Oddworld has confusing controls.
 

Most people will disagree but Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee has some of the weirdest controls in gaming history. Thing is I'm not afraid to say this because it's weird as hell and it makes me wonder why the controls are so goddamn weird. Please do understand I like Platformers but the Gamespeak and Actual Gameplay controls are confusing and take a average platformer/gamer some time to understand.

i admire your courage my friend. i am also thinking the controls are weirds.

PC or PSX?

PC controls are okay for the most part, it's only unintuitive if you want to roll while running.

PSX gamespeak controls are weird.

Playstation 1 my friend.
(aka PSX)

Then I agree.

To be fair, I'd say the mechanic itself is weird as opposed to the controls, especially for its time.

Can anyone elaborate why they think the controls are 'weird'?
I think they make a lot of sense and that they're the best they could be. What do you think would be a better option?

You could argue for perhaps a wheel effect to select the GamespeakTM but that would add an unnecessary step and was very uncommon / unheard of for the time.

Gamespeak is confusing, and I'm just stating it. I think people were captured in the world so much they forgot that the Gamepseak controls were awkward.

The controls are pretty much perfect, I don't get how they could be any better on pre-dualshock PS1 controllers. Elaborate pls.

'Confusing' and 'awkward' are just other ways you feel about the controls.

What specifically makes them that way to you?

I hate the controls. They're confusing, and awkward... and they get everywhere

I think the controls, while odd, suited what the game needed. Trigger buttons for game-speak or sneaking/running, the triangle (which is one the top of the button panel) for jumping, and the X (on the bottom of the bottom panel) for rolling. It doesn't become too weird once you get into the swing of things.

I found the PS1 controls much easier and more intuitive than the PC...this is wun of them 'subjective' things innit.

They make total sense. OP still hasn't explained what he thinks is wrong with them.

Gamespeak is confusing especially even after reading it about 5 times and repeating it to myself. The controls are delayed especially if you were hovering your finger over the Jump button and jumped at the right time, but all of a sudden you land in the mines to fuck you up. The way the controls are laid out is fine. But when you hit a button at the right moment just forget about even trying to run and jump because it won't work. Well for me it won't work.

I liked the Playstation controls - at first it takes a while to get the Gamespeak commands in muscle memory, but since all of the buttons are sitting under all of my fingers at all times, it feels much more efficient than the PC version; I find the latter a bit too much of a visual experience, as my keyboard has no tactile cues as to which number my finger is hovering over.


That being said, I first played it on Playstation, so I'm much more used to those controls.

Have you tried not jumping into landmines?

Maybe you should try a controller that isn't broken?

I've never played on console myself, but I can say that the PC controls are not great. Using numbers for gamespeak makes sense intuitively, but in the heat of the moment, they're not always that easy to distinguish. But honestly, the main problem with PC controls is when you push a button for gamespeak and Abe just kind of fidgets as if he has a nervous stutter and can't get out what he wants to say. I've never seen this happen on anyone's playthrough on console, but plenty of times on PC. So if the console controls are as unresponsive as you say, then consider me surprised.

The console controls are completely responsive, however you're totally right about PC. I have no idea what causes those gamespeak issues but it always causes me to hit those keys like falling bricks if I want any response.

yeah i've found with PC gamespeak you have to hold down each key for longer than usual to get it responding, tapping it will just make abe do a little dance. i don't get why though. i mean you don't have to do that with abe's movement controls, in comparison they're pretty responsive, but for some reason the gamespeak acts like it's laggy.

Plus the LED screens look weird, there's a box around fires in the stockyards, and the secret area jingles sound like shit.

don't forget the broken slig music lul

Oh yeah there was a lot of broken music. To be fair there was some broken music in the PS1 version. Like how in the nests the music would keep retriggering when an enemy started chasing you.

Are you sure that wasn't intended? If anything it added to the intensity of the chases in the nests.

It sounded choppy and shitty whether it was intended or not.

@AbeAbAndAbbey

When you’re running, the game will check to see if the jump button is held down at each grid space boundary. So if you press down the jump button just after abe has passed the beginning of a gridspace, and release before Abe has reached the end of this gridspace, abe won’t jump because the button isn’t being pressed whilst passing the boundary.

That’s just how the game has been programmed.

The solution is to hold down the jump button until you visibly see Abe jumping. This is something you would naturally do if you’ve played the games through a few times and gotten used to the controls. A long-time player wouldnt consider this an issue.

The game could have been programmed to accept the jump input and carry out the jump at the start kf the next gridspace regardless of whether the jump button is still held or not... But it wasnt... and that’s not really a huge issue.

The gamespeak issue with the PC version of Oddysee is obviously a bug created during the PC ports debelopment.

I don't see much of a wierd in AO/AE controls. Hold in mind that series started off in era when mainstream controls weren't established yet. I've played some other PS1 games that have Triangle as jump/boost button and Cross as action. Same goes with Cross and Circle swapped for poorly converted japanese titles.

Once you get used to Abe's "tank controls", you will associate actions with cues given by looks of the buttons, like I did. I assume, developers intended that players would memorize them the same way.

Movement:
Button high (Tri) = Leap high/far; Button low (x) = Stay down;
(Sqr/Crcl)= Taking/Givin' hands
=========
Gamespeak:
Green = Friendly; Red = Hostile/Nasty;
Pink = Gentle/Attractive; Blue = Sad/Passive/Sensitive.
(They just mixed up red and blue in AE smh so just be aware)

L1=Ctrl(One unit/Basics) L2=Shift(All units/Advanced)
R1/R2 are reversed of L's. Again, some old games map Shift as sneak button and Ctrl for run. Out from recent ones, it's Minecraft. Basically, depends on which should be most/least situational.

Just like the movement, [Tri] and X in Gamespeak represent High and Low musical tones.

Happy New Year everybody!

@AbeAbAndAbbey
As @AvengingGibbons stated, both player and AI are tied to a grid.
It's a curse and a blessing at the same time. If you prone to premature response and power mashing, it proves to be more forgiving solution as game induces panic.

Personally, I like to exploit that mechanic to the max by using the wells milliseconds before floating mine enters Abe's grid and it gets safely disarmed in process, or harmlessly blowing up things in tight spaces with flying Slig, also "derailing" enemies off the ledges by talking their grid reads to death.

A blind guy literally completed this game. The controls are fine.