I never had the original Xbox back in the day. I was more a Gamecube man who was actually just a PC guy that enjoyed the odd first-party Nintendo release. But I knew about the Xbox, how could you not at the time and the more mature world that is seemed to provide. I can still remember visiting a friend whose older brother got an Xbox and can still vividly recall booting up Halo and just sitting at the title screen in awe of the music.

Along the way, I mostly ignored the monstrous Xbox, but every time one of the gaming mags of the day talked about an Xbox exclusive, I took note. We were deep into a new console war, which coupled with the number of risks both developers and publishers were taking (Stranger Wrath was released by EA of all people) meant any idea was at least thrown at the wall.  Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath is one such exclusive that got a look a buzz for a lot of reasons.

Here was an Xbox exclusive of a series that came to prominence on the PlayStation. The Oddworld series made its bones on Sony’s first machine, so the team shifting over to Xbox was a big deal at the time. The game they released was an even bigger deal, something that I can still remember from gaming magazines of the time. Holding a Metacritic score of 88% reviews praised Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath calling it a near-masterpiece on the Xbox, with many even calling it better than Halo.

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Never having access to the game when it released, I never understood all the love but that didn’t stop me from wanting the game. There is just something weirdly alluring about Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath. A mix of third-person platforming crossed with an FPS that’s all wrapped in the weird atheistic laid out in the Oddworld series. It’s one of those high-concept sort of games that tried hard to do more than simply shoot, move forward, and shoot some more.

Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath came around when the FPS was entering its weird teenage years and was trying to find itself, fighting to grow from its Doom roots its dozens of clones. Call of Duty was throwing realism into its action, Chronicles of Riddick showed how to use the FPS genre in unique ways to tell a story, and Halo brought multiplayer into the mainstream. And right in the middle was Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath, a game that is as weirdly unique today as it was in 2005.

On the surface, this looks like a child-friendly adventure filled with animal-like creatures running about a pseudo-Wild West. But like the series it’s pulling from Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath is a very adult-themed shooter that tries to change standard FPS mechanics with ammo that you need to farm since it’s all alive and kicking. It’s a concept that is still as original in 2020 as it was in 2005. Wrap all this up inside a smartly written script that isn’t short on humor and you had something pretty special in its day.

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And while you’ll be hard-pressed to find a review of the time that’s under 90%, does the overall experience hold up in 2020 thanks to this new HD update on the Nintendo Switch? Well, its world certainly does at the very least. There is tons of dialogue, not just from the main characters, but from NPC’s who roam around towns. It would have blown my mind to see townsfolk talking about their day and interacting with each other on a console shooter back in 2005. And even today it makes the towns you visit feel more alive.

What doesn’t hold up so well is that voice work that leaves a lot to be desired. The Stranger talks less like a Wild West gunslinger and more like an aging boxer that has taken one too many hits to the head. Other characters are hit or miss and shows how far a sound director goes and how much that field has improved in such a small space of time. Thankfully the audio doesn’t take away from the overall experience, unfortunately, the actual gameplay sometimes does.

Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath tries to merge third-person and first-person into one cohesive element. It’s a unique approach to be able to instantly shift between both but the problem with this is that neither are fully fleshed out all that well and often fight against each other. Imagine if when playing Tomb Raider or Uncharted and when gunplay is needed you snap into first-person. It can be quite jarring and like two games crammed into one. Jumping is also clunky, the camera is slow to move and both gameplay styles just feel undercooked. I really wish I could have picked a style and stuck with it for my adventure, but the game forces you to switch back and forth.

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The core of Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath revolves around your crossbow and the ammunition that is very much alive. You can collect ammo by stunning small creatures you encounter throughout each level with each having some sort of unique property. Some stun, some kill, and some serve as traps and distractions. Your main goal is to collect on bounties and you are free to complete them how you see fit in each town. Kill them or capture them, although capturing them will net you more money and is the preferred way the game wants you to play. Capturing basic enemies will also net you a higher reward. But the ammunition can sometimes make this often a frustrating endeavor.

Some ammo might tie up an enemy while another serves as a lure to split enemies up or lead them to a breakable environmental object. Another might let you set traps and take out enemies quietly, something you should focus on doing as enemies love being altered and coming at you in droves. You might be a monstrous Mr. Eastwood, but you will fold in on yourself like a crumpled paper bag when surrounded. And this even with not having to worry about health pickups as you can simply tap a button to shake off all injuries based on how much stamina you have, of which refills ala’ Halo. The problem is that you need time for that and when mobbed it becomes almost impossible to heal.

It’s this combat system that plays with your traditional idea on an FPS. You can’t simply dive into enemies and unload death furry death on them. You need to scope out an area and see what enemies are in play before picking off stragglers and luring away tougher ones into traps and one-on-one combat. It’s a great idea and concept, much in the way Thief worked, but it often goes to hell because of having to jump back and forth between first and third person. What I’m trying to say is that Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath is harder than it needs to be and feels like you are often fighting against the game at the absolute worst times.

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It’s also strange that the crux of the game’s story isn’t trying to save to world, learning to love others, or collecting four crystals. Instead, it’s all about raking in as much cash as possible for an operation to save your own life. Not a bad idea in theory as your altruism comes from a selfish place making you a sort of antihero but remember that one feature of the Stranger is that he can shake off damage with the press of a button. I suppose he can shake off bullets ripping through his organs, but he can’t shake off magic space cancer.

Graphically, things on the Nintendo Switch are pretty nice overall. Back on an old tube television, I’m sure this game looked fantastic and thankfully the overall style still holds up. What doesn’t hold up in the texture pop-in and tearing all over the place. This HD update feels very quickly thrown together and it seems like it was just optimized to run on modern consoles from the PC version that already released. I make this assumption because of the Gama and Antialiasing options available in the option and the menu layout before the day one patch. It’s a shame because as you play you just want more from everything. You want it to look better, play better and just reach the potential laid out in front of the player.

As an HD update, I can’t really say much having never played the original on the Xbox. I feel like more could have been done as the graphics aren’t great and only saved by the styling. But even still, some features seem a little broken, or I at least never got them to work. In a tutorial you are shown a weapon that makes enemies puke, giving you time to pick them off. The problem is that never worked in the game while playing. Shooting a skunk bomb simply left a green cloud near enemies, and even when hit straight on I never made a single enemy puke.

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Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath is full of so many great ideas and concepts, enough to warrant this HD version for fans of the game, but I would have loved to see a remake of the game instead so the team could fix some gameplay issues and better expand on the overall weirdness of it all. I think if you loved the original you are going to really dig this HD remaster but if you missed this one the first time around you might find yourself hating the experience because of how different it plays. Maybe it’s just that I missed the boat on this one in 2005 and so without the attachment of youth I see its flaws more profoundly. That said, I didn’t hate my times with the game. In fact, the more I played the more I fell in love with it.

I began to learn to leave behind a lot of what classic FPS titles have taught me. You can’t go in guns blazing because a few well-placed shots will end you. You can’t rely on a single weapon that you can upgrade endlessly as enemies react different to each ammo type. You can’t unload on enemies without a care in the world because ammo management is key.  Can’t, can’t, can’t. But once you begin to understand the mechanics at play something special happens. You start becoming invested in what is happening; you start thinking about your actions and what strategy you’ll employ around every corner.

For a game as unique in concept and style as Oddworld: Stanger’s Wrath what is a shame that it all just boils down to collecting bounties. You make money bringing baddies in until you clear a town and then move onto the next town and repeat ad nauseam until it all ends. Even the bosses scattered about don’t help break things up as much, especially when the difficulty spikes all over the pace and at weird times. That said, the game has got style in droves but that FPS/third-person gimmick ends up handicapping the game, especially when you realize either style could have worked on their own for the entire experience. Oddworld: Strangers Wrath would have been an amazing experience in 2005 and in 2020 it’s still a good game with a unique styling all to its own, but one that shows how spoiled we’ve become since.

Oddworld: Strangers Wrath is as unique in 2020 as when it released back in 2005

Final Score: 3.5/5

*Review code provided for this review*

Game Details:

Platform: Nintendo Switch

Category: Action, Adventure, First-Person

Publisher: Oddworld Inhabitants, Inc.

Developer: Oddworld Inhabitants, Inc.

Release Date: Jan 23, 2020

Price: $29.99

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