Are Munch's Oddysee and Stranger's Wrath worth it?
 

I'm sure this question has been answered a few times before, so for that I apologise. Basically me and my housemates have recently acquired an original Xbox, so as a humongous fan of Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus I've naturally been contemplating buying Munch's Oddysee and Stranger's Wrath. The only thing that's made me reluctant is the average reviews they've both received. There's not a single thing I dislike about the original two games, so I'd hate for the new ones to tarnish my love of the franchise. Would I be better off avoiding them? Or is it almost like The Matrix trilogy, where the first one's the best by miles, but Reloaded and Revolutions are well worth a watch for die-hard fans.

Thanks!

Protip: Never take review scores, no matter how low or high, into account when buying a game.

Anyway if you liked the previous Oddworld games you'll probably end up liking Munch's Oddysee, and Stranger's Wrath is also pretty fun but very much a whole different game to the previous ones in alot of respects.

They are definitely worth a look, but they obviously wont play out the same as their 2D predecessors so keep that in mind.

Definitely check them out. Both are essential titles for Xbox.

If you are a huge fan of the Abe games then Munch's Oddysee would be better to try out first. Stranger's Wrath is a great game but isn't anything like the others as it doesn't have Abe in it.

Also yeah, don't listen to reviews. It's personally preference if you like a game or not and it won't hurt trying them.

IMO, avoid Munch since that was rushed through production and will probably tarnish your opinion of the series - Or at least wait until JAW re-releases an updated version that will hopefully look a lot better, with less annoying sound effects. They're working on polishing it as best they can.

Stranger on the other hand is a decent game and really should be played if you like the first two games - It's very different from the originals but it has a similar depth and uniqueness to it, while being quite fun at the same time. The HD update should be out for the PC soon, too.

No. Munch's Oddysee is garbage. It's a terrible game, and no one should have to be subjected to it's boring awfulness.

Stranger's Wrath, on the other hand, is a very good game made by someone who about half way in must have fired everyone who knew anything about good character design. Half the species are great. Half of them look like they belong in fast food commercials. Oh, and their voices will make you die inside.

Whilst Munch's Oddysee is fucking awful, it didn't tarnish my beloved memories of the first 2 games in the series. I would recommend buying it just to give it a try, who knows you might be one of those rare few who find it enjoyable, but personally I couldn't stand it.

Bear in mind I was fairly young when it came out and was unaware of the time constraints poised upon my favorite franchise, but I still knew it was a pile of shit. My sister used to say I just wouldn't give it a chance because it was so drastically different from the first 2 games, but it was seriously just crap.

Put it this way, if you replaced all the Oddworld characters with characters noone had ever heard of, it would be panned by any critic, especially people like the members of this forum, so anyone who even tries to defend the game is bullshitting you.

Stranger on the other hand, whilst different, and Abe-less, is a cracking game. Go buy it my son!

True, but there is still the soul death caused by the voices to take into account.

Maybe the voices in Stranger could've been done a little better, but it wasn't that bad and there are so many games out there which have far, far worse voice acting in.

SW HD improved the voices... slightly.

Also, did that patch ever come out? I haven't been keeping track.

Which? Which games? Show me.

No, it didn't. It added even worse voices.

Not a modern game. Doesn't count.

Edit: Christ. Apparently that is a modern game.

Okay, okay. Let's try this. Only AAA titles.

I don't think so.

Orc female: "No, please..."
Me: OH DEAR GOD - Oh, at least it's -
Orc female: "... DON'T!"
Me: *Seethe*

Everything pales in comparison to the lovely tune of Clakkerz and Wolvarks.

And the Outlawz were pretty stupid too.

I should mention now that I've only played about twenty minutes of Stranger's Wrath.

Oblivion's wasn't too bad either.

Resident Evil 3 had bad voice acting in parts. Also there were a few RPGs and wrestling games I played long, long ago which had terribly-done voice overs, but I can't really name them except for Final Fantasy 13, which had some actors who sounded like they were reading from a script and lacked emotion, making some of the characters seem oblivious to the situation that they were in.

Also you can ask YouTube too, but I've played none of the following games:

Just the name Outlawz. I mean, really? They are a race called Outlawz? What if one of them wants to live within the law? What then? And a "Z"? Is that now how OI lets us know that the species is odd instead of normal? Ratz? Oh, yeah. They're rats, but with a "Z". How fucking odd. Lol Lorne, you sure is good at comin' up with stuffs.

Outlaws isn’t spelt with a Z. http://oddworldlibrary.net/toe/Outlaws

Even if that's true, (and the majority of places I've looked spell it with a "z") everything I said still stands. They went nuts with "z's" (Clakkerz, Ratz, so on), and the names and characters were stupid as shit to begin with.

I liked Munch's Oddysee.
Just saiyan.

This this this this this this this

I haven't played more than about a minute of Munch's Oddysee because every single thing about it made me sick to the stomach and I've only played Stranger's Wrath without visuals, but it seems to me they both lack a lot of the style the first games had. Each thing pluralised with a 'z' makes me die a little more inside.

Tomba! 2, that's fucking awful....

Munch's Oddysee is that bad.

I actually have some fun playing it for the first time on XBOX. But then I remembered it's a sequel to AO/AE. Then it sucked.

MO is an enjoyable game when you forget there are any other video games existing. Seriously I would not recommend it.

Stranger's Wrath on the other hand was a pure fun. And I have to say I wasn't annoyed by the voices.

Regarding the 'z's in a lot of the species' names, around the early 2000's (when I assume the first concepts for SW were created) a lot of people did this. They though for some reason it was cool.

I'm willing to put the overuse of the letter z down to being a cultural reference/trend at the time the game was created. Though admittedly, this 'trend' was long gone by 2005, so I guess they could have changed things before release.

I would not expect this to be done now though! In no way is it relevant these days. I think I might explode if Abe HD features 'mudokonz', 'sligz' or even worse... 'birdz' :p

All in all, I haven't played Munch (looking forward to the HD version). Stranger was on the whole a very good game. There was something about the atmosphere though, which seemed to straddle a line between Oddworld and something else. The beginning hunting Outlaws didn't feel that much like Oddworld to me, but the end was great. The buildings and structures got far more imposing and the tone became a little darker and less goofy.

I agree, and this is a large part of the problem that I have with it. The first two games seemed to be a self contained universe, while the second two games didn't exactly break the the third wall as much as they kept winking at the third wall. It's annoying, and it breaks my ability to suspend disbelief. If it were done cleverly, I guess that would be a different story. But it wasn't clever. It was stupid.

If you mean the fourth wall, then I agree with you entirely about Munch. But Stranger? Where did Stranger break the illusion of a self-contained universe?

Oddworld as a fictional universe is very thorough. A great deal of effort has gone into crafting a perfectly realised, believable alien world. In SW, there was quite an odd (not in the good way!) mix of both alien and somewhat frustratingly human machinery and architecture.

Throughout the series we have been led to believe that Oddworld is a dark, foreboding planet ruled by aliens. It is unbelievable that aliens, completely unaware of our culture, would design and build things the same way- take the narrow, hand rail-less walkways from the industrial buildings of AO/AE. Humans would never build such a death-trap factory. That's what made it alien and a fitting part to the dark nature of Oddworld.

Why did SW have human tractors and caravan trailers? What is strange is that there was also a can-shaped tractor machine which loosely resembled the design of greeters and snoozers, which fitted very well with Oddworld's alien atmosphere.

I guess the point is that everything should be consistently alien and authentic to Oddworld, if our suspension of disbelief is to remain intact. When we start seeing any kind of contradiction to that alien world, in terms of references, character design, or architecture etc, it breaks the believability of the world which has been so painstakingly crafted. For what? If it's just cheap referential humour, that's a pretty big sacrifice, and one which I would say simply isn't worth it.

I totally meant the fourth wall. I said third because I'm stupid.

But you really don't see it in SW? The Clakkerz and the Grubs are both just large talking versions of animals we have on Earth. Again, I'm not saying they broke the wall. They just keep winking at it.

The general consensus seems to be that neither Munch's Oddysee nor Stranger's Wrath hold a candle to the first two games, so I guess I'll just stick to those for the time being! It's not like I'm in any danger of getting bored of them, I'm currently working my way through Abe's Oddysee for what must be the gazillionth time.

Stranger's Wrath is a pretty damn good game, though. It's a huge step in the right direction if you look at MO.

I wouldn't call that the Fourth Wall, but I see what you're saying. I don't think my opinions on the Stranger's Wrath character designs are any secret. The wagons in Stranger are an excellent example. It makes me wonder why OWI went with that design instead of the barrel-based architecture in concept art.

Average scores according to Metacritic:

Abe's Oddysee: 85
Abe's Exoddus: 88
Munch's Oddysee: 80
Stranger's Wrath: 88

Not really that offputting, surely.

But the reviews from the average Joe's like me and you speak the truth.

Abe's Oddysee: 90
Abe's Exoddus: 89
Munch's Oddysee: 64
Stranger's Wrath: 74

Stranger's Wrath should be an 80. If it wasn't and Oddworld game, I would give it a 90.

I would never let a review score, let alone one from Metacritic, determine what game I should play but I am sure people read these and think they're all the truth.

Still, I wonder why people think anything that has an 80~ score is bad since that's pretty high. But you should never let a review score decide for you. If you like Oddworld, it's at least worth a look, but if you're not that interested then just watch videos or something, that'll give you a good idea of what the game is about.

Try Stranger's Wrath man :) My favourite is Abe's Oddysee but after that - Stranger for sure! Oddworld feel to the max in this one. Munch is (imo) sh!t.

A. Oddysee: 100
A. Exoddus: 80
Munchee: 30
Strangers Wrath: 88

One of my biggest issues with SW, besides the obviously uninspired character design, was how equally uninspired the architecture was. Even with the absence of Olds and Farzad, there was still no shortage of really fucking awesome conceptual art for that game. I mean, everything looks better on the drawing board, but I feel like there were a few missed opportunities to make the final appearance far more Oddworldly. And like a good fan, I will not accept any technical or creative limitations as a valid reason for this discrepancy.

At least some of the defunct construction equipment was based on unused concept art for MO. That was kind of neat, but it's not something you notice right away.