This game is the sequel to Oddworld: Abe's Oddysey.
The story begins right where Abe's Oddysey left off. Our mudokon hero, Abe, just saved 99 (if you were good enough to rescue that many) of his mudokon buddies. He's at a ceremony where he will be rewarded for his valiant efforts. He stands atop a small cliff looking down at the crowd of friends he had saved from being packaged into yummy meat popsicles. The head of their tribe pats him on the back a little too hard and he falls off of the stage onto the ground below.
This game is the sequel to Oddworld: Abe's Oddysey.
The story begins right where Abe's Oddysey left off. Our mudokon hero, Abe, just saved 99 (if you were good enough to rescue that many) of his mudokon buddies. He's at a ceremony where he will be rewarded for his valiant efforts. He stands atop a small cliff looking down at the crowd of friends he had saved from being packaged into yummy meat popsicles. The head of their tribe pats him on the back a little too hard and he falls off of the stage onto the ground below. While unconscious, he is visited in a dream by 3 ancestors who tell him about how the evil Glukkons (bureaucratic heads of the factory that
wanted to eat Abe) were forcing blind mudokons to mine the bones of their ancestors so they could use it as one of the many disgusting ingredients in a soft drink called "Soulstorm Brew". The ghosts of the ancestors weren't pleased with this, so they ordered Abe to do something about it.
So Abe and a few buddies head off to Necrum, where their ancestors are buried. Abe gets separated from his group and from then on he's alone. Now it's up to him to rescue 200 mudokons that have been forced into slavery, and try to shut down Soulstorm Brewery once and for all. Will he be able to do all this while avoiding Slogs, sligs, scrabs, and a slew of new enemies all after his demise?
Gameplay: This was the first game I had ever played with this style of gameplay. An interesting mix between puzzle, adventure, reflexes, and intelligence testing. Much in the style of the game "Out of this World". In this series Abe is able to possess enemies. Unlike in Abe's odyssey, when he possesses an enemy, the enemy isn't shot when he runs into another. Also you will need to coax your friends to follow you to the nearest exit. This won't be as easy as it was in the first part. You will come across emotional mudokons. There will be some that will be angry, depressed, "silly", blind, and sick. You must apologize, slap, and pray for all of them to get them to follow you. Not an easy task when you have trigger-happy Sligs at every turn.
Graphics: The game was all 2d, except for the animation. The environment was very vivid and the enemies and character concepts were very well thought out. The creators of this game have one broad imagination... The movement animations were smooth virtually glitch-less. The one thing that bothered me was that sometimes things in the foreground covered vital switches and levers. I liked how your mudokon buddies were shaded according to their emotion.
Sound: The music in the game set quite and impressive ambience. And it changed according to the situation you were in. You could tell if you were in the clear or not when running from Sligs just by listening to the music. I liked how if Abe was close enough to the edge of the screen, you could hear if there were any Sligs or other dangers in the next room. Another thing I enjoyed was that all of the characters had some sort of accent. To me it sounded like they were from New York or New Jersey, and the slang they used was rather entertaining to listen to.
Controls: They seemed really confusing at first, because there were so many buttons that you could press, including one for every sound Abe made. But I remember that just half an hour into playing the game it had all become second nature to me. The only thing that most people will have trouble with is the Speech buttons. For example, if you accidentally slap a depressed mudokon, he will attempt suicide. If you don't apologize quickly enough, he will die. But don't worry, it takes a good 15 seconds or so for him to die.
Overall: One of the best (only?) games I have ever played for this genre. It's guaranteed to provide hours of fun, especially when you find out how to possess enemies. The replay value is pretty high considering that once you beat it the first time around and find out you have left some friends behind (you'll never find them all the first time through) you will do your best to try to find them all and get the best ending. A feat which I have yet to accomplish myself.
I give this game 8 out of 10.
