Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee

March 10, 2008

Rating:

Overview

You are Abe, an ignorant, happy floor-waxer in Rupturefarms, the most dangerous slaughterhouse in Oddworld. You and the rest of the blue guys are Mudokons. You have been a slave all your life for your boss, Mullock the Glukkon. Mullock represents the Magog Cartel, the meanest bunch of corporate weasels you will ever meet.

You start the game chained up in a cell, awaiting interrogation by Mullock the Glukkon. You have done something that has really made him mad. What have you done? Well, you’ll have to play the old games to answer that. Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee is a flashback. In other words, the events leading to your being captured have already happened, but now you are going to play those events again to see what kind of ending there will be. Confused? You should be.

It all starts with Rupturefarms driving Meeches, Scrabs, and Paramites to extinction. The only way to boost profits is to turn Abe and his pals into lunch. You’ve got to escape from Rupturefarms and take as many fellow Mudokons with you as possible.

Once you escape from Rupturefarms, your adventure is just beginning. Now you must complete your destiny by saving all the Mudokons and becoming a Shrykull (which is half-Mudokon, half-God). It is your mission to complete the game and to save your race from extinction.

Gameplay

Oddworld is a side-scrolling game that is fast-paced and very addictive, reminiscent of the game Earthworm Jim. Once you start playing, you just can’t stop until you see what is on the next board. I found myself staying up late and then losing more sleep dreaming about how I could save that one Mudokon that seemed to be all by himself on a ledge somewhere.

Remember the good old days when the only button you had to worry about was the big red one on the side of the joystick? Those days are long gone, and I wish they could come back. Oddworld’s configuration of buttons is kind of a pain, but after the first two to three hours of gameplay you get the hang of it and press on with the game. If you have a gamepad with six buttons, it might be easier to handle, but those of us with the good old four-button pad are out of luck. I found it difficult to try to use the joystick and the keyboard at times and wished I had a third hand more than once during the game.

Originality/Cool Features

One of the neat things that really caught my attention is that you have to talk to your fellow Mudokons. They will not follow you unless you coax them into it.

Oddworld also has a multitude of secret levels. If you don’t look for them, you will miss about 50 % of the game and will not save enough Mudokons to see the good ending (there are two endings). The makers of the game were very sneaky in where they hid the levels, so make sure that you always look everywhere for them. I’ll give you a hint: there is a secret level on the very first board.

Graphics

This game is wonderful to look at. The different environments in Oddworld look hand-drawn and very realistic; it rivals anything on the market as far as graphics go. I liked the way GT Interactive took the time to put out such a high-quality game. Everything seemed to move smoothly with very little drag. There are times, of course, when things slow down a bit. Whenever you have multiple Slogs (look like little dogs) coming after you, the game would slow down to a crawl. This only occurs a couple of times so it really doesn’t affect how I felt about the game as a whole.

Audio

Crank it up and let the game take control of your body! The audio is top of the line. If you don’t have stereo speakers, this is one game that would help you make the decision to buy some. When the game starts to get intense, the music goes right along with the action. I know of one area where, when you are running from some Scrabs, it seems like every time you jump a big drum would sound at the same time. It made my palms sweaty and the joystick hard to hold. It just doesn’t get much better than that.

Documentation

The only documentation for Oddworld is in the case for the CD-ROM. It is fairly small but it gives you the basic story and the buttons you need to know. Make sure that you definitely read the controls page first. I spent too much time trying to do things that I had no clue about. If I had read the book, I would have been fine. The documentation also has some good screen shots and a small description of each of the different things you will be up against in the game.

Also, you begin the game with an option for walkthrough that gives you a chance to practice your moves before things get too hairy.

System Requirements

Minimum: Pentium 120, SVGA high color (16 bit), 4X CD-ROM drive, 8 MB RAM, 100% SoundBlaster compatible sound card
Recommended: Pentium 166, SVGA high color (16 bit), 4X CD-ROM drive, 16 MB RAM, Wavetable sound card

Bottom Line

I thoroughly enjoyed playing Oddworld. It is a refreshing game in a market that too often lacks any true originality. I didn’t like the number of buttons that I had to use to get through some of the boards; that was frustrating. But despite the frustration, the game is just plain fun. It’s beautifully made and everything comes together nicely. The storyline is great and it gives you a reason to want to keep going. The game is a little short for most people, but I believe that this is the first in a five-part series that GT Interactive is putting out. I’m going to have to start saving my pennies so I can get the rest. Put it on your Christmas list and make sure you’re good the rest of the year!

(15 votes, average: 4.8 out of 5)

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