'Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath'– Odd or not?
Stranger's wrath is a first person shooter and third person melee combat game where Stranger (the main protagonist) takes on the role of bounty hunter as he fights his way through hordes of bandits and outlaws until his true identity is discovered and he is put on the run.
But is it a good game? And the only reply I can give is, Hell Yea it is! I can confidently say that without a doubt in my mind that this is one of the best games I have ever played, it defiantly breaks my top ten, maybe even my top Five and I've been playing games since I was three. I would also go as far as saying it's the best game I've played in the past five years of my life (excluding Metroid: Zero mission, the best game ever created in this plain of existence).
But before my heart explodes from my undying love for both those games, I'll get down to one of the main reasons I like Stranger's Wrath. And that reason would be the lead bad-ass, Stranger. He is like an animalistic version of Clint Eastwood. He even wears a poncho. I mean Stranger has no name, no back-story, no nothing. All you know is that he is a bounty hunter and that he is very good at his job. Yet despite this cliché of a beginning to a story he still pulls through as a better character then any of the mainstream games main protagonists such as Marcus phoenix from Gears of war.
Now, let's talk about the game play. It's fantastic, brilliant and it blends together third person shooting which has a various tactics that I shall explain later, and third person melee combat with a variety of brutal moves to crush the skulls of the enemies. Ahhhh… the shooter aspect of the game. It is wonderful to see a game pull this off perfectly, however it's sad to see that it was done five years ago and people are still getting it wrong today. But I digress, the gun you use isn't a gun, it's an arm mounted crossbow. Yep! If that wasn't cool enough it doesn't even shoot bolts, it shoots small, very spherical, animals and bugs which do a variety of things such as the 'Zap fly' that modifies electrical equipment and the 'Fuzzles' which are little balls of fur that maul any enemy to death if they even get close. It's this sort of setting that really makes me question why modern games are the way they are. I mean most modern day games made for the general public are so very, very bad and I find it hard to grasp why when great games like this were made years ago.
Just to ebb more on the Wild West theme, most of the settings are caricatures of the settings from 'A fist full of dollars'. And their residents are chickens. Did I not mention that? Yea they're chickens. It's this kind of quirky behaviour in games that make me fall in love with them. It's a great juxtaposition as well because it is cartoonistic in setting but it is in no way a kid's game. I think that's something that needs to be drilled into the heads of the guys running the 'call of duty' production board. Ultra-realism isn't wanted, one main reason being, if I wanted realism I'd go out for a walk in the real world. I want a good story, cool character and kick-ass game play. I also want to be doing something that I cannot physically achieve in the real world, such as a chance to be as awesome as Clint Eastwood and kick the hell out of outlaws. Wow I must be the first game reviewer to say that 'Call of Duty' is 'ultra-realistic' rather than 'Ultra-ridiculous'
Now for a gripe, you knew there had to be one, no games perfect after all. This complaint falls under the category of design. The game is mostly linear other then the fact that you can choose which bounties to go after but once you realise that you have to take them all on anyways, this seems rather pointless. However Stranger bounces back off this complaint by allowing you to take one of two ways to complete bounties. The first being the money maker, if you catch a bounty by using ammo such as the' Thug Slug' or the 'Bolomite', they live through it and are worth more moolah. Or the second path is the killer, you get through it easier and with less worry on strategy but you have less money to buy upgrades and you come out worse off against the final bosses. And I'll say it now, the difficulty curve is steady but for a longer time, meaning the game gives you time to adjust rather than throwing you into a boss battle which is ether impossibly hard or a smooth walk in the park. So the final bosses are really hard but you are prepared for them.
This game is long. Long!. Most modern day first person shooters take about four hours to bust through there shoddy story and paper-thin characters. But this game took me at least twelve hours to get through and I have played it through at least four more times after that because it so perfect in almost every way. Wait a moment, Both Samus and Stranger are badass bounty hunters, ones male, and ones female… I think they should get married and make the best game of all time!
So what can we expect from the developers,' Oddworld inhabitants'. Well ever since Stranger's Wrath was forged in the anvils at heavens blacksmith, Oddworld has been sadly quiet. They created three games prior to this one and they were all basic plat-formers until the massive paradigm shift that took place during the creation of this beauty. However you will be glad to hear that they just recently release Stranger's Wrath with a new texture pack for the PC and PlayStation 3, and after doing the same for their other recant game, there planning to completely remake there first two games and adapt them for modern style. Let's hope it turns out like Stranger's Wrath. There have even been rumours that there planning to create a real-time-strategy which is a big leap for them. I think I can speak for all of us when I say "God speed Oddworld inhabitants, our hearts and minds are with you".