Soulstorm and the quirk of marketing

I don't know what game you're marketing...

It feels a little strange to be a dedicated gamer who isn't the biggest fan of platformers. Whereas the origins of gaming trail far further back than the invention of that genre, it's hard to deny that platformers were the first genre which really set the gaming world by storm. Every single company was desperate to follow the shoes of Mario and Sonic to get their own mascot in a platformer, leading to an almost 'FPS' in the 2010s' level of market proliferation. That's how we ended up with platformers featuring Gex the Gecko, Bubsy the Bobcat and- Aero the Acro-bat? (Who the hell?) In fact, even when I was young and getting into gaming there were a bunch of high profile 3D platformers dominating that still have a reputation to this day. You have behemoths like Banjo-Kazooie, Crash Bandicoot and Sly Cooper. But despite growing up in the middle of that and even dipping my toes into it, I never really resonated with that whole scene. (Again, my earliest gaming memories were infiltrating Shadow Moses as Solid Snake)

There is one glaring exception to this rule, and that came in the original Abe Game, 'Abe's Oddysee' which broke so many of the rules of that genre that it almost feels like a disservice to compare the two. Like many of the greatest games of today, Abe was a chameleon which hid it's true nature behind the presentation. Whereas to many it appeared to be a platformer like any other, those who partook knew Abe to be a puzzle game, because every screen was a puzzle. Whereas other platformers focused on the moment-to-moment action of slaying enemies, collecting tokens and finishing courses, Abe was a lot more methodical and delighted in showing players a screen full of challenges that they were tasked with identifying and overcoming. Sometimes solutions weren't so easy or robust as simply killing the enemy, because there were roadblocks in place to prevent that, so players had to be smart in their effort to keep as many Mudokons as possible alive.

All this was of course keeping in line with Abe's lore; following an escaped slave from a race of frail-looking humanoid creatures that seem pretty docile compared to every other dangerous thing on Oddworld. Abe and his kind endured the suffering and the hardship, only really suing for freedom once Abe finds out that all their work is for naught because their corporate overlords have decided to start eating them in order to drive up profits. (Because they had already driven every other race at their disposal to extinction) Abe and his people aren't a race of buff Bandicoots or Hedgehogs fitted with speed boots, (or just naturally fast, the lore changes on that one) they are weak, typically non-aggressive, and vaguely human; they're just trying the darndest to survive. Given that context it's easy to see why Abe doesn't exactly blend in with it's happy-go-lucky platforming contemporaries; it's a story about slavery and survival.

That being said, there's still a decent amount of gallows and toilet humour in order to disperse what would otherwise be pretty heavy air. So many visual jokes litter the world that play on corporate culture, bureaucracy and industrialism for the first era of the game alone, with even a good old-fashion nut-shot making it into the cutscenes inbetween. Abe's sing-song rhythming narration lends a storybook aspect to all the proceedings and the ability to fart on demand is a revolutionary gaming breakthrough that should be present in every game. (And before you say "That was a gameplay mechanic!" That was in 'Exodus', in 'Oddysee' it existed purely for comedic value) All of that just made for helpful dressing in such a dangerous world wrapped in a hopeless situation and punctuated by some truly horrific deaths. (Literally getting grinded in a meatgrinder for one of them)

These are all reason why I'm so sold on Abe's latest adventure in Soulstorm, despite having next to no information on the game itself departed from the trailer nor even really recognising Abe's soul at all from what I've seen. A lot of people have noted a tonal disconnect from the trailers and the content of the game, and I have to admit that even I'm a little thrown off. Watch all the trailers for Soulstorm, including the most recent, and you'll note a lot of epic music, French horns, and just the trapping of your usual overdramatic trailer; but then you'll catch moments of relief like hearing the Mudokons whine at the end in humorous ramblings. In some ways it catches the duality of the game's tone, but I think things lean a bit too much into the dramatic for most people's taste. Remember, these games aren't like Yakuza. It isn't a serious world with bouts of silly insanity. It's a serious-silly world; wrapped in absurdities and packed in horrific situations. It's a walking dichotomy, and I'm starting to wonder if the team is having trouble accurately marketing that. 

To their credit I think some of that confusion may be to blame on the main-stream attention they've been getting lately, wherein this newest game has been featured on official Xbox and Playstation events as a headliner. For a game that feels so in vein for what you'd see in an indie title, it's surprising that these companies would pay it the time of day at all, but I suppose that's the sort of pull that seniority buys you. It's easy to sell something easily defined, but Oddworld games have almost never been that and so you can understand the struggling confusion. All that matters, at the end of the day, is whether the game itself can live up to it's own predecessor's example, which is something that is hard to ascertain. I've said it before and I stand by it, I think the game looks too hectic for what this series was founded on, but I suppose they could be cherry-picking those crazy moments on purpose, I can't know for certain until I play it.

One thing is for certain, and that is the fact that Abe is back to continue his journey of salvation for his race. An apparent 6-part opera which has been on hiatus for almost 2 decades is finally getting back into the swing of things, and if they keep at this rate the Manga Berserk is going to wrap up before them. (For context: Berserk officially started in 1989 and will never end) From the latest trailer alone I'm excited to see the sides of Oddworld that we never got to see, especially given that the world has expanded sob much since those original games with the release of these games like Munch's Oddysee and Stranger's Wrath. Just remembering some of the wild concept art I've seen for this game, such as the 'queens' who run this wild world and whom are destined to make their appearance this game, get's me so excited. This is a world borne from that 80's dark fantasy weirdness and I'm so glad to see that from a conceptual level at least- none of that has been lost.

Oddworld Soulstorm has been enjoying coverage on a level that no platformer in it's shoes could ever expect, and as a fan I'm as proud of it as I feasibly can be. Although with that has come a few teething pains to which I attribute the strange marketing choices. Some may argue this is indicative of an impending loss of the franchise's soul, but to them I'll simply point out how the recent 'New n Tasty' got so much right, I don't think the storytellers behind these games are out-of-touch just yet. (I'll wait until they start pitching a billion-dollar phone-only streaming service before making those claims.) A few marketing roadbumps and quirky choices aren't enough to derail this hype-wagon just yet; though I would like just a single really knock-out trailer to cherish before release, if that's not asking too much. (What can I say? I'm a big trailer guy.)

Oddworld: Soulstorm!

"I just had to escape, I had to be free; and I didn't even know I had a destiny"

Enough of the baby stuff, okay? I putting an end to it all right now. Whilst the Playstation 5 event was resplendent with newborn IPs and teases about this infant console's capabilities, at the end of the day the reason I was there was to see the wizened, old franchises I loved from back in the day get continued. Yet even then I will readily admit that I did not expect to see this latest game at such a time, in such an event, or even at any feasible time in my entire lifetime. Not because I was unaware of it's existence, far from it, but because I'd seen the project literally be teased all those years back and have followed it diligently ever since. Every sliver of fan art, every twitter-reveal goal, every 5 second spanning breath of a cutscene was all appetiser for this; a childhood fascination revived all these years later. I watched the team pass event after event with either not enough content to show or not enough pull to get featured, and I convinced myself that this was just the kind of game that no one wanted to see other than me. Then, the impossible happened during the PS5 event; the studio logo melted onto screen and in that brief second we all knew that it could signal no other; Abe had returned. Here, during the biggest game-reveal event of the year, we were going to get to see the full trailer of 'Oddworld; Soulstorm'. (What a day to be alive.)

So what exactly is Oddworld and why is this new 'Soulstorm' game such a big deal? Glad you asked, me, so here's rub. Released all the way back in the deeply personal year of 1997, 'Oddworld Abe's Oddysee' was a surreal and twisted platformer which confused and delighted audiences, and me, with a mixture of adventure, puzzling, dark themes and surrealist humour. Even coming back to the title today, with two decades of playing video games behind me, it still stands out as one of the weirdest and yet best constructed platformers that I've ever played. It follows the tale of a Abe, an enslaved Mudokon who is accidentally thrust into the shoes of a liberator for his kind after stumbling onto a secret plot from his corporate overlords to amend their self-caused resource shortages by resorting to cannibalism. (Although, I suppose it's not exactly 'cannibalism' as they're not interested in eating each other but rather their Mudokon slaves.) What follows is a journey for Abe as he tries to survive the deadly world he finds himself on whilst solving various headscratching puzzles, freeing his fellow slave brethren and using his mind-control powers to force his pursuers to jump into meat grinders. (Fun for all the family.)

Many gamers have that story about getting into the habit by enjoying the activity alongside their parent(s), and for me that was not so much the case. I was just left in the same room as a controller and before you knew it I was playing 'Metal Gear Solid'. But I did get the chance to experience that chance of family game-bonding due to the robust 'Abe's Oddysee' world and the way it relied as much on player's ability to analysis and deduce as it did on their reflexes. (Although reflexes weren't entirely moot either; just ask that Paramite escape scene which I still have nightmares about to this day.) Me and my father played through the entirety of 'Abe's Oddysee' together and even reformed our team to tackle 'Abe's Exodus' too. (Yeah, I remember that game's existence; unlike it's creators, it would seem.) Those are the sorts of cherished memories that I wouldn't give up for all the Cyberpunk 2077's in the world and will likely be among the fond recollections that I pack up in the ol' head bank and take to my ultimate grave. (Whichever shallow highway that ends up being.)

As such, to say that I have been waiting for this game for a very long time is a supreme understatement. 'Oddworld Abe's Exodus' came out all the way in 1998, and I likely played it roughly ten years later, which means that I have been waiting about 12 years believing this entire franchise to be a relic of my past, never to be seen again. There was the odd title throughout the years, 'Munch's Oddysee' and 'Stranger's Wrath', but none of those caught that strange, even sometimes morbid, magic of those old classics. Imagine my distress to learn how literally no one else in the world that I've met has ever played or even heard of Oddworld, I felt like a lunatic bringing up my experiences with this surreal, almost nightmarish (at times) game that most people didn't even think existed. In fact, I began to think that I was only one who'd ever played those games until 2014 with the release of the fangame; 'Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty', which completely remade the original game on Unity, albeit at the cost of some of the charm. (Still, it let me know that I wasn't alone!)

So here we are in 2020 with Oddworld Inhabitants finally getting the front stage once more to show off Soulstorm, and the game looks... newer. Oddworld was always fortunate to be one of those old school properties that hit the sort of artstyle that just sticks. Even in modern day graphics engines with all the bells and whistles attached, that characters, worlds and creatures are absolutely unmistakable and I somewhat envy that audience of fresh-faced newcomers getting the opportunity to be exposed to this weird universe for the first time and going "Woah, that looks funky." On the topic of aesthetic direction; I have noticed that there has been somewhat of a departure (or perhaps one could argue a revolution) from what fans of the original were familiar with. One of the most enduring locations from the first game was the heavily industrial Rapture farms, with it's perpetually moving pieces and turning gears livening up the long dark shadows by the factory line. Soulstorm, on the otherhead, focuses on wide open bright vistas that seem almost reminiscent of Madmax in their vaguely post-apocalyptic desolation.

Now of course, the outside of the facility was thoroughly explored in 'Oddysee', but there what we saw more of were forests and ancient temples, whereas this title appears to be leaning more to the 'arid badland' depiction we saw from the 'New 'n' Tasty' characterisation of the world. Although to their credit, the lack of wildlife and nature does certainly better fit the subthemes of pollution and over saturation by the tyrannically avaricious Magog Cartel. Seeing the scars they've torn into the land provides a handy visual impetus to prod Abe towards tackling his former employers; which I do believe is intended to be the next step of this 5 game journey that Oddworld Inhabitants have been planning for the last two decades. (Was it five games? I forget.) Overall, I can say that I like what I'm seeing and am not too upset by the slight thematic departure. Besides, I already know we'll get some good old fashioned factory gameplay down the line. (I've seen their other footage.)

What I have a harder time getting to terms with, and I understand that it's my familiarity with the franchise that's doing this to me, it's the speed of it all. (Yeah, I still haven't quite gotten over that.) Abe's Oddysee was by no means a slow game, but it was one that you could certainly take at your own pace if given the time, but that's not the impression I get from anything I've seen regarding Soulstorm and that does slightly perturb me. From the looks of it the saving of the Mudokons is less going to be about a herculean task of puzzling out the problem and more about how best to outwit the moment to moment onslaught of Sligs. Every bit of gameplay has Abe running around with lights and explosions flying off everywhere, quickly scrambling something together in the crafting system that this game now has for some reason, and racing against his steadily diminishing number of followers. It just doesn't really feel like Abe to me right now and I'm struggling with that. I want this game to be something I love and it feels like something else, which obviously is the wrong way to approach a situation like this but I can't help it. I want to see what newer things can be done with the concept, I do; I just hope that the gameplay still hits with the same level of accessible fun that it did all the way back in 1997.

We'll have to see about that though, won't we, as the game will be out at sometime this year according to the prospective release date which is absolutely subject to changing on a dime. And in a strange way I don't feel ready for it, like the game is just going to be here far too soon. Somewhat similar to the way in which Bioware revived the Mass Effect brand far too early, without giving fans a time to really come to terms with the old games and grow wistful; I get similar sensations thinking about a 2020 release of Soulstorm, which is silly seeing as how the last game was literally 23 years ago. Maybe my nerves are just getting the better of me and I just need to get my grubby mitts on the title and finally play it. No more trailers, no more gameplay; just give me the game so I can judge for myself, that's the way I want it done. (I can't wait to see how many cruel and embarrassing ways I can get killed in the first hour alone.)