Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath Review (Xbox)

I wasn't a huge fan of the Oddworld series when I bought this game. I'd bought the previous title (Munch's Oddysee) about three years ago and wasn't terribly impressed. It was an average platformer with a decent story and interesting characters, but other than that, nothing special.

So I started playing this game a little over a month ago, but I got bored after the first few towns. It seemed like a rip off of Red Dead Revolver without the Morricone score and silliness replacing the "cool" factor from that game. The humor was a bit immature to say the least and there wasn't much of a story to speak of: you're a bounty hunter, and you collect bounties.

This became rather repetitive after capturing a dozen or so outlaws, and I gave up, uninterested. Then when looking for a game to play, I figured I'd give it another shot.

Fortunately, the dullness of the gameplay wears off after the first half, and things pick up conciderably. Once all of your "live" ammo is upgraded, and you start facing bigger and badder enemies, it actually becomes a rather fun and entertaining shooter. The story picks up as well, and that's above average, too.

You might enjoy the game the whole way through. It's a possibility that I wasn't in the right "mood" to appreciate it, or I don't have the right sense of humor for the game.

The biggest draw for this game is the graphics. They're simply beautiful. Cutsceens are particually well done. The environments are detailed: even though most of it is barren desert, it still looks very nice. Water effects and character models (besides the Clackers, which look stupid) are great as well.

The gameplay is nothing particularly innovative, besides the use of "live" ammo that is actually alive. You can either buy the ammo in general stores in towns or hunt it yourself in the wild. "Hunting" here simply means finding and shooting, there's not much skill involved. Each ammo type has it's own effects on enemies; Bolomites tie up enemies, Thudslugs knock them out, Zapflies can knock snipers off ledges and activate certain switches. Using the ammo can be entertaining, and it's fun trying different combos of ammo types to find the most effective ones.

The sound and voice acting are decent, and it uses surround sound effectively. The same repeating tunes get kind of old, as do the Clacker's (the bastards) one liners when you punch them in the face and steal their money.

On the control side, there's nothing very innovative there. It's basically Halo and any other third-person shooter/platformer combined. I had a few camera glitches where it got stuck behind a wall, but these were minor and not really notworthy. Overall, the controls are pretty tight and get the job done.

All and all, I'd say this is a slightly above average game. Pick it up if you're looking for something to kill a few days with, if you can find it fairly cheap.