“Hello.” “Hello.” “Follow me.” “Okay.” *farting noises*. *laughter*. *explosions*. “Ugh oh.”
Such was the spiral of play in my time as a child playing the original Abe’s Oddysee. As a youngster, I didn’t pay too much attention to the ahead-of-its-time narrative, painting capitalism as a culture of greed and profit by any means necessary. It was all about collecting my little bug-eyed buddies and farting in their faces.
So, when I grew a little older and the game made its comeback fully remastered, alongside its equally-addictive sequel, I was overwhelmed by the passion and energy that had gone into the always-topical plot, that’s completely reflective of goings-on in the real world. When I heard that an all-new follow-up was on its way? I couldn’t contain my excitement.
Now, the world finally gets to play that sequel: Oddworld: Soulstorm.
Abe is heralded as some sort of other-worldly being by his fellow Mudokon, but the pressure is getting to him. When he’s told by an Elder that another perilous adventure is coming his way, he doesn’t feel he’s up to the task.
It’s too late for any anxiety-induced waiting around however; he and his clan have been found, with the evil Magog Cartel and their army of followers taking no prisoners. It’s shoot first, ask questions later, so Abe must escort as many of his fellow survivors as possible on another revolutionary escape.
It sounds dark and gruesome and, quite frankly it is. That classic Oddworld humour is woven throughout however, ensuring you’ll still be left smiling at times when you may have been close to screaming at your screen.
Where you may be left wanting to throw your controller however, is when you come across one of the multiple bugs that still remain a frustrating feature of the game. One in particular - using your power of possession to control an enemy, only to find that you can’t control them at all and have to restart from your last checkpoint - left my fingers white-tipped as I squeezed down on my controller in fury.
We’re promised that patches are on their way to confront the bugs that have plagued gameplay and indeed, some have already been implemented. We’re hopeful that more are right around the corner, as the beautiful crafting of the story being told here deserves to be celebrated.
Where Soulstorm really shines is its reworked controls. There were still a handful of occasions where I could’ve sworn I jumped at the right time only to go flying into a bomb or off the edge of a rock, but overall, they’re more responsive than we ever saw in New ’N’ Tasty.
There’s also the crafting system, which pushes you to explore each and every corner of the lengthy maps so you can put together some wild weaponry and tools that will aid you on your journey, such as sticky grenades, and tape to tie up unsuspected enemies.
Developers have taken all of the best bits of the original game, before adding in some fine-tuning and some unique mechanics for Soulstorm, resulting in one of the most addictive platformers we’ve ever played.
With four alternate endings - very bad, bad, good and very good - there’s always the thirst for more. Going back and making sure you see all of these is the best way to honour those who have worked so hard to make this story a success.
With 15 levels (and an additional two if you manage to unlock one of the good endings), your playthrough should be at least 15 hours, with countless more for the achievement hunters and completionists to plug in if they're wanting to pick up absolutely everything.
A delight, almost entirely. Once the bugs are ironed out, this will be a contender for one of the best games of the year, I’m sure.
Oddworld: Soulstorm is available now on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows. A key for the game on PS5 was provided to Female First in exchange for a fair and honest review.
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