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You want weird? Look no further than Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee.
Mild-mannered factory worker Abe has discovered that his
employers at Rupture Farms are planning to use his fellow
Mudokons as the main ingredient in their latest product, Mudokon
Pops. Like any decent Mudokon, Abe s to rescue his peers. He
also is determined to seek justice in his battle to bring down
the corrupt Rupture Farms. You help Abe carry out his heroic
duties by possessing enemies, participating in action sequences
worthy of an Indiana Jones flick, and talking to fellow Mudokons
using the game's impressive "gamespeak" feature, which allows
multiple characters to communicate with each other using your
control pad.
The graphics in Abe's Oddyssee convey a unique personality,
which is often lacking in platform action games. Still, a few
pretty game environments will not distract you from the devious
puzzles scattered throughout the game. Fortunately, you never run
out of lives in Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee. Instead, Abe
rematerializes immediately after you "die" and the game continues
from the last checkpoint you reached. This approach encourages
exploration, which you'll want to do anyway since this is one of
the most beautiful 2-D games we've seen. --T. Byrl Baker
Pros:
* Gorgeous graphics and cut-scenes
* Challenging puzzles
* Entertaining story Cons:
* Many puzzles require perfect timing, which can be difficult to
master
From the Manufacturer
---------------------
In a world run by ruthless meat barons your entire race is about
to become pie filling...Unless you can escape RuptureFarms and
make it through the most inexplicably challenging gameplay in the
known universe. Sound Odd? Welcome to Oddworld. A new kind of
game and a brave new world of interaction. Communicate with real
characters. Possess and blow away your enemies. Solve wicked
situations. ODDWORLD: ABE'S ODDYSEE takes every game genre you've
ever seen and blends them into a smorbord of pure gaming
delight. So trust in Odd and you'll never be hungry again!
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Review
------
If there ever was a cookie-cutter genre in gaming, it was the
platform game back in the heyday of 16-bit console systems. Every
company had a "cute" or "hot-licensed" character it wanted to
plug into a 2D side scroller. It really didn't matter if the
titles were any good - and more often than not, they weren't.
Gameplay frustrations such as blind jumps and nents that
would fire projectiles at players from off-screen quickly became
commonplace, and people walked away from the whole mess ed
and red. Consequently, gamers believed that games had to be
3D to be any good. Now, Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee has arrived,
proving people wrong on both regards. Abe's is not only a
platform game for people who are tired of platform games - it's
one for people who never liked them to begin with.
In Oddworld, you play a slave called Abe, who works at the
meat-processing Rupture Farms. Abe's a Mudokon, hardly your
typical cute platform hero, but a gangly, orange-eyed,
green-skinned creature with a samurai's tuft of hair and the
posture of an ape. The story's premise is that the factory's
owners have found a tasty new treat to whip into production since
they ran their last "dish" into extinction. The problem is, it's
you. Or more precisely, the Mudokons. When an eavesdropping Abe
finds this out, he starts ham-stepping stage left, right quick,
proving that curiosity can save the cat, too. Your goal, as Abe,
is to escape Rupture Farms, liberating as many fellow Mudokons as
possible, and find a way to bring down the entire . But
playing a Christ figure isn't as easy as we'd all like to think.
Using a limited vocabulary set, Abe must convince the Mudokons to
follow him to safety, all the while racing through the factory
flipping switches, avoiding obstacles, evading heavily armed
guards, and staying alive.
While other games promise a variety of enemies and enemy AI,
Abe's delivers, with creatures such as the Sligs (the heavily
armed guards of Rupture Farms who are basically slugs with s
on stilts), Paramites (Giger face-hugger-like creatures), Scrabs
(essentially four fast-moving legs with a sharp beak), and Slogs
(the Sligs' y-headed "dogs"). Each species has its own
unique personality, which has to be understood and adapted to if
Abe has any hope of surviving. For example, the Paramites get
quite vicious if cornered or found in groups, but can be
distracted if you throw them chunks of meat; the Scrabs fight
like beta fish if you can lead them into the same room; the Sligs
can be controlled by Abe's psychic ability, if no
mind-control-inhibiting machinery is nearby; and the Slogs, in
turn, can be ordered around by possessed Sligs. The game's
developers, Oddworld Inhabitants, refer to the creature AI
process as A.L.I.V.E. (Alive Lifeforms In a Virtual Environment),
and it goes a long way toward making you feel as if you're
interacting with an actual world and all its inhabitants.
Other variations from the platform norm include the absence of
scoring (the goal is just to stay alive and save your friends,
not rack up points), life meters (you'll know when you've
expired), or extra lives (after death you simply start back at
the beginning of the section you were in). Once you realize these
features are gone, you'll probably begin wondering why games ever
needed them in the first place. Best yet, unlike any number of
platformers, Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee requires lots of thinking in
solving its puzzles, which are well constructed and challenging,
instead of cheap and frustrating. Abe's really is the ideal
platformer, balancing its action and puzzle elements perfectly to
make the game intelligent, engaging, and, best yet, fun. With
about 25 to 30 hours of gameplay, there's a lot of meat for you
to chew on, whatever kind it may end up being. --Joe Fielder
--Copyright ©1999 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction
in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written
permission of GameSpot is prohibited. GameSpot and the GameSpot
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