Stranger's Wrath

[AwesomeMonstar]

I was very underwhelmed. It was a generic shooter with a gimmicky weapon scheme. Not nearly as fun, creative or inspired as Munch's Odyssey.

I did like the whole kill them or knock them out system of fighting bosses though

Not to say the game sucked, but much less inspired than what came before it. The game dropped a LOT of the things that made Oddworld games so unique and memorable.

Really, I just can't agree with you. The whole approach you take to enemies, the skulking around you do before you go in for a kill, and hell, the western atmosphere, all gave this a very unique feel that I thought worked fantastically. It wasn't the collect-a-thon that Munch's Odyssey boiled down to.

Skulk around? This game isn't a stealth game. You take some hits, find cover shake off the bullets and go back in. It's like playing Halo. The weapons are your standard shooter fare, they just happen to look like cute animals.

What about saving people and keeping them alive to build up your karma? What about actually having to interact with people to get them to help you with combat, puzzles, etc? What about that sense of community that Oddworld games had? What about the puzzle solving? What about mind controlling people? Stranger's Wrath had absolutely none of those things

Stranger's Wrath is NOT an Oddworld game. I refuse to acknowledge it as such. Which isn't to say I didn't enjoy it all, but it was a let down overall. Munch's Odyssey wasn't perfect, but at least it had the Oddworld spirit. Stranger's Wrath feels like a disappointing spin-off to me. It got so repetitive. There were no gameplay surprises along the way at all, which previous games had. It's just go to town, get bounty, shoot a bunch of people, collect bounty.

I can't seem to remember any other games with weapons that make your enemies vomit, get wound up in a web, create a vacuum, etc... You also clearly didn't finish the game, seeing as you spend half of it away from town and out of the western persona. Sure you could take the run and gun approach, but the game didn't exactly endorse it. Why do you think you could stay hidden in the reeds? Why were the battlegrounds so open and vast? Why do you have ammo created to distract other enemies? Simple, the creators wanted to give you another way to approach a problem, other than the standard run and gun fare. Sure, puzzle solving was rare and easy, but the developers wanted to stray away just from what you said. They had been doing the same thing for around 6 games then, They wanted to make a *different* game. I understand you don't like the game but all because it didn't follow your typical oddworld formula isn't a reason to discredit it.

[Gamerforlife]

For the record, I DID finish the game, and no you do not spend half of it outside the town. That's like the final act of the game. It's after the big reveal about what your character really is and he gets chased out of town. There's not much game left beyond that point. I could point you to any faq on Gamefaqs.com that shows that there's maybe 30% of the game left at that point. The majority of the game is exactly what I said it is.

Not much changes even then, it's still your basic shooter

Maybe it's because I've played other shooters with creative weaponry and items prior to Stranger's Wrath(like Armed and Dangerous and MDK2)so I wasn't that impressed by the weapons it had to offer. Even Halo had some cool stuff like the Needler and plasma grenades. Stranger's Wrath needed more than a gimmicky weapons system to get my attention and it just didn't. The game did very little I hadn't seen before and it seemed like the developers thought the gimmicky weapons were all the game needed to stand out. Munch's Odyssey had more to offer gameplay-wise than ONE gimmick.

It also had a FAR more interesting world with a greater variety of characters who who actually DID things instead of just meandering about town saying the same things over and over again.

I did get a few laughs from the game, the story had some heart, and being able to capture bosses alive was interesting, but other than that SW was pretty lightweight for an Oddworld game, and there were other third person shooters out at the time that had more to offer.

On its own merits, I'd say the game is okay. I'd give it a 6 or maybe even a 7. However, I don't think it stands up to other shooters of the time and it most certainly doesn't stand up to the series' own legacy. When compared to Munch's Odyssey or the PS 1 Oddworld games, Stranger's Wrath feels particularly uninspired. I suppose the quality of the other Oddworld games made it hard for me to love Stranger's Wrath. It just wasn't as good and taking the Oddworld franchise and turning it into a shooter was just a stupid idea to begin with. That seems to go against everything Oddworld games are about in the first place. Whose moronic idea was that?