Oddworld Pack on Steam

[toblix]

Just shut the fuck up and buy it.

[brkl]

Fine! Geez...

[gdf]

Toblix <3 Steam

[toblix]

Jesus, this is the ultimate confirmation that I suck at gaming (or that gaming used to suck). These Oddworld games are awesome. I loved them back when I played them on the old Pentium 90, and I remember imagining a never ending series of these awesome 2D puzzle platformers. When I play them today, though, there's one single element that I lack, that I apparently didn't back then -- patience. I remember the first time I died, I expected to just pop back a screen or two and continue playing, because hey, I loved these games, and that happening is something I would've loved. Or so I thought. What happens is a death animation, then a couple of seconds of loading, and then a new animation as I pop back four or five screens back. I get annoyed at this, and it's fucking pathetic. The game challenges me slightly and I feel all... offended or something. This is bullshit, I'm going to finish this and cure my gaming shitness.

Oh, and I have to repeat this: Although it's obvious these games aren't new, they play like gold and chocolate. They're an awesome mix of platforming and puzzles and if you don't buy them you deserve to die. Just like those privacy fags who complain about Google Maps Street View.

[brkl]

God I love you toblix. I wish I knew what you looked like and you looked like a beautiful woman.

[thorn]

I love Toblix' post even more having recently read discussion on the Vintage Games Club forum where they point out all the same issues and decide that the game must therefore suck balls.

I hope you don't mind that I quoted you on the Oddworld forums.

Oh, and dying/saving is much improved in Abe's Exoddus.

[drummand]

Awesome, awesome.

Think I may need to get a gamepad for my pc though. I played Exoddus on PC years ago (disc got stolen, so sad), and I vaguely remember the keyboard controls being much less satisfying ...

[syntheticgerbil]

I can't believe people are ragging on the first game for making you start a few screens back. Obnoxious, yes, but it wasn't the only console game like this in that era. Also Abe's Oddysee is actually pretty short and can be beaten in a couple of hours if you know what you are doing, so they really shouldn't complain, so even though it sucks, difficulty is/was a very common way to lengthen gameplay.

What really bothers me about the first game is just how hard it is to successfully free everyone since most of the secrets are very well hidden, or more difficult to complete than the game itself.

All of these quibbles are fixed in Exoddus, so there's really no problem there.

EDIT: I noticed on the forums people complaining about the L1+L2 button scheme type stuff, and also describing a save system I don't recall. I suppose Steam only has the Playstation versions of the game? If so, I'd steer clear and find the PC versions of both.

[toblix]

What? Steam has the PC version. Obviously.

[syntheticgerbil]

I guess the people on Vintage Games are not playing the Steam version then. Nevermind.

But yes, I think they are a must play, and although the first one is frustrating and many times unforgiving, it is not that long and can be toughed out.

Here's the best walkthrough ever, too:

http://www.gamechronicles.com/guides/oddworld/oddwalk.htm

Anyways, the Vintage Games forum seems very silly, there's even one post where it seems the player is suggesting that they should have made Abe jump more like Mario.

But then again, these are players who apparently all quit Grim Fandango after the flaming beaver puzzle.

[syntheticgerbil]

And I can't resist posting this quote from the Vintage Gamers site:

"with all said and done, i'm still not opposed to lumping it in with dragon's lair. or a game of dance dance revolution, played with your fingers. there's really not much "game" to it beyond a precise sequence of inputs. i don't know if anyone would agree with me but i'd call it an artless game, in that there's very little skill to actually playing it. there's no combat by any traditional sense, because any confrontation is immediate and decisive in favor of whoever struck first. this goes not only for abe, whose only offensive options are indirect, but for sligs and scrabs as well. there's not much to using the controls either, as they're boiled down to movement by predefined units with no improvisation allowed. the only real obstacle is wrapping your head around this system; once you've adapted to the units of movement it's functionally impossible to ever miss a jump."

I am filled with so much rage.

[SiN]

*bump*

Okay, so I bought this a while back and now I wanna start playing. Which game do I start with? Oddysee would be the obvious choice (chronological) but is there any reason I should play Exoddus instead? Is it a better and/or easier game or something? And are the stories connected, or can I play them in either order?

Sorry, just having a needlessly difficult time choosing here.

Cheers,

Mo

[thorn]

Exoddus is a sequel to Oddysee, both in terms of plot and gameplay. So if you want it to make sense (also, if you don't want to frustratedly shout at the screen 'BUT WHY DON'T YOU HAVE QUICKSAVE LIKE YOUR LITTLE BROTHER?!'), I'd suggest playing Abe's Oddysee first.

[SiN]

Thank you good sir, Steam is downloading Abe's Oddysee as we speak.

Mo

[thorn]

You're most welcome. All the world's obsessive Oddworld fans thank you for your support.

[Shakesbeard]

Oh wow this is going to be a great way to spend a few evenings later this week, thanks for the heads up.

Now I'm jonesing to track down a copy of Stranger's Wrath, for a game that scored really well on release I don't think I've met more than one or two people who have played it.

[thorn]

Stranger's Wrath is excellent. Lorne Lanning said that if the Steam versions of AO and AE sell well enough, they'll fund a port of the Xbox games. Some rumours claim that that process has already begun. Hopefully they'll start with SW as it is the better game by far than Munch's Oddysee.

[miffy495]

Love Stranger's Wrath, but it can be really hard sometimes as well. If it ever does make it over to PC, I'd be ridiculously psyched, as it still won't play on 360... :(

[SiN]

Well that was fun!

Reminds me of Another (/Out Of This) World, with a greater emphasis on puzzling. Which I, of course, approve of. Very desperately needs a quicksave key, but whatever, I can deal with it.

Thanks for the initial recommendation Toeblix.

Mo

[syntheticgerbil]

*bump*

Okay, so I bought this a while back and now I wanna start playing. Which game do I start with? Oddysee would be the obvious choice (chronological) but is there any reason I should play Exoddus instead? Is it a better and/or easier game or something? And are the stories connected, or can I play them in either order?

Sorry, just having a needlessly difficult time choosing here.

Cheers,

Mo

Ah, I'm a little late, but I was going to recommend Exoddus first out of the 2D platformer series just because it's designed much better. It's also easier because of the added quicksave function, so if you were to go back and play Oddysee, you wouldn't maybe have as much of a hard time with the difficulty. Exoddus also has a funny 5 minute recap video of the first game so that you will be completely caught up to the story so far.

But I think you'll appreciate all the new stuff in Exoddus even more if you finish Oddysee first. Just wait until you find out all the different species you can possess in the second game.

The rest of the Oddworld games stand alone, but again do a good job of re-explaining the world to new players. Munch's Oddysee, while still a good game, is probably the worst one out of the bunch. It just has too many parts consisting of doing tedious or boring things for long periods of time in the later levels.

[toblix]

Hello, my name is toblix and I suck. For some reason I gave up on this a while back, but now I'm back to playing this game and it's still awesome. I really like when someone manage to represent puzzles in a real, physical way, rather than just have an abstract grid or whatever. Unlike adventure games, in which you're always presented with unique objects, contexts and environments, this is a more "strict" puzzle game in that there's a limited number of entities which all behave deterministically, and the challenge is analyzing the puzzle and then manipulate everything in the right way. Each puzzle is just made harder by increasing the complexity, or introducing a new mechanic. It's really simple, but the presentation really adds so much.

[syntheticgerbil]

Toblix, which one are you playing? Are you still on the original game? That one is definitely the hardest one.

While you are still limited in Abe's Exoddus, you are allowed more options in terms of possession and ways to solve puzzles. There was more room for variety in that one from what I remember as well as the slaves being easier to free despite being three times as many (assuming you try to save them all).

[thorn]

Toblix, which one are you playing? Are you still on the original game? That one is definitely the hardest one.

While you are still limited in Abe's Exoddus, you are allowed more options in terms of possession and ways to solve puzzles. There was more room for variety in that one from what I remember as well as the slaves being easier to free despite being three times as many (assuming you try to save them all).

Yeah, there were quite a few improvements in Exoddus over Oddysee. For one thing, there was a quicksave system rather than sparsely located savepoints. For another, you could get multiple Mudokons to follow you, rather than just one at a time like in the previous game. Also, as you say, the puzzles were more varied because there were more species you could possess.

But it's the quicksaving that really makes the biggest difference in terms of difficulty.

[syntheticgerbil]

Haha, right, I forgot completely about the quicksave making it easier as well. Oops!

[toblix]

Yeah, I'm really looking forward to the quicksave. It's not so bad, though. They're not placed that far apart, it's just the modern gamer in me that starts complaining the instant I have to wait for just a bit because of my failure. So far I can't say I've had had a single legitimate complaint about checkpoint placement.

I should also mention I've completed both Abe's Oddysee, Abe's Exoddos and Munch's Oddysee, so it's sort of a warm-up for Stranger's Wrath, though it seems to me that will be the game I'll enjoy the least.