Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus

"Abe has never looked better."

While it's the second Oddworld game in a row where Abe is the main character, Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus isn't a true sequel to Oddworld: Abe's Odyssey. The sequel will be arriving on the PS2 in the form of Oddworld: Abe's Odyssey.

But anyway, Oddworld Inhabitants clearly took an ''If it ain't broke, don't fix it'' approach to this game. Many parts of it are very reminiscent of Abe's Odyssey. For those of you who haven't played Abe's Odyssey, to sum it up, you go around trying to save Mudekons (strange-looking creatures) from evil forces, such as Sligs, Glukkons, and Scrabs (strange-looking enemies). Has it turn
ed out to be another great game, or are they wearing themselves out by overdoing the same formula ? Let's take a look.

Graphics: 10/10

In all honesty, I think that 2D gaming has graphically reached its pinnacle with Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus. The pre-rendered backgrounds are amazingly detailed. There's absolutely no slowdown to be found either, which is pretty impressive considering all the action that they managed to fit into one screen at a time.

The cutscenes will make your jaw drop. In addition to being beautiful, they're also quite funny. Seriously, there are a couple of CG Cinemas that you'd be hard-pressed to prevent yourself from bursting out in laughter, which turns out to be a nice relief from the extremely difficult gameplay.

Sound: 10/10

The music, though largely the remaining the same throughout the game, fits the setting very well. The sound effects are great, especially during some of the explosions.

But what really merits the perfect score in this category is the gamespeak function. You press a certain button combination, and Abe will let out some sort of noise, whether it be a greeting, a scolding, or a fart. His fellow Mudekons will react accordingly, usually talking back to you. Sometimes you'll even come across a situation where you'll have to take part in a simple conversation with one of the 300 Mudekons in this game that you're supposed to rescue.

Gameplay: 9/10

As mentioned before, you have to interact with different Mudekons in order to progress through the game. This leads to some puzzle-solving that needs to be done.

It starts out easy enough. For example, you walk up to two wandering Mudekons. You welcome them with a warm greeting, in hope that they'll cooperate with you. Then, you tell them to follow you. When you get to your destination, you tell them to ''work''. They immediately proceed to turn two wheels that are nearby, which opens a gate that you need to enter to make your way into the next section of the game.

Of course, this is just a simple example of the many different tasks that you need the other Mudekons to perform. You'll also have to deal with blind, sick, short-tempered, depressed, drunk, and even suicidal Mudekons, making matters a little more complicated.

Speaking of which, Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus is a very difficult game. Even more so than Abe's Odyssey. This is a huge reason that you're given the ability to save anywhere at anytime during the game. There's also a ''Quicksave'' option that will allow you to do the same thing, except that the data won't be saved into your memory card.

Replay value: 8/10

There's many secret Mudekons for you to find. It'll be pretty tought to find them the first time through, but after you get a hang of the game, you might want to try and find them later on. That will probably leave you occupied for a while.

Overall: 9/10

The few short-comings that exist in Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus, like the repetitive (albeit quality) or the (somewhat) short journey can be easily over-looked with everything else that this game brings to the table. Saving/instructing Mudekons can really become addictive, especially when you have some of the best-looking 2D environments ever made for your eyes to feast upon while you're doing it.

Rent or Buy ?: Buy!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/19/00, Updated 08/19/00