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Oddworld: Soulstorm Preview – The Oddworld Quintology Lives and It’s Prettier Than Ever
Lorne Lanning and the Oddworld Inhabitants development team did it their way. No big publishers. No rushed schedule. No creative compromises. The next entry in the always-planned quintology (take that, Alien Quadrilogy!) of Oddworld games is finally well underway after the studio voluntarily shut down in 2005, made a bunch of money from the old Abe games selling well on PC, reopened the studio, and funded the New and Tasty remake, which has led us here, to Oddworld: Soulstorm.
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Both the gameplay and especially the cinematics look like those of a game with four times the budget.
My first thought when getting a demo of Soulstorm from Lanning was how gorgeous it looks. It’s clear that the Inhabitants have a background in film, because both the gameplay and especially the cinematics look like those of a game with four times the budget. Speaking of those cinematics, I saw the opening one, which picks up near the end of the story; Soulstorm will then walk you back to the beginning of the tale, and you’ll eventually catch up to where you started. This adventure will chronicle the legend of Abe and his follower are escaped slaves – fugitives on the run – fighting from the brink of extinction.
It’s still a 2.5D action-adventure, with the ability to approach gameplay from a stealthy or aggressive avenue. You can see multiple layers back in the environment and see NPCs going about routines. And yes, you’ll sometimes get back to those other places as each level progresses. Weapons are consumer products redone into firearms, with Lanning describing them as a “candy shop of colors.” The entire plot of Soulstorm, in fact, revolves around Soulstorm Brew, an energy drink with a diabolical purpose that will mysteriously unfold over the course of the campaign. (Shout-out to Sunset Overdrive!)
Ammo, meanwhile, can have specially crafted traits that make them unique, like using more rubber bands on the jawbreaker to make it bounce enough to get into a nook in the environment, thereby distracting the guy guarding the switch you’re trying to get to that will, when flipped, bring a moving platform over to you. It’s all meant to add up to 12-15 hours on an initial playthrough, with up to 100 hours – Lanning’s words – to go back through and replay and collect everything and see all there is to see. Not bad for a game that’s aiming for a $40 price point!
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, catch him on Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.