In all honesty, I fail to see the problem some fans of the first two games seem to have with Stranger's Wrath. It is very much different from the gritty, survival-based two dimensional sidescroller, yes, and it does have its fair share of tropes associated with other media (give me an example of any work that doesn't, and don't say Abe's Oddysee/Exoddus because that's beyond ignorant). All that in mind, it integrates beautifully into the universe OWI gave us a glimpse of back in the first two games, chiefly because said games were just that; a glimpse. They followed a unique formula and that formula worked to bring us two amazing experiences, but I feel like people are forgetting that Oddworld is meant to be a colossal fictional universe, and confining it to the formula used by the Abe games would defeat the purpose of what made them unique in the first place.
That being said, there is plenty more in common between Abe and SW. The atmospheric quality is of course subjective and your opinion may differ, but playing Stranger gives me a feeling of a greater world out there beyond the confines of the television screen that equates that given off by Abe's Oddysee. Even the earlier parts of the game which were far more rooted in, as another poster put it above, Western tropes, felt like they have a unique place in Oddworld and it is ultimately the unique factor that makes Oddworld what it is.
Now Munch's Oddysee is an entirely different half-botched animal altogether and imho is by no means comparable to SW, however I'm hoping we're all aware why it turned out the way it did and not turn this topic into another MO-bashing thread.
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