I believe Oddworld was at its peak of brilliance after launching Abe's Exoddus. In my opinion, all Oddworld games should be measured from Exoddus. It was the perfect mix between a serious, dark feel and elements of comical humor. I feel that the change in Abe's accent and slight downplay on Glukkon brutallity were both necessary and worked in OWI's favour as they added so much more character to each respective side. During Oddysee, I always found the Glukkon's to be rather faceless and all like Mullock. There was also a big leap in Slig character development through cutscenes too around this point as well as the various types of Slig (almost none of which we saw return in Munch).
Munch was a huge let down for me, but I can still enjoy the game. I agree it became a little too comical and Munch admitedly did annoy me for a long time due to his lack of ability to do pretty much anything in game. What really saved this game for me was the cutscenes and storyline - neither of which measured up to Oddysee and Exoddus, but the gritty feel of Vykker's labs in cutscenes got me really pumped up for some dark gameplay. The Vykker's themselves, too, hugely brought up the value of the game. I absolutely love the character design and overall attitudes of those guys; deranged, maniacle, evil.
In conclusion, yeah, Munch pushed the boundaries between a light hearted, comical tone and seriousness, but that gritty feel wasnt entirely lost. Oddysee and Exoddus will always remain the far superior games, however. Personally, I await the movies with much more anticipation than any other Oddworld game. The quintology and dark feel we're all looking for will without a doubt transfer much better to the big screen.
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