Pocket Change Play is taking on a retro role this week, as we revisit one of the greatest games to grace the Playstation 1 – the first in the Oddworld quintology. Having recently seen a HD remake in the form of New ‘n’ Tasty, the Oddworld franchise is looking up again after the long silence after Stranger’s Wrath. Having resided on the Steam platform for coming on 4 years, Abe’s Oddysee is currently at the tasty price of £1.99 – time to delve into the land of nostalgia and discern if this old gem still shines.
Well it does. If you missed Abe the first time round then you’ve got quite a lot of catching up to do. A blend of platformer, puzzle and adventure, the first Oddworld game is one of the best-loved and influential games for the original Playstation – and rightly so. The hilarious and quirky dialogue awards the game a charming sense of humour, enhancing a brilliant game experience. Truly unique allies and enemies coupled with dynamic backgrounds and the best cutscenes of the generation make the game a pleasure to look at today. The quality of animation for a game that uses sprites is astounding, further supporting Abe’s Oddysee as a visual triumph.
One element of Abe’s Odysseethat a lot of other games still fail to replicate is a real immersive atmosphere. The experimental and exquisite score works with the twisted and weird visuals to create a real sense of the game world. A foreboding adventure, the foundations built by the atmosphere support a game with one of the biggest learning curves in gaming history. You think Dark Souls was hard? Wait until you’re trying sneak past an aggressive slig for the fifteenth time with the last checkpoint ten minutes of gameplay earlier. The game can be beyond unforgiving at times, as it’s from a time before autosaves and manual saving, instead relying on infrequent checkpoints.
The game really does still stand up to many of todays games in terms of character, visuals, gameplay, sound design and overall story. This PC release’s main issue is control. While they take a short time to memorise and use, the controls are at times a little clunky for the speed and precision needed in some parts of the game. No official controller support doesn’t help matters either, so the end user might have to install third-party software to get the most of the control system. I also had an apparently common issue with the FMVs due to running Windows 8.1, but this is easily fixed by a community-made patch.
To conclude, go buy this game right now if you haven’t played it before. You can get both Abe’s Oddysee and Abe’s Exodus (it’s expanded and somewhat improved sequel) for £1.99 each. Fans of the weird and wonderful will not be disapointed.
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