Lawrence.com

I have admired the work of Oddworld Inhabitants ever since the release of Abe's Oddysee on PS1. So when I heard they were going to add a dimension for Munch's Oddysee I was skeptical, but proven wrong. That game surpassed my expectations and kept me hooked. Then when I heard that the Inhabitants were changing it up again, I was scared, again. Thankfully my fears were ill-founded -- the game they have produced is a success in most every way.

It is hard to choose where to start with this polished product, but probably the biggest change is a good place. Stranger takes a giant leap from the humble side scrolling days of Abe, and picks up a double barreled crossbow on the way. No longer is the player restricted to third person only; now you can lay down the law in first person. This shift could have proven to be the downfall of Stranger, but instead is one of the best parts. The controls are on par with games like Halo: Combat Evolved and Metal Arms: Glitch in the System. They are tight and responsive and never inhibit the action. The way the camera moves even feels smoother than Halo. If you feel like it, you can switch to third person at any time and play using almost identical controls to those in Munch's Oddysee. This perspective switching allows for varied combat styles and makes exploration more interesting.

Yet even with this great camera setup the game would have failed had the weapons not been given the right amount of attention. Stranger has eight unique ammo types that are literally alive, and seven of them are upgradable. When I say alive, I mean you will be firing bees, bats, skunks, chipmunks, fuzzles, spiders, thud slugs, and lighting bug things. All of them have different animations and uses, and you have to hunt them down and capture them. The most interesting of the ammo types are the chipmunk and the skunk. The chipmunk, aka chippunk, will attract enemies to it by talking smack, quite funny stuff, and the skunk, aka stunkz, will cause enemies to start puking so you can bounty them. In the end, you are presented with many options for any encounter with these different types of weapons.

Though you have all these different types of ammo, the computer is not going to make your journey easy. The enemies in this game have intelligence on par with Halo and Metal Gear Solid. They actively search for you and will try to flank you. They form small groups when they are hunting, and if you rush them they pull back into more secure areas. These tendencies will catch you off-guard at times, but always make each encounter interesting and entertaining. The boss fights are engaging also, even though they all seem to follow the same formula. It is impossible to attack each boss the same way because of their weapons and reactions, but you may find yourself using the same two ammo types each time.

Every Oddworld creation has exuded an unparalleled graphical flare, so it is not surprising that Stranger is visually pleasing. The care taken in producing every level is amazing. Every outdoor environment is alive with flora and fauna, highly detailed textures and destructible elements. The further into the game you get, the better the environments. Once you enter New Yolk City, Stranger really flexes its muscles. You get there through a lush forest and all the missions take place along a river that makes for some serious eye candy. But the creators really show their graphical prowess in the pre-rendered videos. These videos are packed with artistic detail and are a joy to watch. Sure, the lip sync may not be perfect, but it is forgivable given the overall quality of the movies.

The sound in this game is well done. The game does not involve music in the same way that others do in that it is only background emphasis to what is going on. It does not ever try to set the mood by superseding the action. The explosions and other general weapon effects all have a hearty ambience to them. I never felt let down by the twang of the bowstring or underwhelmed by the explosion of a barrel. But the greatest aspect of the sound is the NPC chatter. I have never heard a game that had so much random chatter going on, let alone chatter that actually changed depending on what mission you are doing or how you did on the last mission. It is quite impressive the number of different things the computer can say at any given time.

However, there are two huge mistakes. First, the game is extremely linear. Generally this isn't a problem since there has to be some direction to the game, but Stranger presents itself at first as a game about collecting bounties to afford a surgery. This tends to lend itself to picking and choosing what to do and when to do it. Alas, you are only given a certain number of bounties in each city, and to top this off you can't re-explore anything because it becomes inaccessible after the bounty is complete. This does keep the story moving at a quick pace and keeps the player interested in the story, but I still would have liked a less linear game. The second mistake is the lack of multiplayer. This game has the potential to be a break-out multiplayer game based on the quality of the single-player campaign, but there isn't any. Because of these flaws and the lack of unlockables, there really is not any reason to replay the game except to mess with the enemies some more.

Overall this game has raised the bar for the Oddworld series by nailing the control scheme and mastering the art of being fun. I never once wanted to take out the game because I was mad at it. That isn't to say it never got hard, but I never got mad at the difficulty because I knew that I was just being outsmarted. Stranger is another great example of the heart and dark humor that all Oddworld games embody. If the game had a multiplayer element it could have easily been a (insert popular FPS game here) killer.

Graphics: A

Sound: B+

First Play: A+

Last Play: C

Gameplay: A

Overall: 90% A-