*Spoilers*Stranger's Wrath*Spoilers*

[typhonblue]

***Spoilers warning! Don't read unless you want the game completely, utterly and incontrovertably ruined.***
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/begin Spoiler Space
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Spoilers ahead!
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I'm not kidding, definate spoilers!
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***/end Spoiler Space***


I'm new. Hooyah!

I've been playing oddworld games since I got an intro to the series in MO, which I loved. However... I have to say that Stranger's Wrath is considerably better.

I just finished it today and I loved nearly every bit of it... from the game play, to the unbelivable graphics... everything but the voice acting(except for Stranger's). I could handle the monotony--mostly-- till Fredya Evrting opened her grub mouth and sounded exactly like all the other supposedly male grubs. That one thing threw me right out of the story. I managed to get right back in of course, but... still.

But what really made it one of the best games I've ever played were the characters. And by characters, I mean Stranger.

Somebody suggested Stranger was stupid. I don't agree. Just because he talks slowly and carefully doesn't make him stupid. In fact I got the opposite impression, that he was a very quick thinker. ***Final Spoilers Warning*** The scene where he's confronted with a bounty on his own people... he doesn't even blink, just continues on with his bad-ass bounty hunter routine, even though he's facing death and the genocide of his race. That kind of control is not the mark of someone stupid. And it did affect him; there are hints of it all throughout the phone call to Sekto, and after.

A reviewer on another site said Stranger was unsympathetic. (Due to the monotone voice acting, apparently.) I don't get that either. His is a profound spiritual story, told very subtly. He can't allow himself the luxury of emotional displays. He's constantly on guard just to survive. Several times during the cut scenes he's about to break down, and catches himself. That speakes more to me then hysterical gnashing of teath, rending of hair and wailing would. Definately a complex emotional character.

It's also nice to see OWI add a bit of sex appeal to their characters. *squee* I'm a complete fangirl when it comes to that.

Speaking of fanish glee... I thought the funniest scene in the whole game was when Sekto's Wolvark Hunter was thumbing through the details of Stranger's operation and came to the page after the main part of the proceedure was illustrated. Eye-popping double take, cue music... "D'oh?!?". Makes me wonder what was on that page, particularly since the gist of the operation was obvious from the prior page. Maybe some details on soft tissue reassignment/reconstruction the good doc had to do?

The phrase "hung like a steef" comes to mind.

Hee hee...

Anyway, hi! Hope I don't get torn apart for my spoilers.

[LawnChairFire]

One of the things I appreciate the most in games are great stories and great characters...
OSW is another notch to the belt of quality OInhabitants possesses, but I still cling to Exoddus as my favorite fold to the series. I didn't quite feel the Stranger's struggle in the game until he's de-pantsed, and Raider has that great line: "You think you can be one of us? You think you can be normal?!"
But to be honest, the Grubbs struggle was never as evident to me as the Mudokons were in the first two parts of the series, you saw them chopped up, their eyes stictched close, their homes destroyed, their spiritual comrades slaughtered...
In OSW, the Steefs are gone, with no reflection on the matter, the same with the Grubbs...sure, both species are bad off now, but I never felt like there was a point where I could at least feel their pain, and though the pain is in actuality unimaginable, the point of a great story is to communicate emotions across a spectrum. The final scene was beautiful, and to recover some unused spiritual points they quoted Luther of the Sioux, which was a beautiful and inspired touch.
And as interesting as the Stranger was, the game needed more CGs for character development...
Auron, Revolver Ocelot, Kain, Faust, and Abe...those are the characters in videogames I appreciate the most...
All in all, OSW is/was a beautiful game, and hopefully the next one, whatever it may be, will have more character introspection, an aspect I've felt has been sorely lacking in the latter half of the series...but hey, that's me, and I love the series to death, faults or no...

[typhonblue]

One of the things I appreciate the most in games are great stories and great characters...
OSW is another notch to the belt of quality OInhabitants possesses, but I still cling to Exoddus as my favorite fold to the series. I didn't quite feel the Stranger's struggle in the game until he's de-pantsed, and Raider has that great line: "You think you can be one of us? You think you can be normal?!"

Oh, I agree. Up to that point he seems so together and strong, it's hard to feel much sympathy for him.

However, I have to say the de-pantsing has to be the most powerful moment I've ever experienced, definately in games, and quite probably in film too. Seeing him humiliated and defeated... made me feel ill.

The scene right after that would have to be the most emotional bit of game-play I've ever experienced. I felt Stranger's vulnerability, fear and pain as he was running half naked through town.

But to be honest, the Grubbs struggle was never as evident to me as the Mudokons were in the first two parts of the series, you saw them chopped up, their eyes stictched close, their homes destroyed, their spiritual comrades slaughtered...

It's definately a different story. I don't think the Grubb's struggle was meant to be the centerpiece of the story. They were undergoing hardship and being slowly destroyed... but their culture was still somewhat intact and they were strong enough to resist.

I think it was Stranger's emotional struggle that was meant to take center stage. Having too much Grubb suffering would have taken away from that.

All in all, OSW is/was a beautiful game, and hopefully the next one, whatever it may be, will have more character introspection, an aspect I've felt has been sorely lacking in the latter half of the series...but hey, that's me, and I love the series to death, faults or no...

I don't think OSW lacked character development or introspection. It was just very subtle, and it had to be, because it wasn't about external oppression, but internal oppression. Stranger is a bad ass, there's no doubt, and he can manage in physical situations that Abe would never be able to cope with, but he has no sense of belonging, no feeling of purpose or future. Abe had that, even if he was dealing with almost impossible physical obstacles to achieving his goals. In other words, I don't think Abe ever felt *he* was the problem; it was always something external.

For me Stranger's despair came through very strongly. He was willing to destroy himself to survive. That's the end result of some pretty intense social preassures, and to be willing to go under a Vykker's knife *shudder* to do it... To go from that kind of desperation and self-loathing... to accepting himself and finding a place, was a character arc that touched me very deeply.

Of course it might also be personal taste. I prefer strong characters with vulnerabilities to weak characters with hidden strengths. If I had to choose, that is.

[LawnChairFire]

Oh I saw all the things in him that you describe, but I sometimes like the characters to know it as well, and he never really succumbed to all the emotions in himself, the way his life is going, he likely never will, he has lives under his shadow now, the sin is gone, but the job remains...
I could tell he felt his pain, especially when the Clakkers, the only things he could really talk to(sad to say) turned on him, thought him a beast...in that moment, I let him give in to the sin the game's title proclaims, I hit them...hard, but I continued to flee, and felt no better, this rage directed as such was no solution, a new road had to be found...
In the end, Stranger still has some things to work out, and I wish him well...

[Dipstikk]

I could barely keep from laughing when I read "Hung like a steef."
Very nice write-up, bu the way.

[Ghast]

I loved the depansed scene too and thought the story arc suddenly made excellent sense BUT wondered what the 8000 mollums I had saved were for or why capturing em alive was stressed if there was no reward for it.

OSW is about killing and it gets wearisome IMHO opportunities were missed, instead of rewarding armor it should have been sought for in sacred caves etc, and the boxes of ammo made not sense at all really broke the mood when there was already too much ammo around just from capturing it?

[typhonblue]

I think with any masterpiece there are always ways of making it better. But as far as I'm concerned if it stirs my soul, it's good *enough*.

Everything else can be chalked up to life being a process not a goal.

[Volsung]

The boxed ammo was a little wierd, but it was kind of interesting. I mean, you free a bunch of animals, scoop some up, and fire them at your enemies. Either there's a general use for all of those animals besides ammo, or somewhere out there there are more "people" using live ammo. I bet they're all edible.

[MojoMan220]

BUT wondered what the 8000 mollums I had saved were for or why capturing em alive was stressed if there was no reward for it.

I think of it like this... You are suppose to feel the way Stranger does when he realizes all his hard work was for nothing. If you knew there was no reason to bounty the bad guys in the beggining, people would have rushed through the game killing everything and not using strategy. You were suppose to be the stranger, his future should be unknown to him and the gamer. I feel like OWI really wanted to play with the audience, and I think this was very intensional and clever. That is why Lorne stressed that it was better to bounty them alive then dead. He was speaking as if he was playing the game before the twist. I think this really helped with the shock when you find out the game is something completely different. To say there was no pay off, I feel is a bit premature, I don't know about you, but my experience with the game was a lot better, because I took my time and tried my best not to run through with guns blazing. I wanted to get enough for the operation, and I was shocked, just like Stranger that it would never happen.

[tsioc]

I agree with Mojoman...

a similar moment, where OWI sort of plays with you, or at least I think they did... right after the depantsing, you have no weapons, and no real reason to go into 1st person. You spent so much time getting used to seeing Stranger with two legs, now all of a sudden you realize what he is, and you are almost forced to play in third person, running away from the area. I felt like they were trying to MAKE me look at Steef, making me accept what I was, instead of letting me hide from it in 1st person mode. At that moment, I still felt the shock from the de-pantsing, and them making me run away like that, looking at myself, made me feel even more vulnerable. Of course THAT made the moment when I met the grubbs as Steef all the more memorable.