Re-imagining Munch's Oddysee
 

I know we can all agree that Munch's Oddysee is the worst Oddworld game out of the four released. It may have been a fair game in its own right, however for an Oddworld game, it left alot to be desired.
Munch's Oddysee turned the creepiness of Oddworld into cartooniness, which was possibly the worst move short of making the whole game an interactive alien blood orgy, where all the aliens are inside-out, hence the blood.

With Munch's Oddysee as it is, I've been thinking of so many different things that could make the game superb, may they be completely new ideas demanding a re-image of the game, or specific things that could give Munch's Oddysee that extra creepiness that it needed.

My first thought was to utilize the fact that it's a three dimensional game, and have a specific Munch mission that is completely underwater, where the atmosphere is dark and misty, and there are creatures moving in and out of the dark, including a giant Sea Rex slithering its way through the background, yet somehow remains the focus of attention, considering the player shouldn't really know what they're supposed to be doing yet. I think a level like that, with the whole game following the same extremely creepy suit, would be amazing.

I have heaps more images in my head that could give some awesomeness to Munch's Oddysee, however I'll leave the rest to you. We can't change what Munch's Oddysee turned out to be, however we can use our imaginations to pretend we can change it to give it that Oddworld 'Odd'.

Add your thoughts and ideas on how you would change Munch's Oddysee to make it what you think it should've been. Happy imagining.

Bit of a lost cause...

Basically we just look at all the MO concept art and it's not hard to figure what it was supposed to have been.

And Munch could let out farts that would immediately kill all enemies that are swimming on the surface of the water. Awesome! :D

There is a ton of things that could be done in an underwater level. It could be like a free-for-all; no specific paths to take, and lost of little tunnels to explore in. Plus there could be islands and boats and stuff to hop up on that could make things much more interesting.

Thinking of underwater levels made me think of the 'dark zone', that empty void at the bottom of the ocean where everything is pitch black. A lantern-fish oddworld creature would be cool beyond comparison.

Lots of secret areas! Maybe ones that you can only get to through bird portals. The ability to dive underwater with Munch, rather than just swimming around on the surface. Maybe a longer time in Vykkers Labs (I liked possessing the Vykkers). Oh yeh, and a completely underwater level would have been brilliant.

You're scary when happy!

I'd like less repetitiveness plx and water levels would be nice. What would be really nice however is more damned story like they were meant to do :p and more species :( do OWF know how hard it is to only have four bad guy species to choose from.

More varied scenery and set pieces would have been nice as well. The game WAS originally intended to be a movie and no movie should be without a plentiful supply of set pieces :p.

More species? They couldn’t even get right the ones they did include. Paramites and Scrabs ICYDK.

I really would have loved more involving puzzles and more lifelike characters. The puzzles we did get were mostly more agility‐ or firepower‐based, with no real need to think in terms of cause and effect, and there was certainly no employment of the fabled status system that would make possession and GameSpeak so much more important.

As if they took the 2D levels and made them 3D.

Sooo... how would bombs and drills work when you can just step around them.

I think he was talking about Industrial characters: Glukkons, Sligs, Vykkers, Interns

That's three more than most games have. We'll get more Industrial species with each game/movie in the quintology.

Touche Nate, however each of these species fit a type cast role, a lot of stuff has to be made up when you can only use Lazy Soldier, Greedy Capitalist, Mad Doctor and Nurse from Hell.

I demand less obviously flawed baddies and more evil ones like Sekto!

I think if the game was formed around the fact that Abe and Munch could die from a single bullet like in the first two Oddworld games, Munch's Oddysee would be brilliant! One of the worst parts of Munch's Oddysee for me was running through minefields and slig guards knowing that I was only taking small amounts of damage for each shot/explosion. One of the best things about the first two games was that feeling of vulnerability with each new screen into which you step. If Munch's Oddysee could've somehow managed that into a three dimensional environment, I think it would be superb!

There is the problem, however, that the game might've turned into Oddworld: Splinter Cell. However, with refinement, there are manythings in the Oddworld universe that could stray it from the Splinter Cell 'stealth only' idea, even though those are the type of moods and playing styles that Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus were really about.
All these ideas are forming in my head to create some pretty awesome images. I should probably put some of these to paper!

You know, it’s funny. Lorne always hated the single hit point in the first games, but is was necessary to make the game better to play. Stranger’s Wrath provided a great compromise: health is more analogue, but depletes very rapidly.

I really liked the single hit thing in the first two games. That made the games very different from other games that have heath bars.

I agree about the underwater level. :D And after the game was beat you could go back to whichever place you wanted and kill off the Sligs, Vykkers, and other things you missed.

What exactly was the "the single hit thing", anyway?

It means if there shot a slig to Abe and then he gonna be to die. ; )

Ah... I see. Thanks!

Your English is fun to read, by the way. :)

Ha ha... I know my english isn't perfect but if you would like to correct my posts I will try to prefer my language. ^_^

Let's go back to the original phrase and define the phrase "worst" shall we? Worst storyline, worst graphics, didn't give that OW feeling? Cos' if u don't like games without that OW feel, DON'T play SW- you'll feel disappointed. I personally liked Munch's Oddysee- It's relevent to the quintology, you can do all the stuff you can do in AO, ut in 3-D. Not everyone thinks that MO was rubbish, y'know. One day, SOMEONE will see things from my point of veiw... you'll see...

And not everyone thinks SW lacked that Oddworld feel. It returned the series to the epic landscapes, dark characters, grizzly subtext, and more open puzzle solving of the first two titles that was missing or lacking in Munch’s Oddysee. There are, of course, huge departures from the originals, but it’s just as much what underlies the games that I love, not just what you get at the surface.

I didn't think Munch's Oddysee was rubbish, I just thought it was rubbish as an Oddworld game. It was too cartoony. The only things that reminded me of the good days of Oddworld were the story and the characters. Hell, they even messed up the species. Scrabs should always be territorial, and Paramites should never be running about in wide open spaces like that. I guess I can permit that Scrabs might travel in packs, however it just seemed like it was thrown in their as a cameo for a shotty gameplay experience, rather than keeping to the Oddworld universe.
Just imagine walking through the inside of a hollowed out tree on a badly damaged natural wooden staircase, with darkness all around you except for the light pooling out through holes created through time, and all you can hear is the thumping sounds of your footsteps and Munch's footstep... however, surrounding you are the sounds of the scuttling and webmaking of hungry Paramites, accompanied by spooky appropriate music.
That alone is the style that I feel Munch's Oddysee should have taken.

As for Stranger, well...

I couldn't agree more.

As is said in 'The Art of Oddworld - The First Ten Years': 'Sometimes a fracture is so bad that the bone actually has to be broken again before it can be set.' Everything worked well in Stranger's Wrath except Clakkerz. Also, Stranger's character greatly complemented the gameplay style. Another thing that shows Stranger's superiority is that while it had a completely different setting to the first three Oddworld games, it still held it's own to remind us of Oddworld better than Munch's Oddysee did.

Munch's Oddysee just didn't have the right gameplay and environment styles for Oddworld. Cinematics did, for sure, but gameplay and landscape just didn't do it for me.

I could have done without Munch entirely. Another Abe game would have been grand. The time spent on Munch and fuzzles could have been better put to use on keeping things dark and gloomy. I personally loved the contrast between the dark, grimy factories and beautiful outdoor landscapes in the first two games.

The interiors/and exteriors of MO were too brightly lit, sparse, and unoriginal.

...The hell am I doing here, anyway?

The thing that gets me is that everyone has their own idea of what Oddworld should be, despite no say in the production process. I'm glad that they risk upsetting the fans, because if they made every fan happy, we'd never see anything new.

You can't make all the fans happy, some of them want the same things over and over again and others want innovation or would get bored.

I have often agreed with this.

i felt Stranger's Wrath as a setting had the Oddworld feel but as a game it lacked it. oddworld to me isn't a First Person Shooter. Munch's Oddysee, I enjoyed. It could have been doen better, no doubt, with nuances about Scrabs or Paramites. I also, like many, would have preferred the 1 hit system. Having said that, I did still heartily enjoy MO. Too bad my Xbox perma-crashed before I ever finished it.

If Mo were to be remade, it could be itneresting. I definitely want a return to the Quintology if a new game is produced. Stranger was probably a very good game (never played it), and the setting, though different, still suited Oddworld. It just never appealed to me due to the genre of game. I like FPSs, but not in Oddworld.

Much as MO could be reworked, I think Stranger could've been. Make it less of an FPS, and more of a semi adventure, semi stealth game, while retaining the old-school oddworld puzzle elements.

Actually, that is Stranger's Wrath in a nutshell.

You really can't say much about Stranger's Wrath until you've actually played it. The two things that annoyed me about Stranger's Wrath were the Clakkerz and the tractors, considering it's Oddworld and tractors still looked exactly like tractors. Everything else was quality.

Bees look exactly like bees, bats look exactly like bats, wheels look exactly like wheels. Where do you draw the line?

Tractors, obviously. :P

OK, I have succeeded in making myself look stupid in 2 threads now.

If that's what Stranger is like, I would pick it up. That is, if my Xbox wasn't dead.

And what's the problem with Clakkerz? From what I've seen, they look suited to Oddworld.

They’re fat hillbilly chickens in dungarees. Fortunately, their saving grace is that they’re actually very endearing and amusing. Still, better design needed. This is where BM comes in to talk about the concept art looking better.