[Many Arms of Odd]

Only some time recently have I been able to truly appreciate the Oddworld series. I've bought all the Oddworld games on GOG.com, and I made sure to play Oddworld: Abe's Odyssey first. Despite it's difficulty, I managed to get through much until I was stuck on one Paramite level (you know, the one with the three spike rocks, the two poison bats, the bomb, the lever and the slog?). Abe's Exoddus is easier to play, though extremely. Still, what I love about the first two Oddworld games is the art style, atmosphere, gameplay, and sprite animations.

When I saw what Stranger's Wrath was like, I thought it didn't seem quite Oddworldian. Maybe it was because I missed the art style of the first two games. However, when I looked at the gameplay of Munch's Odyssey (GOG doesn't hold it) I saw that both MO and SW looked almost similar, so it was keeping with the tradition of Oddworld. I started imagine what Stranger's Wrath might have looked like if it had been a pre-rendered 2D game, and I can actually see all of SW's characters functioning in the graphics of Oddworld 1.

It is interesting, before I played it, I originally thought that Stranger could be a more morally ambiguous character. Yes, in game, he thinks about getting a bounty on one of his own kind (even though it seems like he's the only one), but if he had been living in Abe's part of Oddworld? Could you imagine Stranger pursuing runaway Mudokons like Abe or Munch because he needs the money? How more complicated would the game be, would you think, if Stranger's targets varied between unsympathetic and sympathetic?

All in all, it is more gratifying to have Stranger go after targets who aren't sympathetic, and are incredibly nasty as well. It's shows off OI's skill in conveying their themes of an oppressed people showing off their skills against the arrogant and self-satisfied monsters of the world. The boss fights with all the thugs are certainly very inspired. It makes me want to be a Steef-styled bounty hunter... if I lived in Oddworld, anyway.

Still, what would Stranger's Wrath had been like if it had the atmosphere of Abe's Odyssey. Could you imagine the Sekto Springs Dam as having the architecture and mood of Rupture Farms or SoulStorm Brewery? Or for Stranger to be able to fight the Slig security? Well, it's more likely that I imagining a sequel where Stranger fights against the Glukkons on their own turf.

Before I actually played the SW, while I was playing Abe's Odyssey, I thought Stranger might be some kind of half-Scrab rather than a centaur (I knew that Stranger had four legs before I played the game because a friend told me, but I didn't know that they were horse's legs). I worked on some fan art postulating what Stranger would look like he were half-Scrab, and how he would hide his back legs. One drawing I'm working on has him holding Sekto's Spring Water bottle, with the game's title on it.

But what did other Oddworld player's thinks of the game before and after it came out?