes that deposit you at a particular spot— often taking you from a position of tactical advantage to a position of tactical disadvantage, and at one point teleporting across a river (which made it really difficult to figure out how to get back!). And at a major turning point in the game, all the money and gear acquired in the first part of the game just goes away; there’s no more use for the money, as there’s no further visiting civilization and general stores, but it’s frustrating to suddenly lose the improved ammunition capacity. (The game makes up for this somewhat by using the bounty vacuum to turn targets into “ammo chow”, which makes it easier to reload without access to nests of the critters you use for ammunition— including the sniper wasps, who can only be bought in stores or found in crates.)

This portion of Oddworld only has a few creatures in common with the previous portions we’ve seen; you see plenty of fuzzles and one vykker, but there’s no followup on the overall story from the first three games.

If you’ve enjoyed the Oddworld series of games and have the reflexes for a first-person shooter, this is worth picking up as another fun view on Oddworld. In terms of overall entertainment value, you’ll get more bang for your buck from Ratchet & Clank; if you’re on a budget, you might want to wait until the game has been out for a while to pick it up.