My name is Abe and I have to save my friends.
I am trapped in a two-dimensional, multi-story room. In the distance I can see my friends, all 200, climbing a ladder that will lead them to safety and where to. they can reach the lock that will set me free. Suddenly, a loud crackling sound warns me of the presence of an enemy. It can’t see me, but it can see my friends. I quickly cast a spell to defeat him, but more lowercase letters to come. I take one and use it to kill another, and then another. I can’t keep up. A trifle knows something is wrong with his so-called comrade, and it kills my avatar, breaking my control. I keep chanting to quickly take possession of another, but I’m too slow. My friends see the sligs. They aim and start firing. I’m counting 36 bodies that fall.
I’ve been doing Oddworld: Soulstorm for seven hours and the game is kind of fun I wasn’t expecting. Oddworld Inhabitants’ decision to create an all-new Oddworld adventure has turned what was once a simplistic puzzle platformer into a rich narrative experience that left me addicted to characters I always liked, but now love.
Oddworld: Soulstorm, out now on PlayStation 4 and 5, and PC, is a new generation from 1998’s Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus, in continuation to Oddworld: Abe’s OddyseeAs a sequel to Oddworld: New N Tasty Oddworld: Soulstorm is the second time developer Oddworld Inhabitants has given one of its older titles a new generation. But instead of making a simple HD remake New N Tasty used to be, Soulstorm is a new game with new mechanics, new levels and a new story.
Oddworld: Soulstorm is a “2.9DSide scrolling platformer. As Abe, you must navigate treacherous terrain avoiding traps, enemies and even the local wildlife. To accompany the next generation of graphics updates, Soulstorm also improved the way Abe moves by adding more complex actions to his repertoire than what he had in him Exoddus.
I played the first two Oddworld, Abe’s Exoddus and Abe’s Oddysee games when i was a kid and i remember them both the shit outta bothered me. The cramped, dark and dirty environments created a sense of doom that excited and terrified me. In every room there was a puzzle to solve or a secret to find, and my brain enjoyed the workout. After playing and 100 percent complete New N Tasty, I was looking forward to it Soulstorm to relive the same exciting terror. Soulstorm, with all of its new items and improvements, looked like it would increase the difficulty, and I was excited to play. Just a few hours later SoulstormI’m still waiting to feel the same frightened excitement I felt playing the creator.
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Abe’s Exoddus and saving all Mudokons was difficult because the limited actions available mean carefully planning how to safely navigate a trap-filled room with your friends. With all the new items, much of that planning has been eliminated in favor of simply having the right number of items to make the right tool for the job. In Exoddus it was, “Okay, I have to fall down, run for my life, jump, hope to catch the ledge, climb up and pull the lever before the mud sees me and shoots me.” Now it is, “I can use the smokescreen bomb or the anesthetic bomb and move at my leisure.” The difficulty that caused it Exoddus stressful but rewarding has been flattened into a kind of generic action adventure platform.
That said, Soulstorm is still scratching my puzzle platformer itch. I miss the challenge of the originals, but Soulstorm is not without its problems. Abe’s improved movement options and the new level designs create totally new challenges that I enjoy. Early on in the game, Abe is forced to traverse pitch-black caves infested by dog-like creatures called slogs. You only have a limited number of flares to light your way, and changes in your singing ability allow you to look ahead for any dangers. You don’t have any weapons to deal with slogs, though, so it’s best to stay as quiet as possible. Chanting, talking to other Mudokons, or running around will wake up the slogs and make them hungry for dinner. Do you stay still and run the risk of falling into an invisible bottomless pit? Or do you use the scouting ability of your chant and let go of the fight?
Most of my enjoyment of Soulstorm is despite the new item offering rather than because of it. For me, collecting items is tedious and I tend to ignore collecting when I can help it. But in Soulstorm you can’t help it. Abe can search lockers, open wooden boxes, chase clay pots, or simply pick up various items to use on his travels. In the first handful of levels you will be introduced to Soulstorm Brew. Throw a bottle of it at the nearest fire and it explodes, taking out any unfortunate mud, wooden barricade, or Mudokon worker caught in the explosion. Some of the items are cool. For example, tape can be used to tie a knockout slig, knocking it out permanently. But one of the items, moolah, I absolutely hate. There are doors called moolah gates that block Abe’s progress unless he pays the amount of moolah indicated on the gate. I have encountered situations where I have successfully completed a room full of traps and enemies, but found I couldn’t move forward because, while running for my life, I failed to check every locker and trash can for the moolah I should do further later. I’ve never been the kind of gamer who obsessively checks every nook and cranny for every little item – it’s a waste of time. That this game sometimes requires that – forcing me to redo rooms I’ve already done is damn annoying.
As in New ‘n’ Tasty, I still wanted to save all my Mudokon buddies, but I’ve already ruined that dream. Soulstorm’s UI will tell you how many Mudokons there are at any given level, but, as far as I know, it lacks visual cues where. Exoddus hinted at secret Mudokon hideouts with the presence of small stacks Soulstorm brew bottles.Soulstorm has no equivalent so I’ve been obsessively checking every rock that stands out in the foreground and always looking for workers hidden in steam vents. There has been more than one occasion where a wandering roll against a wall that looks solid reveals a hidden area where Mudokons lie waiting for their savior.
I like that the game rewards you for taking an extra moment to kick around for fake walls and false bottoms. There is never an occasion where wandering the obvious path doesn’t yield a collectible or a Mudokon to save. But still, all my tricks and tips for playing the original Strange world games weren’t enough to save everyone.
There is a point at the beginning of the game that made me realize that I will not be able to save everyone. Trapped in a room, Abe cannot escape until enough Mudokons climb a giant ladder to press the button that unlocks the room. As they climb, you have to divert waves of sligs so as not to shoot them. It is heavy. There are so many sligs and you can only own one at a time. While you are in control of one shooting the other, a third, fourth, and fifth mow down dozens of Mudokons. After countless attempts to save all 200 Mudokons, I had to give up or I would never see the rest of the game. It made me think that maybe this is working as intended, that this was the game that taught me that Abe won’t be able to save everyone this time around. I wrote the 36 Mudokons I lost in my heart and went on solemnly … to another room that forced me to repeat the encounter.
What was great about the older Oddworld games was looking at a problem – say a room designed to be nothing more than an elaborate death trap – and figuring out how to navigate you and your zero survival instinct with friends in safety. This experience with the ladder kind of undermined that and made the challenge less about your ability to plan smart and more about your ability to stomp buttons. I am not a button tamper so I failed.
Another moment similarly forced me to accept victims, but this time it was because of a bug and not because of the puzzle design. The portals you use to send your Mudokons to freedom are made up of small birds that disperse if you get too close. When that happens, you usually wait for the birds to reappear or you can transfer screens and come back to make the portal reappear. The bug I ran into permanently deleted a portal and nothing I did could get it back. I was forced to leave the Mudokons that I had collected in the area behind me because they could not follow me to the next area where maybe another portal was waiting. I’ve already resigned myself to a second playthrough later in the year when walkthroughs are available.
I haven’t finished the game yet, so this is not a full review. I’ll be in for about six or seven hours. And although I don’t feel overwhelmed by the lack of a challenge at first, I’m having a good time. I’ve always loved the first two Strange world games a souped-up version of Exoddus is catnip for my teenage self. I hope the story strikes the right balance between Abe’s quest as the Chosen One and the crazy cheeky humor that made the first games so charming. I also hope that later levels are constructed with the old ones Strange world in mind – more dependent on your problem solving skills than having the correct number of doohickies in your backpack.