I love the Oddworld series, but this game might as well be called "Soulless Storm".
Okay, perhaps that's a bit harsh since I know they tried, but let me explain my thoughts in this review:
Oddworld Inhabitants was a studio I once held in very high regard and respected a lot, but this is probably one of their most misguided games yet. I first started with New N’ Tasty, going back through the previous games, then playing this game on PS4 and giving “Enhanced Edition” a shot on PC now. It’s not outright bad, but insulting to Oddworld fans and casual players alike.
The main menu and logo represents what this game is all about. Shaved down, boring, copying other popular games, stripped of identity, overly realistic, felating it's own graphics, and most of all: NOT ODD!
THE IDENTITY OF ODDWORLD STRIPPED AWAY:
Gamespeak? Stripped down to bare minimum with no depth. There isn't even a gamespeak menu anymore.
Emotions affecting gameplay: completely gone, and all the creative possibilities it had are gone too.
Possession puzzles: dumbed down and repetitive, despite introducing a new chaining mechanic that is only used once.
Enemy and puzzle variety: Double gone. Hope you like Sligs and Slogs only!
Minimal or Diegetic Hud: NOPE. A hud that is both over informative, too small to read at a split second glance, and mostly unnecessary. All of this information was displayed much more eloquently in the previous games. There is even an OBJECTIVE POP UP, IN A LINEAR 2D PLATFORMER. WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
Good Music that fits in with the environment: Nope! All generic ambient "music".
Quiksave: Gone when it is needed most, as this game is prone to glitching out or changing its rules suddenly.
Interesting environments: It's mostly Earth-like locations now! They betrayed 5 of the 6 Oddworld art design rules, only focusing on realism. The levels are also overly long and have SO much filler.
Otherworldly sound design: gone and way out of balance in many places even after all the pathes.
On top of all this, Game text, UI, and play area is WAY too small. There is no reason for the Hud and text to bee this small, and there is no option for larger text. So much for "looking out for the little guy" when I can’t even see the guy because he’s so little on screen. I had to walk up to my big screen TV to even read the text several times. Also no Texture or Model quality settings, which there is little reason not to include these days.
The game also has no zoom in option and makes poor use of contrasting colors (if any color at all in some places) making it had to see what you are even doing or what is around you. Everything is so muted, especially compared to the old Oddworld games which used color smartly so Abe was almost always visible against the colored backdrops.
The game also has a shoehorned in crafting system, which could have easily been replaced by just finding the existing items around. Remember how Lorne Lanning didn't want Abe to have weapons because it would trivialize the puzzles? Well this game is proof of that. The items made from crafting materials give so much freedom, you can just use dominant strategy and solve puzzles and combat encounters the same exact way every time.
What is also shoehorned is the Youtuber voices which don't match Oddworld voice acting AT ALL. It's like most didn't even try. A couple of the Youtubers they included aren't even Oddworld fans! For a series that once was praised for immersion, this comes off as... bad.
I only just played Exoddus for the first time recently, and I will be the first to admit that Exoddus, the game this is loosely based on, wasn’t perfect. It’s puzzles were overly punishing and many moments focused on having split second reaction time and wrestling with the controls. This game actually makes a great improvement to the overall controls and gamefeel, making it feel much more natural and less frustrating to just move around. Legit I would like to see this refined in future titles to make it even better.
But for a reimagining of Abe's Exoddus, a game that was initially rushed and crunched with a tight budget, this $15,000,000 budget reimagining game with way more time is just flat out worse. You could make a game a lot better than this with less than $1,000,000 if you were smart about it. But nah, gotta put all the money into seeing each individual wrinkle on a characters skin rather than a complete game right?
I REALLY hope this isn't the new direction for the series. It feels like Lorne Lanning is more focused on realistic graphics and copying movies than having good interesting puzzles or crafting a unique world. They even straight up disregard established lore and story in Abe's Oddysee/New n' Tasty, retconning some beats and trying to make Sligs more sympathetic despite willingly participating in genocide. In addition to this, the uniqueness of Glukkon designs are gone. Instead of having unique color schemes, they are now just based off white guys. If I were more cynical, I might say that no longer is the message that “greed corrupts all and ruins lives”, the message is now “if you are born a certain race you MUST be evil”. That is not a good message to send out.
This is really hit home by the fact that most cutscenes are UNSKIPPABLE, which is unacceptable in the modern age. I know they worked really hard on them, but they go on WAY too long and are really boring to sit through most of the time, being drawn out to the point of absurdity. I loved the old cutscenes because they were enjoyable, impactful, and didn't waste words or try to copy movies.
The plot is no longer about social commentary poking at our reality, and Abe is no longer an unlikely hero supported through gameplay, now he's a whiny superhero with a magic mcguffen on a more generic quest, a thing we've seen before thousands of times. The originals were not like this. Abe in gameplay and cutscenes were the same, and made him much more likable. Now he is a weapon tossing action hero in gameplay, but whiny and helpless in cutscenes. He's so mellow dramatic, lingering on the smallest things, and behaves completely differently to all previous games. It made me legitimately DESPISE Abe in this game. I consider myself over sensitive and weak in the face of danger, but even I have to say Abe is no longer relatable or all that likable.
I don't know about you, but seeing Mudokans with their eyes stitched shut and Mudokans being so sad they can commit suicide IN GAMEPLAY is much more impactful than a 4 minute cutscene of a nameless mudokan spewing out repeated dialogue over and over. Exodus was much more effective in storytelling with much less time, and I only just played it for the first time recently.
All of this combines to make me think they completely missed the design philosophy and point and soul of the early Oddworld games, so much so it almost feels like a completely different series. If I didn’t know Oddworld Inhabitants were involved in this, you could have told me this was made by an EA or Ubisoft studio, and I would have believed you.
To further compound this, let us not forget that Lorne and Oddworld Inhabitants took bribes from the corrupt AI conglomerate known as Epic to have this game as a temporary Epic store exclusive. I can't tell you how this spits in the face of everything Lorne once stood for. It's a betrayal of the most ironic kind.
Despite my criticism of this game and Lorne's obsessions, I'm still rooting for Oddworld Inhabitants. Just please, make a smaller but smarter put together game next time.
And stop trying to copy other games.
Be true, be honest, be Odd, be Oddworld.
