Oddworld Soulstorm review: a nice, but imperfect rereading of Abe's Exodus

Even if he is not the best known of the heroes of the platform game, Abe is in our opinion one of the most sympathetic, one of the most successful, both visually and in his behavior. His bulging eyes and his sewn mouth, his good-natured attitude and his famous facial expressions won a wide enough audience that its creator, Lorne Lanning, never strayed far from it.

Oddworld Soulstorm review: a nice, but imperfect rereading of Abe's Exodus See the prizeRead the conclusionOddworld : Soulstorm

Always so cute and worked
Cinematics of the most beautiful effect
Nice variety of situations
Introducing Crafting/Inventory

Controls sometimes imprecise
Tower defense missed without much interest
Allies not responsive enough
Imperfect craft management

After four opuses published between 1997 and 2005, however, Abe took a break and it took six long years for the Oddworld Inhabitants studio to get back to work. This is how we were treated to remakes of The Stranger's Wrath and Munch's Odyssey before in 2014 Abe returned with a new version of the first installment - Abe's Odyssey – baptized “New 'n' Tasty” as if to signify the progress made: it's because Lorne Lanning sees it more as a rereading than a real remake… A distinction that also applies to this Oddworld Soulstorm.

Abe fights against the slavery of his own

Oddworld Soulstorm is therefore a re-reading of Abe's Exodus and it directly follows Abe's Odyssey - New 'n' Tasty. Recall that in this universe, Abe's race, the Mudokons, are enslaved by the Glukkons. In reality, it is worse than that since the flesh of these slaves is even transformed into food. In the previous opus, they had more or less managed to free themselves. More or less, because the Glukkons obviously haven't said their last word: they now use SoulStorm, a beer that made the Mudokons addicted. The height of horror, said beer is made from the dead Mudokons themselves.

In short, Oddworld Soulstorm still invites the player to embody Abe as he seeks to end the tyranny of the Glukkons. In the concept, there is no need to look for noon to two o'clock and the studio has kept a structure, classic for an Oddworld.

The idea is therefore to achieve a mixture of action / reflection on the background of a platform game with what that implies in terms of skill and puzzles to solve. The levels are spread over several tables with a horizontal progression, but also some slightly more complex areas and a good use of a pseudo 3D, often called “2,5D”. At the end of a “table”, the game gives us a sort of evaluation and offers us the choice of starting over to do better or continuing.

Starting a level again will obviously be an opportunity to discover all the small hidden areas, the hidden bonuses and to save as many Mudokons as possible. Three levels of difficulty are available so it's not easy to give you an "absolute" lifespan, but you can count on more or less 20 hours to complete the 15 levels. Note that two bonus levels are available for anyone who saves as many Mudokons as possible throughout the game. This is to give players a Quarma score: saving 80% of our companions allows you to obtain a "good" Quarma, condition sine qua non to unlock said bonus levels and the "real" ending.

A lifespan which does not however reflect one of the essential points of the game, its great difficulty. As you can imagine, the thing will depend a lot on the habits and the level of each one, but overall, Oddworld Soulstorm is a difficult game and, this is the real problem, it is difficult "by default": lack of precision in the controls , design flaw on some levels and sometimes even lack of good ideas. Let's get this last point out quickly since it is mainly due to the presence of uninteresting tower defense sections. The idea was probably to renew the gameplay a little through the tables, it's missed.

Let's craft… and Xunk?

In the skin of Abe, we present ourselves here on practically fixed tables in which it is a question of protecting the progress and the flight of dozens of Mudokons pursued by the Sligs, these soldiers at the heels of the Glukkons. Already in principle, we are not fans of this mixture of genres: we are playing a platform game, not a tower defense. But above all, the thing is made difficult and frustrating by its imperfect controls. Very often, we fail to save as many Mudokons as possible because the aiming did not go exactly as planned or because we missed a few millimeters for such and such an action. Okay.

This lack of precision in the controls is not as glaring as on Abe's Odyssey - New 'n' Tasty, but it remains too present and actually affects all aspects of the game. the phases of pure platforming, we can miss the installation of a stun mine or the throw of a two millimeter grenade because things do not respond to the finger and the eye.

Be careful, we are talking here about playing with the gamepad, the most logical device for such a game. Note that on PC, it is still theoretically possible to play with the keyboard: do not expect to last more than a few minutes as things are poorly thought out at this level.

Precision problems which fortunately are not noticed systematically, but which have the knack of distinguishing themselves at the worst moment or of having “chain” consequences.

Indeed, for this opus, the developers have imagined a judicious crafting system. Abe can rummage through numerous trash cans, lockers, and other cupboards to get his hands on "raw materials." He can even search disabled Sligs. Products that can then be combined to obtain more stun mines or smoke grenades… and use them on our enemies.

The idea is absolutely brilliant in principle since the player is no longer strictly dependent on what has been thought of by the developers: he can imagine his own solutions to the same problem. Alas, if it works quite well at times, it can also be completely ruined by the inaccuracies mentioned above. By dint of failures, we waste our objects, our resources and we find ourselves doing “with the means at hand” rather than trying new tricks. Water to put out fires or beer to rekindle them is not a problem, you can find it everywhere, but crafting products that require combinations of materials can be very complicated.

JVFR

An example of the famous tower defense sequence which does not ultimately bring much

Sligs fast

Fortunately, and our verdict will have tipped you off, not everything is to be thrown away in this Oddworld Soulstorm. First and foremost, and it's obvious to anyone looking at our screenshots: the game looks pretty damn good. Leveraging the Unity engine, it's not a next-gen game like recent PlayStation 5 or GeForce RTX buyers would like to see, and the textures may lack detail. On the other hand, it has an indisputable charm asset. The characters are still endearing and we still want to save as many of these Mudokons with their tender eyes. In the same spirit, the animations are generally very successful.

Perhaps a little less striking on the images, but it is nevertheless what one retains very quickly once the joystick in the hands: the game is particularly alive, abundant. The backgrounds are carefully drawn and always full of life. Countless small – or large – animations free us from the static side of some platform games.

And while we are not necessarily fans of the process, the cutscenes that intersect the different tables are a real success. Of course, those allergic to the slightest dialogue will complain of not being able to cut them, but we prefer to salute their remarkable staging.

JVFR

Many checkpoints allow you to return "not too far" and fortunately: you often die!

Not to spoil anything, gameplay side also there are beautiful things to remember with a rather well seen alternation between passages worthy of the classic platform game and moments more oriented towards the puzzle. Oddworld Inhabitants has always been fond of these puzzles scattered throughout the levels to – kindly – twist our brains. We can also highlight the presence of sequences more oriented towards infiltration where you have to discreetly pass next to sleeping Sligs or their horrible canines. Finally, even if we have criticized it a little previously, the idea of integrating an inventory and a craft is excellent in principle.

Proof that it is still rather well seen, we spend a lot of time snooping in every corner of the map to find the necessary materials. It is even possible to equip our fellow Mudokons with a few items to help us out. Unfortunately, this point is often marred by a constant lack of responsiveness from our fellow humans: no matter what attitude you give them, they react with a delay, making actions much more difficult than they should be. as much as, let's remember, their fate depends on the unlocking of the last two so-called “bonus” levels which bring the real conclusion to the adventure.

JVFR

Who does not have in mind the famous "follow me" when seeing this face?

Oddworld Soulstorm : l’avis de Clubic

More than twenty years that we regularly fall under the spell of the Mudokons in general and the indescribable Abe in particular. His big comeback after six years of absence was obviously expected and… he's still a little disappointing. Of course, it must be kept in mind that the development team is not huge, as evidenced by the gestation time of this new opus.

Unfortunately, it is more difficult to forgive these inaccuracies in the controls and these approximations in the implementation of craftsmanship. Impossible to ignore these sequences of tower defense as useless as they are clumsy and we necessarily regret a little that our congeners are barely smarter than Lemmings, clearly complicating their rescue.

A rescue in which we participate however without displeasure provided that we can override the defects highlighted. Why ? Because this quest for freedom from the nice Mudokons is still as lively as ever and the action / reflection / platformer mix, even if it reduces the impact of the possession of the Sligs a little, is still as effective as ever. A title that blows hot and cold, but which keeps a good background.

Oddworld: Soulstorm

A mix of action / reflection / platform that remains in the spirit of previous episodes, Oddworld Soulstorm fails however on two essential points: to offer perfectly precise controls and not to get lost in the novelties that it seeks to introduce.