When I first saw this game on the web and in magazines, I was really not all that interested. But after deciding to rent it on a whim, I am glad today to say that I did because this game is BEAUTIFUL! Everything, from the gameplay to the voice acting is superb. As Stranger, you are trying to raise enough money for an operation you need to survive. The Doc won't budge on the $20,000 price range so you have to get it by collecting bounties. This is how the game starts. I won't give away the rest (though I'm sure less scrupulous reviews do somewhere) but the story really does follow a nice, easy to follow path to its conclusion, even if its a bit forced feeling at times. I was really impressed with the graphics which were amazing. The swaying grass and seeing the ground when swimming just made it all feel so well put together. The character animations were pretty good (a little blocky at times with the way some creatures moved) and the models just really fit in well with the whole oddworld design. But, it was the easy transition from 3rd person to 1st person that made me gush with joy. With a simple click of the button, you were in/out just like that. I don't recall ever having a problem with the way this worked. The sound and voice acting.... Sorry I had a moment just thinking about it. The native voices all sounded like surfers/skaters from the valley. It was a nice parody that I thought was hilarious. Even Strangers bizarre deep spaghetti western speech was done well. All of the liitle noises from your live ammo were done with great attention to detail. I found myself swinging around wildly a couple of times when I forgot that the growling noise I heard was coming from the ammo I had equipped. The bosses were all very well thought out. I could tell that Oddworld had a great time (at least I would have) coming up with the names for its baddies. All of the bosses can be caught alive (something I almost accomplished but not quite) if you figure out the right ammo combination to do so. Which leads to my next topic. The live ammo. Who ever thought of this idea is a pure genius. Collecting 'live' ammo really helped keep me on my toes for what kind of ammo I could use and how soon I might be able to replenish it. There are upgrades for your ammo. Things that allow you to store more ammo in your clips, shoot faster and extend the range were the standards. You could also buy upgrades for armor and stamina (stamina was used to show when you fell to far or were brawling too much. When your stamina hit 0 you couldn't perform any more actions that required stamina until it recovered.) You could also get upgraded ammo, making your ammo more effective in combat. At this point I have to say that my biggest disappointment is the lack of replay value. I will definitely replay the game again but I can see that for some it might not hold the same draw as it did for me. This is too bad as there are so many different things that could have been done with live ammo in online play that I shutter just thinking about it. But these gripes to me are minor. Especially when taking in the rest of the story and gameplay, I generally found them to be minor issue especially after completing the game.
Other Helpful Reviews for Oddworld Stranger's Wrath
Oddworld Inhabitants has a record for creating some of the most strange, albeit endearing games ever made, but they take it to a new high with Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath. It accomplishes an incredible feat by improving,... Read Full Review
Well a few days ago I saw somthing on G4 about this game. It looked like a great game. So I bought it. I also loved every second of playing through it. Graphics- The graphics in this game are amazing I dont now why ga... Read Full Review
