Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee

With a HD remake of this game being announced just days ago and the fact I've been replaying it, there's no better time than now to write about the masterpiece that is Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee.

Voiced by the ever-wonderful Lorne Lanning, Abe is a Mudokon on planet Oddworld, and slave at the Glukkon-owned, Slig-patrolled RuptureFarms. All you need to know about that is in the name.

With the plant having butchered many species to extinction for its obscure range of cakes and pies, Mullock the Glukkon (who looks like a bat) conceives a perhaps short-sighted way to drive profits back up; slaughter the workers! When Abe accidentally hears of Mudokon Pops, he goes on the run and must save the ninety-nine other Mudokon workers (if you want the good ending, that is), brave Scrabania and Paramonia (homes of the Scrabs and Paramites respectively), become the Shrykull and face Mullock.

This title is nothing short of a masterpiece. It will make you laugh, frighten you, tax your brain and teach you about industrial dangers. I'm pretty sure I have to thank Abe's Oddysee for my childhood intelligence; that's some intense problem solving!
The game dates back to 1997 as part of a planned quintology, but I don't believe it has aged at all. It's still just as enjoyable and almost everybody I meet has fond memories of it. The endearing yet intimidating enemies are clearly based upon human hands. My favourite ever aspect remains the Gamespeak. Holding L1 or L2 down and combining with other buttons allows Abe to emit a range of phrases and whistles to communicate with other characters. There is a button for farting. For a practical purpose. PRACTICAL FARTING! Holding L1 and L2 together prompts Abe to chant, for a variety of purposes. Open bird portals to free workers, blow things up, possess objects or enemies and enjoy their Gamespeak (and the groovy beats that never get old), or just because you enjoy the sound.

YouTube user LoStraniero91 is a genius who has flawlessly highlighted the wealth of secret areas, many of which I've still managed to miss.


The gameplay is difficult and the interface not always straightforward, but it remains a breath of fresh air. If you need your objectives to be clearly-defined and a pre-determined path on which to travel, you may not enjoy Abe's Oddysee. In my opinion, triumphing the tricky parts is immensely rewarding. The game seems to be designed so that you need to die several times to figure out what to do. Of course Abe doesn't really die per se, rather, the sacred birds put him back together and drop him back at the previous checkpoint.



You may not agree with the placement or sparsity of some checkpoints, however. Can there be any criticism of this beloved game? Well, yes. You can remember a whistle pattern while dodging bombs or something else complicated, slip up during something minor afterwards, and have to start the whole venture again. I find that when I load-up a save file on a given day, I can actually have gone back two previous checkpoints instead of to the nearest one. There are bugs in places and complaints of particular pulley lifts being missing entirely from many peoples' copies are not uncommon.

A separate block is taken up on the memory card each time you save, which is handy when you want to go back to your favourite areas, but more often than not it's just a hindrance to find out you're suddenly out of free blocks. Those of us attached to our old consoles know the difficulty and expense of obtaining extra memory cards when we don't want to delete our files. You can create virtual memory cards for PlayStation games on the PS3, but not while in the game. I do appreciate that the "are you sure?" menu requires you to press either the triangle or circle button, curbing gamers who rapidly press X several times without reading.

My other favourite in the game? ELUM! I want him.

The ambient soundtrack composed by Ellen Meijers is simply wonderful.



The scenic backgrounds throughout are pretty awesome. Paintings and distant carvings can provide clues.

The fact that Mudokons have four fingers didn't go down well in Japan, where it was taken as an insulting reference to the Burakumin, past subclasses of industrial workers in "tainted" lines of work who were often left with four fingers after related accidents.
The Mudokon model during gameplay was reduced to have three fingers. Another change was that of the Mudokon Pops, which were made to appear somewhat friendlier (I am a bad person for wanting mint ice cream when I look at this):

I'm amused by the rules side-scrolling planet Oddworld abides by. If the perspective was first-person, Sligs and Slogs twenty metres away would undoubtedly acknowledge and shoot you. But, in Abe's Oddysee, provided they haven't already seen you, you're safe as long as you're on a different screen to them.
I think we can easily relate to Abe. His limp-wristed and not-especially-fit demeanour make him identifiable with us. He's not automatically packing a weapon, knowledgeable regarding ammunition mixing or schooled in a variety of martial arts. He has to use his brain to defeat obstacles to his goals, and I think we as gamers like that about him. Plus he farts too and seems to pick up items with his testicles.

Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee deserves a place in your gaming collection. You'll go back to it time and time again, for as long as your machinery functions. It's great for revisiting on social gaming nights when everybody is giving somewhat hilarious input. Apparently I scream while being chased by Scrabs (though I'm not usually aware at the time).
Don't forget to check out the Guardian Angel FMV on the list at the end, and the concept art in the credits. I suppose it's not too terrible if you get the bad ending (aside from, you know, morally), as at this point in time we know there are sequels in which Abe is alive and well.
There are a few cancelled games based on the Oddworld universe that I hope they'll revisit. You can stay updated with the OddBlog, and of course, when I get hold of finished games I'll let you know.