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It was absolutely no surprise to me. Far from keep it hidden, OWI were calling the character ‘Steef’ and ‘the Steef’ long before they ever referred to him as ‘Stranger’ or ‘the Stranger’, back in the Inside Microsoft’s Xbox documentary. They even showed his bipedal and centaur forms next to each other in a split screen, making it very obvious from the start that they were one and the same. What’s more, Lorne says in the documentary something along the lines of ‘We wanted people to grow attached to the character before revealing what he really is,’ so we immediately figured that the character’s being a Steef would be hidden at the start of the game and revealed as a twist later on.
For anyone paying attention that early on, it was absolutely no surprise at all. I’ve also read that many gamers who never saw the docu guessed Stranger’s secret identity as soon as the Steef statue was shown, let alone when the Steef bounty offer poster or mounted Steef head were shown. Frankly, I’m surprised anyone was surprised by the time the ‘Captured by Outlaws’ FMV played, but it really makes me glad to hear that somebody was. OWI tried really hard to make a really god twist that would test th player’s emotional attachment. Of course I still found the video to be very moving and beautiful even though I virtually knew what was going to be revealed , which I personally thought was far too little, if you know what I mean.
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Hmm, the thing was, I never even heard of Oddworld till a while after. So I didn't know anything about Stranger's Wrath until I rented it and played it. That's when I went on to buy it, and I got to the point where he's revealed to be a Steef. So yeah I never even heard of the game until very early last year.