Oddworld Stranger's Wrath HD - Review

Let’s be honest, there is no series quite like Oddworld, the series has games in multiple genres, but apart from the Oddworld name in the titles, could easily be individual titles and no game captures this effect better than Stranger’s Wrath, and now 15 years after it released on the original Xbox it comes to Switch, but is it worth playing today?

Stranger’s Wrath tells the story of the Stranger, a bounty hunter who dislikes guns, which is again a little odd, but the Stranger is suffering from a mysterious medical condition and requires an operation to live, thus the hunting for bounties. Stranger starts out in the small town of Gizzard Gulch, capturing the outlaws that live near the town and are causing them chaos, but when one of the brothers of those captured destroys the town in order to free someone, the Stranger moves onto Buzzarton. It is here where you are given a mission to rescue a Clakkerz, the chicken like folks that live in the towns and when you save him, he gives a little more information on a race called the Steef, which are have said to been protectors of another race, but since been wiped out. Soon though, what appears to be legend is revealed to be true and that the Stranger is a Steef; this of course changes the course of the game as Stranger has gone from the hunter to the hunted.

The story is interesting in that it takes a bit to get going, given the way that you can tackle bounties in any order you want, and it does provide some interesting moments, but given that the only creature that looks like Stranger is a large statue, that is shown when the Steef are explained, removes the suspension about who he is. Of course, what sets the game above the rest, especially for when it was first released is that the game is part shooter and part platformer and swaps between the two on the fly, depending on the need of the game at any given moment. When you are in the first person mode, you will have your crossbow out, which is something unique to the game, not a crossbow itself, they are in many games, but the ammo that you use, as the Stranger dislikes guns, you will not be firing bullets, but critters instead. While the ammo might be live, they all have singular effects, like the chipmunk looking critter that makes a lot of noise, which can lure enemies to it.

Other choices are the zap flies, which when left alone on the bow, will charge up with electricity, perfect for stunning enemies, or triggering a trap or two. There are a number more to discover and each has something unique to it and apart from the zap flies, the rest must be captured on their own, or bought, you can’t just run over a collection of them on the ground, you need to locate them, incapacitate and then pick up and that same sequence applies to the baddies. As a bounty hunter, there are two ways you can bring folks in, dead or alive and while the latter pays better, the former can be easier. Should you wish to bring your bounties back alive, you will need to knock them out, or capture them first, which will allow you to suck them into your wrist mounted capture device, if they are dead you can still do that as well, you just get less for them. The basic enemies are worth less than the larger ones, but the main targets are worth the most, something that is quite nice when it comes to shopping. The problem is that there are times when the number of enemies on screen is just too great for Stranger to take on, meaning that killing them is the best option, which limits your amount of moolah to obtain.

As each enemy has a number of shots they can take before they are killed, you need to attempt to pick them off quietly, as capturing them takes some time and if you don’t get to them while they are stunned, they will get back up, but thankfully the shots don’t reset. As Stranger can only take so many shots, before he himself falls, you need to balance things out and while you can buy armour upgrades, which in turn give you more health, but even with those upgrades, there is still a limit to how many shots you can take before you fall and when there are more enemies around you then you can easily take on, it highlights the games flaw in terms of the shooting mechanics. While Stranger is great in a one on one, or even a one on two fight, when you have to take on a wave of enemies, you will easily get overwhelmed and most of that comes down to how aggressive the AI can be, even if you pull back, lay down a trap or two, the enemies will still come at you.

The other issue that I had with the game is that the platforming is clunky as heck and never works as intended, not only can Stranger barely jump, the times when it is required can be frustrating. When you’re in the first-person perspective, there are plenty of times when you can look like you will be able to make an easy jump, but that is proven to be wrong. In order to make it, you need to be in the third-person view and then you can do it, but that is of course assuming that you jump right. As you can swap between the views at will, that is not a problem, the issue is purely down to the jumping feels like your character is always jumping in deep water, no matter where they are. Speaking of swapping viewpoints, the game will automatically remove you from first-person, should you be capturing someone, climbing a rope or such, but the issue I had with it, is that the game never puts you back in, which is a bother more than anything.

An aspect that looks great most of the time is the games presentation, there is no denying that the world has a charm about it, thanks to the wonderful art design. The look that the developers settled on back in the early 2000’s was clearly worth the effort, as it still holds up today, there were times when I would just stop and look at something, because the design was just so good, plus the fact that you can view some of the concept art helps as well. The first time the game got the HD treatment, everything was plussed up then and it looks just as good now, most of the time at least; the times when it looks hinky comes down to the larger spaces. There is a weird loading thing where there is a ring around the Stranger where everything that is outside of it, at least in terms of world detail is not present, but as you move forward, it pops in, which ruins the effect. In the more confined locations this is not an issue, as you don’t often see that far ahead, but as the game has a number of open spaces, including the towns you will see it quite often. The games visuals also look great when running in portable space, I didn’t notice any issues with performance or such, but that same radius issue was still there.

The audio is a mixed bag, the sounds from the effects to the voices, all come through nice and clear, running on dirt or steel and you can hear the different, fall from a great height and the impact sound is clean. The games music is extremely western inspired, and you will either like it or not, the upside to it is that it rarely stands out, only really calling out during critical moments. The voice acting, is perhaps the weakest link, when the game first released, it might have been ok, but now we have received some truly wonderful performances, so stepping back in time, so to speak is odd. The issue comes down to the fact that Stranger sounds like he doesn’t care and that is not the character, but the actor and most of the other voices are the same for each race. That was noticeable often, as leaving the store or bounty buildings would have multiple critters say the same line of dialogue, as if there was an echo in the town, which is just odd.

Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD is a solid game and while some of the gameplay parts have not aged as well as the games spectacular art design, it is still a fun game. The expectations of what an FPS can be are flipped, with the inclusion of live ammo and while the platforming is not as strong as it could be, there is still plenty to enjoy in this western themed adventure.