Reviews Oddworld: Soulstorm – Zing

Oddworld: Soulstorm as a free retelling of the 22-year-old title Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus follows on from the remake of the first part of Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty. The Mudokon refugee Abe returns again to lead his brothers in the fight for freedom. Will he finally be able to settle the sinister Glucones or will his bones become the secret ingredient of the new drink?

• Platform: PS5 (reviewed), PS4, PC
• Date of publication: 6. 4. 2021
• Producer: Oddworld Inhabitans
• Genre: platform game
• Czech localization: born
• Multiplayer: born
• Data to download: 15 GB
• Game time: 20+ hours
• Accessibility: 12+
• Sales version: box and digital
• Price: CZK 1050 (free PS5 version within PS + in April 2021)

I’m Abe, I came to save you

Oddworld: Soulstorm starts exactly where the previous episode ended. Ab, a Mudokon worker in a “meat” factory, managed to free the slaves and thwart the plans of the evil boss Molluck. Together with their brothers, they are now fleeing the desert for a better life. In the back, however, in addition to the factory owner and his bodyguard (who preferred to lead the riot to the arson and set the whole farm on fire), they also have a new threat. Mudokoni begin to weaken and die of an unknown disease. So it is again up to Ab to become an unwanted hero and lead his people for salvation. A frantic ride full of train robberies, industrial sabotage and mystical prophecies awaits you.

The story of the game is told in the form of beautiful pre-rendered movies and snippets of radio news. The first pass through the game will take you about twenty hours. However, if you want to save all the lost Mudokons (for the best end and unlock the two giant final levels, you need to find at least 80% of them in each level) and get all the badges, this number can be very inflated.

Follow me! Okay.

Gameplay, the game pays homage to previous parts in the series. So you can expect a classic 2D platformer full of hopping and careful treading. The goal of each level is to find as many lost Mudokon as possible. They are hidden in often inaccessible or guarded places. Each rescue thus represents a unique challenge. But liberation does not end there. The main character is the embodiment of charisma and with the help of many detailed commands (consisting of the words “stop” and “follow me”) he must lead his followers to special escape portals. Navigating Mudocons workers is only the real challenge. There is nothing worse than cutting your giant drill over the last few meters into a giant drill that you missed, and you are faced with the choice to load the previous checkpoint or until the end of the level to watch a red cross reminiscent of your disappointment.

In certain levels you will be given the task to save several hundred groups at once. Each such rescue then remembers tower defense games, where you must strategically deploy your armed followers, cover the exits of enemies and repel their onslaught, while hundreds of Mudoons are frantically trying to climb to safety. If you manage to save everyone, you will be rightfully proud of yourself. If not, you always have the opportunity to try again and better.

In certain levels you will be given the task to save several hundred groups.

During his journey, Abe is not defenseless. Therefore (always if they are not close to the zeroing tower, or if the enemies do not have aluminum foil on their heads) you have the opportunity to use its telepathic abilities and possess the patrol guards. They can then turn their weapons on their comrades or control levers that you would not otherwise get to. Once you reach their usefulness, you can let them jump from a height, enter a fire or simply let them explode. Abe comments on each such death with a chilling chuckle, while the dying guards call their mothers in agony. And every time you realize that you are not locked up with them, they are locked up with you.

A novelty in the series is the system of inventory and production of items. Opening each locker and slipping through each ashtray will ensure that you always have something on hand to defend yourself. From the beginning of the game, you will often alternate juice bottles to light wooden doors / enemies and water bottles to extinguish them. In the end, you will be able to transform a firefighter into a flamethrower. You can also buy items from the ubiquitous vending machines, you can get money (very magically called Moolah) into them by returning the found glass bottles. It’s good to know that recycling also works in an alien world full of monsters and corporate villains.

Megalevels, beautiful views and frustrating passages

Within seventeen levels you will look at a mixture of caves, ancient temples, megalomaniacal industrial complexes or giant trains. The creators must let it be clear that even though the content of the individual levels is often very similar, their appearance is always unique. Unfortunately, by the end of the game, a certain repetitiveness is starting to appear and the last two levels are already clearly annoying. The game contains a number of very frustrating passages (I don’t want to see a crane ride in my life anymore!) And questionable level designs (levels taking place in complete darkness in caves), but as a whole it works quite well. Framerate maintains 60 fps most of the time, but from time to time there are strange twitches. Let’s hope the developers fix this in one of the patches. The control of Aba and the artificial intelligence of your followers is very old-school and will take a long time to get into your blood. Only one action button is used to open the door, operate the levers and everything else. So it often happens that Abe does something different than you need. There is nothing worse than when the main character starts searching the box, instead of hiding in it from the oncoming enemy.

The content of the levels is often very similar, but their appearance is always unique.

The game is presented in 2.5D style. So even if you are still running left or right, the world around you is modeled in 3D and you will often walk into the foreground or background of the camera. Unfortunately, the high quality of game movies is not transferred to gameplay, and the game is definitely not one of the titles for which you would buy a new console. However, the graphics are functional and especially the monumentality of some levels will take your breath away. The developers also at least partially won with the features of the DualSense driver. Abe’s sprint tapping is so nicely transmitted directly to your hands, the incantation line ups from the remote control every time you use telekinesis, and the lights start to flicker slightly when you’re near a secret area.

What we can definitely praise the developers for is sound design. You will fall in love with the Mudokon whistling and their tales every time you stop them. The music is reasonably depressing due to the environment and I often remembered Fallout and Fallout 2 in it. Dubbing of the main characters and negatives is also number one.