Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus
- January 01, 2000 00:00 AM PST
The second outing in the Oddworld series, Abe�s Exoddus, does everything a great sequel should: It corrects the flaws of the original while keeping intact all the ingredients that made the first so great.
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The original Oddworld was a side-scrolling, 2D platform/puzzle game in the style of classics like Out of the World, Flashback, and the recent Heart of Darkness. Since Abe�s Exoddus uses basically the same technology to create a similar game, you won�t like this one if you didn�t like Abe�s Oddysee. Fans of the original, however, will be in Odd Heaven.
Abe has returned home to be pronounced the hero of his fellow Mudokons when he receives an ancestral message from beyond the grave. It seems the evil Glukkons are using Mudokon bones and tears (squeezed out through torture) as ingredients in their SoulStorm Brew. Abe and some of his not-so-stalwart buddies investigate and, as usual, find themselves in way over their heads. Abe has to sort things out, rescue his brethren, and stop the Glukkons again.
Exoddus� look, feel, and control are essentially identical to the original�s. The characters and landscapes are 3D rendered, beautiful, and distinctively weird, while gameplay is side-scrolling with some minor 3D elements. There�s still a slightly low-res feel to the game�you�re stuck at 640-by-480�showing off Oddworld�s PlayStation roots.
Characters in the game, from the somewhat pathetic Abe and his kinfolk to the Sligs, Scrabs, Paramites, and Glukkons, can only be described as bizarrely and sometimes despicably endearing. In Oddworld, everything boils down to survival of the fittest, where each creature is trying to climb farther up the food chain at the expense of others in their way.
What really sets Oddworld apart from other games of this type (scarce though they are) is its communication system. Abe�s quest includes rescuing the enslaved Mudokons throughout the land, which requires him to talk to them and issue such orders as follow, wait, and work. New to Oddworld are the emotive responses. Laughing gas, for instance, makes the Mudokons goofy, requiring Abe to literally slap sense into them. Slap too much and they get mad or depressed. Since an angry Mudokon won�t help, and a depressed one is on the brink, Abe has to apologize or sympathize with them to repair their feelings. And it�s all done with such cute voice-acting that you can�t help but laugh.
Abe also has the ability to take control of other creatures. Most of Oddworld�s denizens have their own individual languages, which lets Abe manipulate related groups of them at once. The various creatures respond to Abe�s interaction in different ways, and that�s often the key to surviving the puzzles. The game�s challenges move from these communication puzzles to run-and-jump platform gameplay, timing exercises, lots of switch-based tasks, and all manner of combinations in between. Still, while it�s often incredibly challenging, Exoddus isn�t nearly as frustrating as the original, especially because you can now save at any time.
The main flaw here is that control often feels a little unresponsive, especially when you have to make a combination of moves in quick succession�like running, then rolling, then jumping. But even considering that, Abe�s Exoddus pulls you in with a visual sensibility unlike any other, wonderful characters, fantastic cinematic sequences, and great design. It�s different, it�s fun, it�s enthralling, and it�s really, really Odd.
