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Abe's Oddysee: New 'n' Tasty

Started by Old Nehamkin, July 16, 2014, 02:59:05 AM

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Old Nehamkin

This is Rupture Farms...

Anyone else looking forward to this? New remake of the original PS1 classic coming out next week (23rd). Here's a trailer:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxJBBs2x-Rg

The original game is of course a fucking belter, in my humble opinion the second best thing ever released on PS1 behind Metal Gear Solid (Crash Bandicoot 3 comes in third place). And having given it a replay last year, I think it really holds up- great gameplay, genuinely scary enemies[nb]Fuck you, Scrabs. Fuck you, Paramites.[/nb], nice, epic looking visuals, a really tense, haunting atmosphere and loads and loads of well-hidden secrets. I think it deservedly holds a special place in the hearts of almost everybody who owned a Playstation. The sequel's very good as well, and while I've not played either of the Xbox ones, I remember hearing good things about Stranger's Wrath.

Anyway, from that trailer I think this looks like a really beautiful, dynamic update and I look forward to checking it out. I hope it does well and the team gets the chance to make more games in this universe. I think it was originally envisaged as a bigger series but then the Xbox games didn't sell well enough- it'd be nice if they got to finally realise their original ambition after all these years.

I don't feel any excitement about this as I'd much prefer an all new game, really. I can understand some HD remakes, but the art-style of the original still looks quite striking and memorable. Just feels a bit redundant, when they could put all that time making new assets and such by just making an entirely new game.

Munch's Oddysee is on PC now, right? Is that worth picking up?

Old Nehamkin

#2
Quote from: Bored of Canada on July 16, 2014, 03:08:03 AM
I don't feel any excitement about this as I'd much prefer an all new game, really. I can understand some HD remakes, but the art-style of the original still looks quite striking and memorable. Just feels a bit redundant, when they could put all that time making new assets and such by just making an entirely new game.

I'm not sure whether "New 'n' Tasty" is a straight replication of the original or whether it features some extra levels, puzzles etc., but I think the intention is to test the water to see if a bigger, original Oddworld game is commercially viable. I think this one was made on quite a low budget.

I'd prefer they just made this a little original game as well, but I guess they're maybe a bit cautious after the lack of success of the last couple of games and wanted to appeal to people's nostalgia. I'm still excited though- I just think the new visuals look really gorgeous and faithful to the atmosphere of the original. It doesn't exactly feel necessary, but I'm sure I'll enjoy playing it and the original is always going to be there, so whatever.

madhair60


madhair60

Abe's Oddysee was one of the earliest games I can remember really drawing me into its world.  It was dark, fantastic, gloomy yet whimsical and absolutely intriguing.  I loved (and still love) it so much.  When I was younger I used to draw hundreds upon hundreds of new Abe levels on A4 paper, divided into a series of screens.  Even made up my own games for the Quintology; "Clang's Oddysee" and "Abe's Exploration".  Great stuff, way better than having friends.

Abe's Exoddus was also great, but it does lose a little of the cohesiveness that makes the original so utterly memorable.  Most of the levels in Abe's Exoddus are very pointedly "challenge hubs", that is to say a series of doors (often numbered) leading to rooms that all need to be systematically cleared out in order to progress to the next hub.  It was more "gamey" and less coherent.  Still brilliant, and the enhancements to Gamespeak removed a lot of frustration.  Thankfully the remake of Oddysee is confirmed to have added the "All O' ya" command from Exoddus, which will make some of the more frustrating longeurs more tolerable. :)  I think they've added Quiksave from Exoddus, too.

Munch's Oddysee is a piece of shit, nothing more than that really.  Absolute misfire.  Stranger's Wrath is OK, but an Oddworld FPS, you know?  Who cares...

Thursday

I think I'm still slightly disappointed things never really materialized into the "quintology" as originally planned. I want to see the universe where they released 5 different games with different characters that explored a different aspect of the oddworld mythology and somehow tied everything together to make for an epic saga.

Thomas

Agree with what madhair says there, about the atmosphere of Oddworld. Really amazing. I don't think I owned the game myself, but we borrowed it from my cousin plenty of times.

madhair60

Also you can do a fart and when you do a fart on the other mudokons they go "PHEW!" and step away

As you can imagine, this was the funniest thing ever

stunted

I damaged a few friendships in my formative years when I spent a month or so of my childhood playing the Abe games instead of going outside.

Quote from: Bored of Canada on July 16, 2014, 03:08:03 AM
I can understand some HD remakes, but the art-style of the original still looks quite striking and memorable.

When I watched the linked video it took me until about half way through to realise they weren't showing footage of the original. It's good that they've kept the visuals but like you said, redundant.

Quote from: madhair60 on July 16, 2014, 03:06:29 PM
Also you can do a fart and when you do a fart on the other mudokons they go "PHEW!" and step away

As you can imagine, this was the funniest thing ever

Especially when they were standing at the edge of a cliff.

Old Nehamkin

Quote from: madhair60 on July 16, 2014, 01:43:30 PM
Abe's Exoddus was also great, but it does lose a little of the cohesiveness that makes the original so utterly memorable.  Most of the levels in Abe's Exoddus are very pointedly "challenge hubs", that is to say a series of doors (often numbered) leading to rooms that all need to be systematically cleared out in order to progress to the next hub.  It was more "gamey" and less coherent. 

Yeah, the first one felt more organic and adventurous- escaping the factory, venturing out into the wilderness and exploring the temples, then returning with your new powers to fuck shit up. It flows really well and you're invested in the character and where he's going. Exoddus, like you say, follows more of an arbitrary warp room system and so it isn't quite as compelling. Still very good, though.

BTW, apparently if you pre-order the remake you get an extra DLC level called "Alf's Escape", if anyone's hankering after a little bit of brand new Oddworld.

Consignia

Anyone get this in the end? It's a bit expensive, but it's a really well done remake. It looks the absolute business, and it does the original so much justice. I'm having a bit trouble with the controls, because I'm sure they've not mapped completely from the original to the new version, but niggles aside, it's just great.

Old Nehamkin

I don't have a PS4 and I was wrongly under the impression that this was getting a simultaneous PS3 release, which turned out not to be the case (the Oddworld site still lists a TBA release for all non-PS4 platforms), so I've not played it yet. Nice to see that it's been getting good reviews, though.

Sexton Brackets Drugbust

Quote from: Old Nehamkin on August 03, 2014, 07:30:41 PM
I don't have a PS4 and I was wrongly under the impression that this was getting a simultaneous PS3 release, which turned out not to be the case (the Oddworld site still lists a TBA release for all non-PS4 platforms), so I've not played it yet. Nice to see that it's been getting good reviews, though.

I'm in the same boat - I was so frustrated when I found it was only getting a PS4 release for the time being.  I don't plan to get a PS4 until there are more titles for the platform, so I'm impatient for the PS3 version to become available.

Consignia

Oh, it's not out any other platforms yet? I picked it up on the PS4 just because I thought it would be a reason to dust it off, and actually get some play time on it. I've actually played it more on my Vita, via remote replay. It's rather untaxing graphically, so I can't imagine it looking any different on the PS3. Look forward to it, Abe fans.