The River

[Wil]

Well well well (no pun intended), it seems we were on track with the dam. The inspiration behind Stranger's story does indeed involve dams:

My first love is fly-fishing, and as a fly-fisherman I've been close to observing how the construction of dams often causes turmoil to the communities of people and eco-systems that live downstream.

And we also have an idea of the inspiration behind Stranger himself, we may indeed lend a hand to our theories on Stranger disguising himself to intermingle with the industrial society, or may not:

...the character of Stranger was inspired by those who look out for themselves when confronted by racist cultures.

[Esus]

I was about to post that.
I'm really thinking the Clakkerz will be the ignorant unknowing/un-wanting to know village folk, representing much of society today who turn their backs to the societies based upon running water.

[Wil]

The story will cover the Stranger coming to grips with his true nature in the hunt for the ultimate bounty.

Or so says Game Daily and Daily Game (hmmm, suspicious nomenclature there). I can't find where this particular nugget of info originated, though. The Adrenaline Vault merely said

Players step into the role of a western-style bounty hunter named Stranger who chases outlaws throughout the frontier of the Oddworld universe and comes to grips with his true nature.

[Nate]

I realy think the outlaws have some army that attacks the town, the town was in flames.

more likely a gang than an army

[Wil]

I agree with Oddsville, who said in the other thread that the town didn't look to be in flames. It definitely had a red/orange tinge to it, but it looked much more like an industrial outcrop than a town on fire. There were no flames, just smoke pouring out of one large building. I couldn't see any building damage either.

[Xavier]

true... it look more like a gang, lead by Blitzer Booty...
and there are 2 other guys with the same clothes as him, one is perhaps D. Caste Raider... but the other one?

[Alcar]

What I find most interesting (in concerns to the actual game) is this quote:

LL: He's a much more powerful yet mysterious hero who embraces shooting and melee capabilities...yet with several unique twists that add greater options for gamers to enjoy entirely different play styles and strategies. It was an important design goal that this game retain open-ended play options. Some may approach it completely stealth, some will charge into it completely balls out, and others will find a balance somewhere in between. Regardless, all approaches were to be rewarding, and I feel we've accomplished that.

From my point of view, I think this is hinting at different endings, BUT more importantly, is the fact that you can choose whether to kill and enemy, or not. Just like the system that was originally going to be introduced into Munch's Oddysee! I've anticipated this type of strategy, and if it is indeed included, go OWI!

Oh, and yay, our predictions were quite correct!

Alcar...

[oddguy]

If it's giving you the option to kill or not, then that must mean Quarma will be in the game. Maybe not a Quarma meter like in MO, but doing certain things would trigger certain events and different FMV's. [/speculate]

-oddguy

[Oddish]

I did'nt remember the image back then, i only saw it for a coulpe of seconds.

[Sekto Springs]

true... it look more like a gang, lead by Blisterz Booty...
and there are 2 other guys with the same clothes as him, one is perhaps D. Caste Raider... but the other one?

Blisterz Booty doesn't strike me as the leader-type, but as of now we don't know. D. Caste Raider has also been confirmed as big and dumb, so I don't think he's the leader either, all though there was that picture of him and his two "minions". I think that each Outlaw is a leader of his own little crusade (for lack of a better word), like the army marching though the rain could be one of the crusades and were on the march to torch the town.

[Xavier]

I know they aren't the leader type, but they do have the "Boss" title
I think some Bosses are friends or are part of a same clan (same clothes) and that here 3 (at least) bosses teamed up to make a carnage.

[Statikk HDM]

Hell yeah! I think I posted something back here about racism being in the game, probably Stranger being one. The thoery about the Clakkerz being the backwards ones really make sense, though.

[Esus]

Hmm... how do thse 'bosses' fit into the society? We all know what game bosses are, but what about the oddworldian society? Are we to assume they are certain higher ranking people who are in charge of other people or whom have lots of assets? Such as a factory or lots of money?
I can't see Oddworld giving individual names to every character in the 'boss' species', so surely these are all important characters? We also know the game is going to be very big. AE had quite a lot of Glukkon bosses, so it shouldn't really be that hard to incorporate them all. I doubt we'll be killing/capturing them all though.

[Oddish]

He problay will catch all of them, thats he's job, to hunt. So the whole story is Stranger and his job, and Stranger doing a good deed by saving the river. We don't the main story line, and why is he doing stuff. We just have to find out.

[Sekto Springs]

You put bounties on criminals. So the outlaw bosses are probly criminals, and are called bosses because they lead lesser criminals.

[Xavier]

I'm with SligSlinger on this one...
that a reason why they have proper names, I doubt all tha bad guys will each have a name, OWI didn't made names for Sligs.

[Nate]

Or all the gluks in MO.

Its interesting though because OWI has never had the typical game boss - as in you finish the level and you go to a small location with only one huge creature that is impossible to kill but you have to or you can't continue. Perhaps actually naming them bosses is meant to be post-modern irony, similar to the way that Voodoo Vince continually takes the piss out of game conventions.

[Alcar]

We don't know for sure that at each region ender you have to verse a boss. Actually, that's just an assumption made from the use of 'bosses'. But it is a very misleading reference

I hope we don't see the conventional boss at the end of a level.

Alcar...

[Wil]

I think it would be great if OWI took the piss out of gaming a bit, without making it too obvious, of course. The 'Bosses' are a great example, if that's what they're actually an example of, of course. A while back, when the topic of Mudokon reproduction cropped up, the idea arose of there being Mudokon 'princesses' to take over from a dying queen. I thought it would be a tad biting to have Abe have to rescue them from towers or castles.

And I hope, too, that we don't end up with conventional bosses. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the 'Bosses' turned up in gameplay to kind of act as the end of a chapter (taking AIA's reference to bookends a little further), but I'm sure OWI would have that fit, and not seem an attempt to conform to mainstream gaming.

[Esus]

Bosses, as it happens, are the ideal way to end a chapter; in story terms.
If a large part of the beginning is about capturing a specific outlaw, or to stop him illegally trading steef horns, or whatnot, a perfect end to that chapter would be to capture this outlaw, kill him, and take him to prison.
I'm expecting bosses to feature at the end of some of the chapters, I just hope Oddworld don't go the way of fighting them in a ring of fire... or suchlike.

[Sekto Springs]

capture this outlaw, kill him, and take him to prison.

Why would you take a corpse to the prison?

Anyway, I think that you are assigned certain bounties by Clakkerz or whatever. Here's the way I see the story working, you start the game by catching the first bounty, Blisterz Booty (as shown in the FMV) and go to collect your pay (also in the FMV), that's where you're "assigned" to another bounty which is really you're first in-game bounty. You have to chase you're bounty across the huge plains (described by Abe Babe) and ask citizens of passing towns for any information on the guy, and while you're at the towns, you can buy stuff for your crossbow with money you acquired from your previous bounty. Eventually you'll get tipped off that your bounty is at this place or whatnot, and that's where you battle them. Along the way you may also run into s'more challenges and "missions" in which you can choose to do and gain more Moolah. Of course, at this point, I don't know where the actual storyline fits in, or where Stranger's possible transformation falls in place, but a good theory none the less. So I'm basically saying that alot of exploring and shooting fits in, which is the mechanic of the game as Ed Fries said.

[Xavier]

sounds very good SligSlinger!
but I wonder if that's not a bit too less action, I mean most of the time you explore and don't do much

I wonder how the game will realy be...

[Oddish]

I bet Stranger will kill The Looen Duke, and the looten duke would say "Blood may be thick than water, but water's were the moolah is at" or it might printed on his grave stone.

[Xavier]

now we have the brand new screenshot!

the water story seems to going on, look at the logo in the first pic

and can someone tell what stranger is holding in his hand in the second pic?



EDIT: did you noticed those... "darts" in the ground?
perhaps some Stranger just shooted (picture 3)

EDIT2: just figured out what's in pic 2, some hatguy shooting on Stranger, the little thing on the bottom being a hat

[Oddish]

Yes, i just pionted that out. I think that's a bullet shot, where's stranger is "holding".

[Oddsville]

Good spotting Xav. I think OWI is really doing a great job on the detail of this game, and although some of thoughs characters look alittle blocky we gotta realize that 1. The game isn't fully complete yet and 2. Its just a snapshot, it can looks tons better once in motion. Right now Im just gonna examine the pic some more and see if I can find anything else.

Edit- I just noticed that if you look at Xav's number2 pic then you can see another hat character behind the wall, most likely comming to see what the ruccus is.

Edit2- I also just noticed that there is a fourth guy on the grounds fighting Stranger look between the very right most creatures legs and you can make out the face of another character that appears to be either flipping or..something in the air.

[Sekto Springs]

Edit- I just noticed that if you look at Xav's number2 pic then you can see another hat character behind the wall, most likely comming to see what the ruccus is.

Xav pointed that out already. We think that the gun shot around Stranger's hand is coming from that Hatman in the cellar.

[Oddsville]

Oh sorry, I didn't notice that Xav had mentioned it. Anyways from the looks of it there appears to two types of characters there; one's where you can see thier eyes and the ones where you can..

[Sekto Springs]

Oh sorry, I didn't notice that Xav had mentioned it. Anyways from the looks of it there appears to two types of characters there; one's where you can see thier eyes and the ones where you can..

Yes, and one kind has green skin while the other is more orange.

[Wil]

They also have different teeth and clothes. My RAM is crap, so I can't open the image right now, but from memory, the two outside characters (not including the upside-down one or the one in the first-story "celler" () are similar to Meagly McGraw and Filthy Hands Floyd, while the middle one is more like Mortimar Bang or Palooka Pack Rat.

I just spotted this while typing, but compare the skull on the badge on Filthy Hands Floyd's hat and the heads of the characters in the rockart - does anyone see a similarity? They're both pretty generic, but I just saw the badge, and it reminded me of those ghostly figures.