Oddworld changed

[alf's brother's mate]

Factory is vastly superior to nature. Know why? Note that Abe only goes to nature so he can get to factory enviroments! He is drawn to pollution like me.

I find factories like rupturefarms (totally amazing of course) more mysterious and dark.
It should be decided. A new 2d game with poor graphics but waith a strange more oddworld feel to it must be made. (And of course include Abe.)

[Acegikmo]

Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus were both perfect.
Not much more to say really.

Munch's Oddysee would've been good if they finished the game.
It seems like it's half done.
Repeatative sound effects/dialogues/music.
Annoying sounds. (Paramites sounds like pigs, seriously...)
Bad camera control.
Monotonous puzzles.
Boring level design.

It could have been good if they playtested it before they released it...

Stranger's Wrath is a great game.
Quite unique gameplay, great level design, nice story, nice everything
The only thing I missed was some replayability, some unlockables after completing the game. And more stuff you spend your moolah on

[just_an_(ODD)alisque]

I'm laying in bed thinking to myself why oddworld games after AE disinterested me. I played them and just didn't like them as much as I liked the first 2 games. And after much thinking I think I found out why. I feel like in AO and AE there was always this mystery to the game that really grabbed my interest. I could never quite place that feeling I had when playing it. Like I was only getting a glimpse at this strange world and there was a lot more to it that was left up to my imagination. Everything seemed and looked so real. And in the games that followed them, MO an SW, that mystery and excitement was gone. It felt like everything was all out in the open and no more mysteries were left to solve. The new characters all looked like detailed cartoon characters instead of realistic looking creatures. I wasn't the same, and I don't like it. Idk, maybe I'm the only one here that feels like this... Anybody else get this feeling?

Yes,I feel exactly the same.

[Chronicler]

Yeah. Oddworld became SO different. Cool but still different. Although, I never thought Munch's Oddysee was that bad when it came to designs. It was really just Streanger's Wrath with their animal cowboys and hillbillies. If they ever made another game (It's possible). Atleast bring back the old style from the first games and leave that mysterious enigma about the world.

[totor]

I agree 100% with you Chronicler. I didn't played MO and SW but for me AO is the better game in the Oddworld "quintology". And I think the game depends just of one thing: the production designer. As I said before , Steven Olds designed AO and Abe but just have done the 2/3 of the game, then he lefts OWI.
If you have buy the Art Of Oddworld Inhabitants (you can go on "togg" in concept art the Abe's Oddysee), you see that Steven Olds's concept sketches are the beautifulest in the book. I think that's why these not the same feeling in AO . Do you think that AO's levels are better designed than AE's levels ?

[Sanssouci]

The production designers draw what Lorne Lanning wants them to.
The buck stops with the director, not the production designer.

[totor]

Ok sanssouci ( are you french??) you're right. I think levels designs depends of the production designer and Lorne Lanning. But when Lorne asks one of them what he wants, the designer designs the level and add a part of his imagination into the concept sketch.

[Xavier]

yeah, but Lorne really knows what he wants and from what I've read he sends the production designer back to his table until he's happy with the result

[totor]

Ok I know that you've met Lorne Lanning. You're surely more informed than me.
But I ask why did Lorne accept MO's levels althoug they are less sought-after ( ask me if you don't understand)than the AO's one ?

[Xavier]

I guess, they didn't really have much time for quality at that moment... they had to be ready for the Xbox launch.

[Fuzzle Guy]

Maybe they'll revamp the games in 3D when the movies come out. Make Munch realistic, dark and not cartoony.

Munch's problem was that they seemed to be aiming for cartoon for some reason. The "Boing Boing boing" whenever Munch or the fuzzles moved (Which was replaced in SW with a much more realistic thud when the Fuzzles hit the ground), the "WHOOP!" Sound whenever Abe jumped, that never happened in the first two games? It was an actual recording of someone jumping...

The only thing that really made Munch change was the cartoon like sounds and the environments.

The environments- in MO and SW they seemed to be trying to make Oddworld look like the perfect holidays destination. So bright, so sunny. (Don't get me wrong, I love New Yolk City and the Mongo River, and it didn't bother me so much in Stranger, because it wasn't Abe - who to me, is Oddworld.) They should have made the place a place covered with trees and a very dark, turquoise - almost green sky, not the lovely blue sky we had in the other games.

[Chronicler]

Maybe they'll revamp the games in 3D when the movies come out. Make Munch realistic, dark and not cartoony.

Munch's problem was that they seemed to be aiming for cartoon for some reason. The "Boing Boing boing" whenever Munch or the fuzzles moved (Which was replaced in SW with a much more realistic thud when the Fuzzles hit the ground), the "WHOOP!" Sound whenever Abe jumped, that never happened in the first two games? It was an actual recording of someone jumping...

The only thing that really made Munch change was the cartoon like sounds and the environments.

The environments- in MO and SW they seemed to be trying to make Oddworld look like the perfect holidays destination. So bright, so sunny. (Don't get me wrong, I love New Yolk City and the Mongo River, and it didn't bother me so much in Stranger, because it wasn't Abe - who to me, is Oddworld.) They should have made the place a place covered with trees and a very dark, turquoise - almost green sky, not the lovely blue sky we had in the other games.

EXACTLY. That was one of my probs with the game. The cartoonish designs made everything less dark, mysterious, and deep. I just wasn't sure what to say in my original post.

But anyways, speaking on my behalf, I did like the Gabbit and Vykker designs.

[totor]

I agree 100% with you fuzzle guy. But I think SW's levels are most deep and mysterious than MO's level

[OddYouko]

excuse me but I don't know what the FMV's are could you explain please ( I'm french that's why I don't know what's that). Thanks!

The clips in the games. Abe's Oddysee FMV's for example.
http://oddworldlibrary.net/archives/cinema/AO/FMVs/

I also like the MO and SW designs. But they just don't have that dark feeling like AO and AE.

[kin37ik]

lorne has a very uncanny way of getting concept art just the way he likes it, when they used to make games and he saw the concept art he would say "it's a good start", translating that into non-concept/production it means "you havent even scratched the surface yet".

[That Abe guy]

Stranger's Wrath is a great game.
Quite unique gameplay, great level design, nice story, nice everything
The only thing I missed was some replayability, some unlockables after completing the game. And more stuff you spend your moolah on

I agree
Stranger's Wrath is excellent. I love the environments and the live ammo is just awesome.

[GlukkonGluk]

Well, in my opinion, SW was a brilliant game, but it really lacked that feeling that it was an OW game. I mean, the only things we recognised were Fuzzles and Vykers. I was just dissapointed that it didn't have Abe in it- and what happened to "being the skinny guy with no weapons in a world where everyone wnats to eat you"? The Stranger was perfectly capable of beating people up rather than get a gang of Muds to do it for you (although i prefer letting them fight and just watch.

[Fuzzle Guy]

(although i prefer letting them fight and just watch.

You're in luck... they're making movies now

[totor]

Hi GlukkonGluk,
I've never played SW but I saw some video about it. I found the decors awesome and beautiful!! I think OWI studios wanted to create an other face of Oddworld an Mudos, (in AO and AE we have the deep and the mysticism of the origin of OWI, in MO we've the cartoony design of the decor and the characters). They just did that in the bad moment. For me when I saw that there was just a Slog on the poster of the game I was disappointed because for me OWI's soul is Abe, the scrabs, paramites, Molluck and Bigface! But I think although SW is a new game in the pentalogy, we mustn't run down that game because it doesn't represent the " traditionnal" Oddworld face!! . It's just a new game (though AO is my favorite game in the pentalogy)

[GlukkonGluk]

Don't get me wrong, SW is a brilliant game in its own right- and now I think about it, its maybe not just lack of recognisable charecters that make SW different, but the whole style of gameplay is compeletely different. OWI kinda made it sound like they were going to always create games that favoured the underdog, the guy that is incapable of defending himself and has to rely on other people and his psychic abitities to do it for him...

[totor]

I think that SW is a changement in OWI studios. They leaved Abe and his buddies to explore an other continent of oddworld, through a new character: stranger.

[MeechShrykull1029]

What do you mean?

[totor]

I mean that's just a changement, no more.

[Mac Sirloin]

It's funny how the first three Oddworld games are like the Evil Dead series-AO wasn't very focused on humor (Evil Dead) AE has some deliberate jokes added in (Evil Dead 2) and MO is (in my opinion) the funniest of the series. (Army of darkness.)