The decline (I use the term in its unbiased sense) of GameSpeak in Stranger's Wrath is very much intentional. Stranger acts alone, even when he's fighting on the side of a native army. He communicates with other characters primarily to extract information rather than to enlist their ongoing help with levers and fighting. Even when other characters are opening doors for him, its a scripted event. These characters aren't required to follow Stranger to the nearest button, and even if they were, they don't have enough for respect for Stranger to do so as unquestioningly as the Mudokons and Fuzzles.
This allows GameSpeak in SW to be downsized and - critically - simplified. It's also simplified in Munch's Oddysee, but not because it's being downsized. Not willingly, anyway. Two important changes to GameSpeak in MO are done intentionally. The recruiting of Mudokons and Fuzzles into effective armies is very true to the evolution of the Quintology, and the simplification of using GameSpeak (no more button combinations) was a definite aim of MO's production. "Follow Me" is very easily excised from Abe's vocabulary when you realize the 3D nature of the game precludes the same discrete-step puzzle-solving as its predecessor titles.
Unfortunately, also excised from the game is another component that would have utilized GameSpeak a lot, that of rank. The end product features characters' ranks as pretty much cosmetic traits, but the intention was to have it function as an incentive to control enemies for prolonged periods. Possessed Sligs need to be a certain rank to access an area or enlist the help of other Sligs, requiring the player to perform tasks as the Slig to earn the Moolah for promotion. GameSpeak between characters would have differed depending on the difference of rank between those characters. In this sense, GameSpeak would have been much more powerful as well as simplified.
The Brutal Ballad of Fangus Klot would have returned GameSpeak to its usual central position, with Fangus controlling herds of sheep creatures to his military advantage. It's hard to say how much of the "rank" idea this would have recycled, but in execution it would probably been similar to the eventual MO's.
It's a shame we never saw how this would turn out, because GameSpeak was one of the Abe games' most endearing and popular features. It undeniably contributed to the popularity of Oddworld, and its decline was a sad thing.
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