For those who spent a chunk of their childhood with the original PlayStation, 1997’s “Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee” remains an absolute stone-cold classic of the platform. Skip forward 17 years (has it really been that long?!) and Abe’s Oddysee has been reimagined and re-invented for the Sony’s more recent machines. I got to go hands-on and have a brief chat with Alex Carroll of Oddworld Inhabitants to see how the game is coming along ahead of its release in July.
For anyone who hasn’t played an Oddworld game before, the game follows the titular Abe, a Mudokon who has been enslaved to wax floors in the evil RuptureFarms empire, tasked with saving the lives of the rest of his kind by liberating them from the fate of being turned into Tasty Treats by Molluck the Glukkon, the head of the farms.
“We asked our fans what we should do next, and the overwhelming response was to redo Abe’s Oddysee”, said Alex. The technology seemed to be far ahead enough to properly reimagine the original PS1 classic, with updated graphical and gameplay elements. “It’s a ground up ‘remake’ in the best sense of the word”, I was told, and all of the signs pointed to that being a very good thing. Elements from the later entries in the Oddworld series find their way into the game, such as Abe’s ability to communicate with multiple Mudokons at once, making things much more streamlined in the process of freeing your slave buddies.
All of Abe’s original abilities still exist, including the ever-hilarious “Possession” technique to control enemies. The puzzle element to the platforming seems to have remained largely intact, with the main addition on display during my time being steam grates to add to the traditional “Blackout” sneaking sections. Alex explained that this was solely down to the new semi-3D nature of the world, and that just “hiding in the darkness” wouldn’t look or work as effectively as they would have liked. Visually, the game benefits from being completely remade, rather than remastered. Everything looks crisp and the game runs at 1080p, RuptureFarms has never looked better!
Aside from the game being a solid remake, the standout feature during my playtime was the excellently implemented Quicksave feature. Simply press the PS4’s touchpad at any given moment and your position in the level will be immediately saved, with the position being recalled by holding it in for a couple of seconds. It became immediately useful, with some of the trickier platforms and craftier puzzles requiring a few attempts to get past.
With one of the most fondly-remembered platform games of the original PlayStation era receiving a lovingly crafted and community-driven remake, it looks as though Abe will be rekindling a whole lot of nostalgia and hopefully bring in a number of new fans as well when New n Tasty releases on July 23rd for PS4, with PS3 and Vita ports to follow, all of which will be cross-buy.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg8u2eOWkf8[/youtube]
