Oddworld. My favorite franchise since I was a kid. Although I've played Exoddus before Oddysee, both games (in fact, the whole franchise, really) has a special place in my heart, Oddysee on PS1 and Exoddus on PC. Here is a personal review of Oddysee.
[GRAPHICS] - 10/10 Being a PS1/early PC game, I always wondered how could they make such awesome graphics at the time. The main trick used here by Oddworld Inhabitants (from here on mentioned as OWI) is a pretty cool thing called "pre rendered bitmaps". They tweaked all of the game's scenes before inserting them into the game, and that gave the game it's eerie, creepy, dark yet awesome look. It all looks pretty "real", once you pay attention to the details.
[SOUND] - 10/10 Another thing that helped with the game's overall atmosphere was the soundtrack, which is purely industrial ambient most of the time. This is what I love the most about the game, I always loved simplicity. The "melodies" are pretty much only composed by the deep bass sounds, and that's it. Everything fits well, from Rupturefarms to the Scrabanian/Paramonian temples, and there's a lot of contrasts: minimal, yet fulfilling. Deep, yet rhythmic. Ethnic, yet heavily mechanized. There's no way I can't love this soundtrack.
[ADDICTIVENESS] - 8/10 Besides being an awesome game, I end up replaying Exoddus more than Oddysee thanks to two reasons: 1 - Oddysee just feels smaller than Exoddus, there's only 99 Mudokons to rescue comparing to Exoddus' 300, and 2 - Oddysee has something I find a bit tedious, yet I understand: you can only talk with one Mudokon at a time, this being "fixed" in Exoddus with the "All 'Ya" command, which I personally find more comfortable and way faster. If it weren't for those two points, I'd give it a 10, maybe.
[STORY] - 10/10 Tell me if you know another game in which you're a slave in a meat factory that discovers you and your buddies will get chopped up and transformed into meat popsicles, to later on escape the factory and survive deadly temples filled to the brim with wildlife, getting awesome transformation powers to shut down the factory and save your buddies. OR, end up killing them all. That's one of the things that make Oddworld games... well, Oddworld games: you have two possible outcomes based on karma. You either turn up being the saviour of a race or its doom, it's all up to how you play.
[DEPTH] - 7/10 Although it may take a while for someone who has never known about the franchise to beat the game, I find it a bit short, not to say not as diverse as I thought it would be. Sure, I've played countless hours on it, but Exoddus, again, feels bigger, and that's pretty understandable since it's the first game, Oddysee is still awesome as it is nonetheless.
[DIFFICULTY] - 8/10 In the past, people said playing Oddysee was a "rite of passage". I do agree on that: it took me a while to get the hang of it on the first try (considering I was a kid back then), but high difficulty often relates to high rewards. Oddysee makes me feel proud of completing a hard area like Scrabanian Nests or the later Zulags. Everything is pretty tight and responsive, so quick reflexes are a must. Overall I believe it has just the right amount of difficulty.
That said, Oddysee is one of the best PS1 games I've ever played, and I'll never forget it as much as I won't forget Exoddus. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves hard platformers and immersive gameplay [OVERALL] - 9.2/10 Oddworld. My favorite franchise since I was a kid. Although I've played Exoddus before Oddysee, both games (in fact, the whole franchise, really) has a special place in my heart, Oddysee on PS1 and Exoddus on PC. Here is a personal review of Oddysee.
[GRAPHICS] - 10/10 Being a PS1/early PC game, I always wondered how could they make such awesome graphics at the time. The main trick used here by Oddworld Inhabitants (from here on mentioned as OWI) is a pretty cool thing called "pre rendered bitmaps". They tweaked all of the game's scenes before inserting them into the game, and that gave the game it's eerie, creepy, dark yet awesome look. It all looks pretty "real", once you pay attention to the details.
[SOUND] - 10/10 Another thing that helped with the game's overall atmosphere was the soundtrack, which is purely industrial ambient most of the time. This is what I love the most about the game, I always loved simplicity. The "melodies" are pretty much only composed by the deep bass sounds, and that's it. Everything fits well, from Rupturefarms to the Scrabanian/Paramonian temples, and there's a lot of contrasts: minimal, yet fulfilling. Deep, yet rhythmic. Ethnic, yet heavily mechanized. There's no way I can't love this soundtrack.
[ADDICTIVENESS] - 8/10 Besides being an awesome game, I end up replaying Exoddus more than Oddysee thanks to two reasons: 1 - Oddysee just feels smaller than Exoddus, there's only 99 Mudokons to rescue comparing to Exoddus' 300, and 2 - Oddysee has something I find a bit tedious, yet I understand: you can only talk with one Mudokon at a time, this being "fixed" in Exoddus with the "All 'Ya" command, which I personally find more comfortable and way faster. If it weren't for those two points, I'd give it a 10, maybe.
[STORY] - 10/10 Tell me if you know another game in which you're a slave in a meat factory that discovers you and your buddies will get chopped up and transformed into meat popsicles, to later on escape the factory and survive deadly temples filled to the brim with wildlife, getting awesome transformation powers to shut down the factory and save your buddies. OR, end up killing them all. That's one of the things that make Oddworld games... well, Oddworld games: you have two possible outcomes based on karma. You either turn up being the saviour of a race or its doom, it's all up to how you play.
[DEPTH] - 7/10 Although it may take a while for someone who has never known about the franchise to beat the game, I find it a bit short, not to say not as diverse as I thought it would be. Sure, I've played countless hours on it, but Exoddus, again, feels bigger, and that's pretty understandable since it's the first game, Oddysee is still awesome as it is nonetheless.
[DIFFICULTY] - 8/10 In the past, people said playing Oddysee was a "rite of passage". I do agree on that: it took me a while to get the hang of it on the first try (considering I was a kid back then), but high difficulty often relates to high rewards. Oddysee makes me feel proud of completing a hard area like Scrabanian Nests or the later Zulags. Everything is pretty tight and responsive, so quick reflexes are a must. Overall I believe it has just the right amount of difficulty.
That said, Oddysee is one of the best PS1 games I've ever played, and I'll never forget it as much as I won't forget Exoddus. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves hard platformers and immersive gameplay [OVERALL] - 9.2/10 |