Oddworld Stranger's Wrath

"A great game, but it can get a little repetitive."

I never have been a huge oddworld fan, only having played the original, and got stuck on it early on. But, that doesn't mean I disliked it in anyway. So, I picked this up at blockbuster, because there wasn't much else, and I thought it looked pretty cool, and different then most First Person Shooter games. And I was right, this is much different then most FPS, most probably wouldn't even call it one to begin with.

Graphics: 10/10
To be honest, this games graphics really remind me of Fable, with all of the sun effects and towns. But, that's pretty much the only similarities your going to find between the other graphics. Character models are very well done, this game is on the edge of realism. All of the weapons effects were very nicely done as well. My only problem is that all of the bad guys look a like, just with different weapons and such. Technically this doesn't actually effect the graphics quality, but it does get boring fighting the same dudes all through the game, with very little variation, and the very seldom new enemy, that you never run into again for the rest of the game. Even the bosses look similar.

Gameplay: 7/10
Basically with this game, you play stranger, a guy with a medical problem collecting enough money to pay for it by bounty hunting. In third person mode, the controls are pretty basic. Except, to attack, you have to use the left or right shoulder buttons, which isn't a problem, it's just not what most people are used to. If you get stranger running, after a short while he'll get on all fours and start running like a dog, and he goes extremely fast. In first person mode, you use a crossbow, which holds two kinds of bullets at a time, each one uses with either the left or right shoulder buttons. The ammo types are really neat, Hornets used as a machine gun, Squirrels uses as bait, Spiders uses to wrap your foes in spider web, making them easy to bounty. The only real problem is though, the game gets repetitive, as I said before, enemies and bosses are really similar to each other, it's like only the enviornment is changing, while everything else stays the same. But, it still is a fun game.

Sound/Audio: 7/10
The voice overs are well done, they fit the humorous game. All of the bird characters speak like Hillbillies, and stranger speaks like a cowboy, except a stupid one at that, he needs 3 seconds to think of each word really. But then there's another problem with repetetivity, all of the bird characters sound the same, as well as the enemies, besides the bosses, which most normally have unique voices. But even with the bosses, I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same voice actor speaking in different tones. And the music is kind of bland, not horrible, but nothing exciting and cool.

Story: 8/10
The story is kind of slow moving, nothing like Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Slow however, but there are times when your like "Oh man, I have to bounty these dudes quickly, I need to find out what their talking about, or what happens next". I can't really tell you very much about the story without spoiling it for you, but I can tell you this game has a good sense of humor. I mean, the most I ever did was chuckle, but it's really rare to get even that from a game. Though of course, the fart jokes are really old, and I wish they would stop using those so often.

Overall: 7/10
This really is a great game, but if they had taken some effort into adding new things, such as enemies, and styles of playing the game, it would have been marvelous. But still, I congratulate them on making a unique game, with great graphics, and an above average but slow progressing storyline.

Buy or Rent: Rent
I beat it in a rental period, and once it's over, there isn't much left to do then. So definitely give it a rent instead.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/14/05