Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath
Plot
Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath follows a bounty hunter named simply Stranger. In the beginning of the game, Stranger captures numerous criminals to pay for a mysterious operation. As Stranger returns the criminals for their retrospective bounties, Stranger hears of a town of creatures called Grubbs. The Grubbs have been besieged by a demonic creature, and his army of minions. The Grubbs were once protected by a race called the Steef, now extinct, leaving them unprotected.
As Stranger continues to collect bounties, he finds that a man named Sekto has been drying up a river in the Grubbs town. When Stranger confronts him, Sekto offers him a bounty for the remaining Steef that he believes that are still around. The Stranger refuses this offer, leaving Sekto upset. Sekto hires a criminal, D. Caste Raider, to capture and interrogate Stranger.
As D interrogates Stranger, he discovers that Stranger himself is a Steef. Stranger escapes from the raiders, killing all of them in a large explosion, and runs back to the Grubbs town. As he returns to the town, he realizes that the demon that he first heard about is Sekto. Stranger kills Sekto, and the remaining raiders, as well as destroying the dam that was drying the town of it’s water. But as Sekto lies dying, the Stranger sees that the demon was possessing Sekto, who was also really a Steef. The demon escapes, as it goes into the now flowing river.
Gameplay
The game is split between third-person platforming and first-person shooting. The player progresses through the game by taking bounty missions that
consist of trekking though waves of enemies to fight unique bosses. All enemies can be "bountied," which allows the Stranger to cash them in at the bounty store. Moolah, the currency in this region of Oddworld, is received for the Stranger's help in cleaning up the area. Moolah can be spent on upgrades and ammo in the store. Enemies are worth more alive than dead.
Combat
Most of the combat centers around Stranger's crossbow, which can be loaded with special creatures from the world. This concept is known as "live ammo". The live ammo types all have their own personalities, not to mention their own unique functionality. Each type of live ammo has an upgraded, more powerful version:
- Chippunks - used to lure enemies to them by shouting taunts in a radius shown to the player as a spherical distortion effect
- Bolamites - spider-like creatures used to immobilize, but not kill, enemies; this allows them to be bountied for more Moolah than if they were killed
- Fuzzles - living mines; when enemies come close, Fuzzles leap onto them and begin chewing
- Thudslugs - armored balls which can hit enemies with great force, knocking them over
- Zappflies - bugs that can be shot rapidly or charged to stun enemies
- Stingbees - bugs that function like an automatic machine gun
- Stunks - creatures that can immobilize enemies; this one causes them to vomit uncontrollably
- Boombats - function as a sort of grenade / rocket launcher. If an enemy is hit directly, it will explode immediately; otherwise, a three-second timer is engaged
PC version
In an interview with Lorne Lanning, creator of Oddworld, it was announced that all Oddworld games including the previously Xbox exclusive Munch and Strangers Wrath will be released on PC via Steam and other digital distribution outlets. It was later released on PC via Steam and other digital distribution outlets on December 21, 2010 along with its predecessor Oddworld Munch's Oddysee. The game is available on it's own or as part of a compilation package known as "The Oddboxx" which includes all four released Oddworld titles.
Enhanced PS3 Version
On September 3rd 2010, the UK-based studio Just Add Water announced it was working on an enhanced remake of the game to be released for download on the PS3. It was planned to be released around Easter 2011, but was delayed until December 27, 2011.
The game will run at 720p and 60 FPS with added detail and graphical effects. It also features remastered dialogue, PlayStation Move support, 37 Trophies and brand new content.
The launch price was $14.99.
Here's the list of improvements as mentioned on the US Playstation Blog.
Characters
- All 84 character models have been updated with increased polygon counts and higher resolution textures.
- Wolvark Sloghandlers now release Slogs instead of Slegs.
- Professor Dimble now has glasses and an academic tome.
- New female voices have been recorded for two characters.
- Made Blisterz Booty unkillable.
Environments
- All environments have been given higher resolution textures.
- Most vegetation has been updated with increased polygon counts and/or higher resolution textures.
- A lot of environment now reflects in water where it didn’t before.
- Many, many pipes and barrels were rounded.
- New Easter Eggs added to the game.
- Added Blisterz Booty’s broken crud gun to the floor by his bola’d body.
- Sekto’s Office has been changed to more closely resemble that seen in the FMV.
Audio
- All game audio (voice, sound effects and music) have been upgraded to 16-bit 44KHz from 8-bit 11KHz or less!
- Support for 5.1, Dolby Digitial and DTS.
Display
- Everything now runs at 720p, 60 FPS, and in widescreen.
- All menus have been updated with a new design based on original unused concepts.
- New posters now occupy the inventory menu when no bounty is accepted.
Difficulty
- All armour upgrades now actually increase Stranger’s health.
- Added difficulty levels to the game: Easy, Medium and Hard.
- In Easy mode: Stranger has twice the health, Enemies have half the health and stamina, Enemies’ stamina recovers half as fast.
- In Normal Mode: Stranger’s health and armour for later in the game have been re-balanced.
- In Hard mode: Stranger has a third less health, Enemies stamina recovers a third quicker.
Unlockables
- 37 Trophies: 23 bronze, 8 silver, 5 gold, 1 platinum
- 37 pieces of unlockable concept art
- Five unlockable movies
PS Vita Version
On June 7th 2011, Just Add Water also announced a version of the game for the PlayStation Vita via twitter. Saves are set to be cross-platform with the PS3 using the cloud.
