We analyze the port of the most curious game of the Oddworld license.
Many years have passed since Stranger’s Wrath went on sale. Everything was going against this game: it was a delivery of the Oddworld license that had little to do with Abe's adventures; EA distributed it, something not very common; and finally, it was exclusively for the first Xbox. An author cocktail, different from what we were used to – although it was not the first Oddworld for the Microsoft console – that yes, maintained an identity sign within the particular universe directed by Lorne Lanning: it was a great game. And it continues to maintain many of the virtues of yesteryear, although it is no longer the same.
One of the great setbacks that Stranger had, the name of the protagonist of the game, is that it came completely in English, and not a simple one. This could throw back more than one in Spain, and rightly so: dialogues, accents, references and jokes difficult to catch were a constant. Also a small delight for those who could understand. Luckily this changed a posteriori, with the arrival of the HD version that we could see on consoles such as Playstation 3 and PS Vita. Also on PC and even on mobile. With an added: the translation in what subtitles refers that we always ask. Now get to Switch.
Third and first person action
What exactly is Stranger’s Wrath? Basically we are facing an action game that combines the first and third person in the middle of a Far West imagined within the Oddworld universe. The protagonist is Stranger, a bounty hunter who needs money for a life or death operation. To get the paste, he is responsible for stopping all kinds of criminals scattered around this world full of NPC in the form of unfriendly chickens and monsters armed to the teeth. With about 10-15 hours, depending on whether it is your first time, we will navigate in a classic world structure with its cities and shops to collect new orders, improve our equipment and chat with some character, and open areas that take us to camps and locations with enemies and the final boss on duty.
It is precisely its traditional structure, but usual when it came out in the middle of the first decade of the 2000s, which makes it maintain some charm at a time when open worlds are legion. Retaking the world of Stranger’s Wrath on Switch is comforting, because although it is very classic, it is well planned and has a vocation to scale up in challenge and size as we move forward.
The first hour is still groping, with three contracts to solve more or less quickly. It is to get us the game. Then comes the good, from the second town, of locations such as a huge pipe area to go through and bases of operations full of the most varied enemies. There begins to emerge a game that had a 9 -more than deserved- in Meristation and that although in the middle of 2020 it offers stifled things, it maintains the type.
There are three key factors to understand why it became one of the great games of its time. The first, the originality in the combat system. Stranger is equipped with a crossbow that has many variants in the form of ammunition: basically they are insects and animals that we find on the stage. Zapplies, light ammunition that is infinite and always accompanies us; fuzzles, a kind of bug that emits sounds and attracts enemies wherever we throw them; thudslug, powerful long-distance ammunition; Bolamitas, spiders that catch the illegals with a cloth; stunks, skunks that leave a smell that bursts several enemies at once and several more, such as boombats (bombs) and stingbees that work like a submachine gun.
All this arsenal is necessary because it allows us to draw strategies of various kinds. We will find enemies armed with shotguns, snipers, other giants with almost indestructible armor, small dogs (or whatever) of prey that come in pack … And each ammunition has its function. The puzzles can be put in a specific place so that those who wear armor go there, activate a device and drop a mechanical arm crushing them against the ground, for example. When several enemies come at once, skunks allow them to stop and pass quickly. And so with everything. With the addition that it is better to leave the enemies stunned and hunt them – they are absorbed as if Luigi’s Mansion were treated – alive than not dead, since the reward in the form of money is greater in the first case.
The same goes for the final bosses, who have much more life, more powerful weapons and crush us more easily. The other great key element is the use of the first and third person, a very agile way of playing. We aim in first person with great precision, and more thanks to the gyros to finish specifying where we aim, something usual in Switch. And the third one is used for platform training, running, hitting melee and exploring around us. Finally, his third point in favor is the general tone of the adventure: Stranger is stubborn and moody, the enemies are bigmouths and the NPCs are also quite special. It is a particular world that makes you sketch more than one smile.
The development throughout its different missions grows with more extensive platform areas, with small puzzles with switches – less but present – and new enemies that appear before us. We ended up with a varied arsenal as few, with a number of enemies on the screen and with a difficulty not negligible in "normal". It is true that time does not pass in vain, and controls such as the camera fail more than the account, the jump and double jump system is much less precise than we remembered and its approach does not hide great surprises beyond growing in scale, But still very entertaining.
A Switch version with just
The Nintendo Switch version, in addition to adding motion control to aim and the camera, arrives with subtitles that do not cover the dialogues that exist in the villages or what Stranger says while we play with him, only the kinematics (something that the distributor has told us that it has a patch on the way), offers options of antialiasing FXAA, MSAA or nothing and choose between the interface of 2015 and that of 2019. Little thing. Unfortunately, we have detected some framerate dips at certain times when the camera opens in large stages, something that does not affect the shootings throughout the game but it is surprising that this happens taking into account that the game already has your years Among the extras, being able to relive the video scenes and unlock different conceptual arts.
CONCLUSION
Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath was a great action game when it came out and although time does not go in vain for anyone, in 2020 it continues to maintain the type. The variety and originality in what ammunition and shooting options are concerned is one of its assets, as well as the original Far West in which we find ourselves and its particular protagonist. Agile in its action on horseback between the third and the first person, it remains an intense and fun proposal from beginning to end. Unfortunately, the Switch version arrives without relevant developments that invite you to replay it if you already had it in its original version or its HD revision, it maintains some errors such as certain technical problems and there are elements that have not aged as well as the rest.
THE BEST
- Original ammunition and shooting system: a varied and surprising arsenal
- It is still a great action game that mixes first and third person
- How scale in challenge and size in the second half of the game
WORST
- Some elements (platform, interface, certain mechanics) have not aged quite well
- You have some technical problems at certain times
- No news for those who have already enjoyed it at the time
Good
It meets the expectations of what a good game is, it has quality and does not present serious failures, although it lacks elements that could have taken it to higher levels.
