Oddworld: Abe’s Odyssey – New N’ Tasty Review

Oddworld: Abe’s Odyssey – New N’ Tasty is a completely remade game and is the new and improved version of the 1997 PlayStation hit game. First releasing on the PS4, Tasty has hit the PC shelves of Steam and players can now play the game on their home computers. Following the memorable character Abe a blue Mudokon with the ability to chant and cause portals to form from birds and turn into an avatar of his people’s god. Can such an old game being remade into the new age of gaming really stand apart amongst all the new ideas and IPs?

Story

The story follows Abe, one of the many Mudokons who are currently working, as slaves, in the RuptureFarms’ meat processing factory that produce plenty of food and snacks. Working as a somewhat happy employee, of the month, Abe stumbles across a meeting being held by the higher-ups about how sales are plummeting and their resources of food running low. A new plan is placed, to harvest the Mudokon populace working at the factory, all 299 of them, finding their tastiest parts for a new type of food to be sold.

Abe overhearing this runs for his life, not before getting seen however, and from then on he is hunted throughout the factory. From here the player takes control, running from the Slig guards of the factory and trying to traverse the dangerous work environments in front of him, including land and air mines, shin gnawing beasts and saw blades.

Abe soon finds out his chants can be used to help those in need, saving his fellow Mudokons from their workplace and chanting to open a portal from nearby birds. Saving as many as you can, or none at all can change the ending cutscene to great effect.

The game can be completed in around 6 hours, if you take the time to save all the Mudokons it is around 6-7, if you leave them alone it can be done in 5 or less, with speed runs equalling 3 hours or less.

Gameplay

The game’s controls haven’t changed much since its first release, though key bindings have moved around to allow for Thumbstick control. On the PC you can move Abe around, jump, climb up and down ledges, and interact with levers and going through doors as well as being able to chant to open portals. Besides those controls Abe can also use Gamespeak to talk to other characters in the game, similar to the Expressions in the Fable where you make a gesture or say 1 or 2 words, like telling people to follow you, wait and ordering them in single person or groups.

The majority of the game is a puzzle game, with platforming taking a much larger role as it progresses. Going around the different levels forces you to jump over pits and mines, press mines to turn them off and work out sequences on controls to change spike traps to bypass them. There are also secret rooms where Mudokons are working that you can save, behind electric fences, saw blades and Slig Guards. These puzzle rooms can start off easy but can become rather long and have multiple sections to them.

The game feels like half a fast paced platformer with slow sections of puzzle solving and half a Lemming simulator where you try and guide the slaves to the portal without them dyeing. The different sections of the game really break up the tension and action to the point where it flows rather nicely. Tense puzzle rooms where you need to run for your life can be followed by a slow and brain teaser level.

Overall Thoughts and Feelings

The music in Tasty takes a background roll, with rather simplistic tones to set the mood and make sure the environments are devoid of sound. Besides the music problems the sound effects are amazingly well done, from the futuristic machines to the sounds of the level loading screens. Explosions have weight behind them and the fight scenes between characters are made better by the quality of their shots.

The game has quite a few bugs; rather the bugs it has occur in the same places and are easily re-creatable. There are minor glitches like not being shot or enemies standing still forever to the game breaking ones like elevators not coming back and enemies spawning in the wrong places. These can detach from the immersion quite a lot, especially when it means a room is a lot easier than it should be.

The difficulty of the game is found within its puzzles and level layouts more than anything else, the mines and traps are all time based and can be overcome with trial and error. Platforms and patrols are what players need to memorise and find the best or only path to get through a stage. Hard Difficulty is the closest you will get to the original release and that is what I played the game on, the nostalgia really flowing. One hit and your head is the rule for a lot of the game.

Overall I give Oddworld: Abe’s Odyssey – New N’ Tasty a 4/5, it is a great re-creation of a classic and does well improving on the original release, with more to do and much better visuals to look at. There are some nit-picks here and there which do detract from the overall game and I feel some areas could have been improved a little more. Fans of the original will like this version hands down and players to the franchise will love the humour found in this little gem from the past.

Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.