he latest game in the well-liked Oddworld series, Stranger's Wrath opens with a series of scenes straight out of a spaghetti western. The main character, called "the Stranger," has a drawl like Clint Eastwood (in his pre-Oscar-nomination days). The Stranger looms over his captured prey. He puts his crossbow back in the holster and the adventure begins, but it's clear right from the start that this isn't a typical adventure/shooter game.
The Stranger's mission is simple: round up evil varmints and collect the bounties. With each assignment, players have to track down lowlifes like Filthy Hands Floyd or the Looten Duke. (The money you raise goes toward a secret operation, the main plot thread of the game.) With each capture, the Stranger learns a little more about his abilities, and players get access to new types of crossbow ammo. Fuzzles, for example, look like demented Tribbles, gnawing on enemies, who shriek, "Get 'em off me!" Boombats work like bombs, while Stingbees and Wasps function as bullets. Chippunks are little wisecrackin' vermin who pester the Stranger as he gets ready to take a shot.
The game has both a first-person shooter component and a platformer element. You can toggle between the two, lining up sniper shots in first person or—in third person—climbing ropes, collecting chests and jumping to reach higher spots. While the Stranger can bring in his quarry alive or dead—and death is sometimes a necessity when the boss is too tough—he'll get more cash with the outlaw still intact. Instead of health-ups, players only need to "shake off" the injury, and unless the Stranger is in a prolonged gun battle, health generally isn't a major issue. If you die too many times in the same scene, you're provided an extra hint or two.
A spicy sci-fi spaghetti western
Combining humor, futuristic elements and the American West in one game is a big order to fill, but Oddworld Stranger's World does a good job. Every creature in the game, including the Stranger, is intricately freaky. This stylized art direction sets the game apart from anything else currently on the shelves, especially in an era dominated by robot shooters and gory horror titles. Unlike earlier Oddworld games, this one is truly 3-D. As you send the Stranger through the game's canyons and plateaus at the start of the game, the dust from the dirt-brown pathways almost comes out of the television screen and onto your couch.
While the designers splurged on graphics, they scrimped on the audio. Many characters (like the chicken-townspeople) sound like they're all voiced by the same actor ... standing far away from the mic. But Wrath's main drawback lies in its game mechanics. In third-person mode, the Stranger can either walk at a meandering pace or immediately segue into a leaping-frog run. Because the game designers put lethal objects in the way, players wind up constantly worrying the controller, toggling between a pace that's too fast and one that's too slow. In a game that requires the main character to double back to town to receive his reward after each completed mission, design like this can be the thing that separates a good game from a truly great one.
For fans of the Oddworld series, though, Stranger's Wrath will provide a nice hit of its quirky charms. When the Stranger assaults a local, rather than an outlaw, for example, he receives cash—and a lecture. "Stop acting like such a peckerhead," they shout. While these jokes can get a little old—especially when the line has been repeated many times—they're also the essence of Oddworld. Clint probably wouldn't approve. Then again, maybe he would.
My advice? Save up your cash for the expensive binoculars right from the start. They helped me enjoy the game a lot more, especially since the crossbow-shooting functionality was way too rudimentary without them.
—Jennifer
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