A fart, a burp and a whistle without the slap in the face

Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee was quite the surprise hit when it first appeared from the depths of Nowheresville. It was a game from a company that no-one had heard of; a company calling themselves Oddworld Inhabitants, who were making promises to produce 5 games of very different styles, with different protagonists, but set throughout the same quirky planet of Oddworld.

In this first game in the series you take control of a young slave named Abe. Abe is a Mudoken, a race on Oddworld, and the most human like race you will meet, whose people have all been enslaved by a race known as the Gluckon. Abe works at Rupture farms, the biggest meat processing plant on Oddworld. Unfortunately Abe over hears a board meeting where it's revealed that meat products are running low, and their New and Tasty line of food will be called Mudoken pops, Abe is now on the menu. Fleeing the scene you have to help Abe escape rupture farms to the world outside, where he dies and gets revived by a guy in a big mask who reveals that it's Abe's destiny to free all of the Mudokens in Rupture farms.

Graphics
Abe's Oddysee is a game that has not dated in the slightest. The main reason would have to be that it is one of the best 2D games available, and so the graphics haven't had to keep up with the latest 3D advancements. Abe moves fluidly enough, and has a nice level of detail to him that is matched only by the detail found in the wide variety of other creatures you experience. Such as Paramites, that have a hand for a head and run on the fingers with incredible fluidity. The only conceivable problem graphically is the static backdrops; 2D pictures that are filled with detail and look almost like photographs, but do tend to sit uneasily with the 3D models in the foreground. It's only a minor point, and to be perfectly honest I rarely noticed it while I was in the depths of the game, only when I eventually had to watch someone else playing through it.

The game is also notable for a number of fantastically rendered cut scenes that forward the plot, and look very good doing it. At the time it was released I considered these to be near the quality of a professional animated feature, and while they are no longer that effective they still manage to look great while pushing the plot forward in some very funny, though decidedly twisted ways.

Sound
What really makes Abe's Oddysee great is the game's atmosphere, largely provided by its use of sound. The atmosphere found in sneaking from shadow to shadow is enhanced by a combination of the creepy animal sounds that permeate the background, and the creaking of mechanical legs as Sligs wonder around the foreground searching for you.

Most of the games sounds are really there for comical reasons though, such as the absolutely brilliant voice acting. The timid voices of any Mudoken as they respond to Abe's calls are worthy of making even the most uptight individuals smile with their conversations with Abe. Sure it amounts to the same conversation each and every time; "Hello", "Hello", "Follow Me", "OK", but that same 4 reply conversation (Including the greeting as a reply for the sake of keeping these things simple) never gets boring thanks in no small part to the funny little voices of each and every Mudoken. The croaky screams for help from the sligs, and the chesty mumbles from the chain smoking Gluckons just up the comedic value ten fold.

Review
Right, so I have this review that I started aaaaaaaages ago; back when I first joined this site, and I just found it. Anyways I better get on and finish this bad boy off, you know since I really should get around to writing a review to the series latest game.

Abe's Oddysee was a unique prospect, an old fashioned game that came out when the 32 bit era was still wetting itself at the prospect of texture mapping and full 3-Dimensional worlds. This game was different, it was a 2D platform adventure similar in style to one of my favorite 16 bit games Flashback; albeit with a sense of humor. True to form the game kept things simple to learn but surprisingly complex when you actually realize what you're getting to do.

Basic control is simply let to move left, right to move right, up to jump and down to duck (as in Flashback grabbing ledges will happen automatically when performing either of the last 2 actions). Unoriginal controls they may be but unless somebody wants to present a better control system I'm going to be pleased with it. However to complete the game you are going to need to make use of a number of other controls. Simple things like the roll (Hitting duck while running) will get you past enemy bullets without concern. However far more satisfaction can come from hitting the back buttons together to make Abe chant. You need to be safely on a ledge because if an enemy can they will shoot you as soon as you try, but once you've found that ledge you can chant away until you take control of a sligs body. See Abe does not carry weapons, he goes about his business under the pretense of pacifism. This disguise goes straight out of the window once the chant kicks in though as you take control of the Slig's body and go on a killing spree. These moments themselves are surprisingly sick; not really nasty but very violent in a Monty Python type of way. Shoot a guard once and he'll dissolve into the flaw, but continually shoot him and he'll eventually explode in a shower of meat products. Of course the sadism doesn't end there as there's still the thorny issue of the guard you are controlling. You can do whatever you want with him as you yourself are safely in another room. So run him into a meat grinder to produce pate, run him over a land mine or into a Slog hut, either way he'll be out of the way. Of course you could simply choose to end your chant, causing your spirit to exit the unsuspecting Slig's body in an explosion of those ever wonderful meat products; ah the satisfaction.

Most of the fun comes not through any solo action though, but rather through the games actual mission of getting your Mudoken brothers out of Rupture Farms alive. More than just a tacked on idea this will actively add the variety that a video-game needs to survive. Abe himself can do a lot, he can sneak past guards, jump over gaps and bombs and stuff, use elevators and time his movement between deadly meat grinders (that the Gluckon's have placed right in the middle of the work areas, surely a violation of the Health And Safety rules!). Unfortunately for Abe the A.I on other Mudoken's is not too high; which for once is justified if you actually view the cut scenes, as they will have 2 abilities to run and walk. (OK so they sneak too, they're just not very good at it.) Needless to say this results in them frequently falling to their doom, blowing themselves up, getting smushed in grinders, and of course shot by the Sligs if they simply follow you. With this in mind you have to carefully plan out your instructions, say hello to get their attention and then tell them to follow you, which we've already established is a going to be hazardous to their health if done unsupervised. So whenever an obstacle presents itself tell them to "Wait" and they will start working again while you yourself work out the solution. Sometimes lowering a bridge, other times defusing a bomb by slapping it at the precise second it turns red but miss that once moment and boom. This puzzle solving takes up most of your time as you fix a problem, get the little dudes to a circle of birds and chant them an exit, but thanks to the huge variety of fun puzzles it never gets repetitive.

Of course you could simply run through the entire level and leave the Mudokens to keep working, but this will not be doing you any favours. Like Lemmings 2 (Don't worry the games are nothing alike) you could go through the game saving only a few of the guys but this action will have a direct correlation between getting the good or the extremely bad ending.

Along the way you will find a number of baddies standing between you and the freedom of the Mudokens. I've already mentioned Sligs so I'll start there. The Sligs are the main guards for rupture farms and your most frequent adversaries. Basically they are giant slugs on mechanical legs that carry machine guns. They have no problems working together, but thanks to the very low A.I can be avoided by simply sneaking into shadows and hiding. Heck when you do this they wont even notice you as they walk through the exact same shadows. Slogs are vicious half Slug half Dog creatures that are used as the guard dogs of rupture farms.

Outside in the temples you will also encounter some of the few remaining Scrabs and Paramites, former sacred creatures that have been turned into food products at rupture farms. Very different in appearance; scrabs are big red crab like creatures that attack with their pincer like mouths, and Paramites are little spider hand things that attack with their teeth, but similar in behavior. Most of the puzzles with these guys is just getting past them; either timing a run through their pit at the second they turn their back, or even getting one to chase you to another one, getting out of the way and then using their fight time to get to an exit. These puzzles were the fastest paced as stealth was an impossibility and yet they still remained varied enough to avoid repetition.

Along the way you'll also come across some wild Mudokens who are distrustful of us big city folks. They will use deadly force if you attempt to get past them without earning their trust, which you do by proving yourself capable of copying their sounds. Each one has a different combination of whistles concluding with that ever so low brow fart. Of course this will be the only time you will make use of the sound everybody wants to make since Mudoken slaves will simply laugh childishly, and farting around Sligs just gets you shot.