This.

We don't know but we have reasons enough to believe so.

By the way, Soulstorm was announced one year ago: http://www.oddworldforums.net/showthread.php?t=22155

Not sure if its been brought up before but the health bar system was not that good. I mean if it were an actual health bar like in stranger where you could press a button to see it, that would be alright, but a halo of birds looked weird.

Like, I know its good to have that hp system for newer players, but if it were me i'd scrap it and learn by being put in the deep end. I mean, when Darksouls came out people found a lot of difficulty initially and dead players were everywhere.

I just like how fragile Abe and the Mudokons felt because it resembled the real world and how all it takes is just a miscalculated decision, a step too close or a ledge too high. It just made the whole games world seem soo much more intense and visceral. I mean, seeing a slig shoot abe and he just goes 'ouch' as he ran off made me feel like the game is made of marshmallows. Well detailed, highly polished, unrealistic marshmallows.

Or am I being assbackwards in my thinking? lol

You're really not. Even on hard mode, the tension still couldn't match the originals. There's just something decidedly spooky about a room full of silent muds and an equally silent Slig who only spoke when necessary. It felt like one screw up and you're done. Sometimes NnT felt like luck with a bit of RNG, something AO and AE didn't have an issue with.

Abe's chant symbol always reminded me symbol of seventh chakra (at the top, light purple).
http://tatianaelle.ru/wp-content/upl...thumbnail2.jpg

I really hope the musics will be back in their full glory.

Don't get me wrong, the NnT ones were nice, but they were just too quiet and low-key. In AE when there you meet a Slig the music goes haywire and filled with adrenaline.

Oh well now that you mention it I think that is what the chant design is supposed to be based off of haha

Of course it is! :D

^Well then that would make perfect sense then huh? Mind powers, chakra about enlightent, self awareness and connection to spirituality n such, I get it :)...


Glowing floatinging orbs do look more mystifying imo

Your convenient retcons don't fool me!

Yet still, it would be nice to give us back the old soul-energy-bubbles. This chakra stuff felt odd (sadly not in the good meaning) for me. It just had that oomph when you see Abe's soul slowly leave his body, do some laps around him then strike into his enemies' mind.

But that's just my opinion.

In a similar vain, I think OWI should try to make the chant portals more in resemblance of the originals. It's just one of those few things that really irked me in NnT. That familiar electric hum and those weird orange ball things were really funky looking.

Oh yes! Those were amazing too!

How do you suppose that would that work in 3D?

Well what about instead of 2D orange circles, they were 3D orange pulsating balls. And the portal between them could be a simple one-colored plane or if the hardware supports it a little sneak-peek into where the portal leads. Like you know, you see some grinders, or a pile of bones or brew, something like that.

I once made a diagram and graphic regarding a solution to how it would look in 3D.

I cannot find the diagram (unless some one else can dig it up in the old NnT hype threads) on my computer but essentially, it looked more or less like this with the top and bottom of the edges glowing that Abes Oddysee portal orange colour. Along the lines/edges of the tare, little zaps like the original would zip up and down at random intervals. Added onto that with a small view of where the escapee's were going would be cool too.

I liked the whole ruins coming through the portals effect and thought it was unique but the original was still more unique imo. Remakes tend to expand on the original, not completely replace what it was. Same goes for the laser scanners in the stock yards. The rail system was a good way to make that segment functional, but the original was executed nicer. They told us it was a very hard thing to do, same with the shadow areas, but I know its not something that is impossible.. I just hope that sort of stuff isnt carried over too much in soulstorm because there are a lot more shadow areas in that game than Oddysee.

Interesting. It could work, sans the orange orbs. I always thought they were stark and out of place, designed out of pure hardware limitations and for simplicity's sake rather than any aesthetic purpose. That's why the Big Face doesn't pop out of a similar portal at the end of the game. Similarly, whenever Abe travels via portal in a cutscene, it's represented by his spirt—a flock of birds parting or converging—as opposed to a physical portal.

I might be in the minority on this, but I prefer the New 'n' Tasty portal, as it's more akin to mudokon spirituality and their mystic ancestry. At the end of the day, it's a gameplay mechanic, and it doesn't bother me too much either way.

A polite reminder that Soulstorm is a new game. :)

Of course, but since there are alot of people who worked on NnT who's to say they wouldnt bring over some of the new concepts that worked in that

Alex.

I was specifically referring to the concept of shadow areas. My point is: even if there was a level in Exoddus that was /entirely/ shadow areas, there's nothing to suggest that even the concept itself exists in Soulstorm.

New game. New concepts. :)

Still, it's the sequel to New 'n' Tasty... it would be a bit weird to have the portals and the possession effects changed again. I'd expect some continuity between the games.

Sure, keep the mistakes from NnT in Soulstorm, sounds like a good plan.

mistakes?

No no I know, and as a new game we have to expect more unexpected concepts. Like how when we all flipped at the whistle notes appearing in NnT and how neat it was. Always open to new directions and so far every thing looks promising. I'm not sure if anyone else agrees with me, but sometimes things are better left unchanged. For example, Scrab noises.

This thread in my eyes is basically re-solidifying the concerns in case anything gets missed. Even though we all know how great you guys are communicating with us and watching us closely. Even if it feels a little pervy, its ok.

Well, I wouldn't go as far as to say the new posession vfx was an improvement.

The possession was fine, it was the old spirit-blobs. The chant chakra stuff was the one that felt weird and kind of crappy.

Time for my annual post. I wholeheartedly support this idea; it would make for a better derivation of the original 2-D depiction.

Something akin to the portal at the end of Half-Life 2, which appeared as spherical tear in space-time --
http://www.visualwalkthroughs.com/ha...kenergy/22.jpg

We get it, Alex: "Soulstorm will be totally different... But I can't say more for the moment!". Nonetheless, we as fans, are allowed to speculate on the game's contents.

Bien sûr.