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.)

Soulstorm

I dunno.

So not too long ago I introduced this blog to one of my childhood games; Abe's Oddysee, but I only touched on the reasons why I'm interested in it now of all times. You see, few things can stir the old nostalgia bones like the budding news of an impending sequel, and that's just what we're looking at right now with 'Oddworld: SoulStorm' looming on the horizon. With so many years having passed since the last release (Not counting the release and re-release of 'Stranger's Wrath') I've been thrown right back to my childhood at breakneck speed since Soulstorm's announcement and the I'm dragging all of you with me.

To that end, there's a decent gameplay reveal trailer that was published back in... June? (How do I keep missing these things?) The footage I'm looking at specifically was uploaded by IGN, everyone's favourite site..., but it does come along with a very interesting discussion with series creator Lorne Lannin so I'd encourage enduring their presentation style if that sounds interesting to you. For me, all I was really there for was to get a good look at this new title in order to start forming an opinion on whether or not I'm on board with where this game is going and now that I've seen it I'm... torn, to say the least.

Firstly, I want to circle back to one of things that I loved about the original two games like I mentioned in my previous blog; the similarities that this style of play has to solving a puzzle. This is due to many factors that all work in tandem to create that type of play experience and I'm not sure if that legacy is being held up in Soulstorm. For one there is the tempo of play, which takes its time and doesn't rush the player unnecessarily, then there is the complexity of the problem, which requires some thought but can be solved without having to go digging around for some other items. You could be in a situation where you have to save a group of Mudokons from a room crawling with trigger-happy Sligs or must cross a no-man's-land of mine summoning search lights. Every problem you are faced with in the game can be overcome with significant thought and planning, and that is a legacy that I'm not sure if being done ultimate justice.

Soulstorm's gameplay tempo has been significantly upped from previous titles with action happening on multiple screens and consecutively in a manner that makes the events hard to follow at times. Plus, there is a crafting system in the game which requires players to scrounge about for resources in lockers and lootable corpses (although the game seems to call that 'pickpocketing' for some reason. Pretty sure they have to be alive to pick their pockets) in order to craft tools that help you deal with enemies or simply just to get needed key items. This brings the game in line with many modern games that borrow the 'take everything' style of play from freeform RPGs, however I can't help but wonder if the casualty of this 'evolution' is some of the simple innocence of the previous games. It just doesn't feel like an Abe game right now and that might be a problem going forward.

One aspect that I'm more confident about right now is Soulstorm's presentation which borrows the well-lit, shiny industrial look from 'New N Tasty', which is something that I'm okay with right now. Of course, the team aren't going to revert back to the grungy look look of the original games, (even though some of my fondest nuggets of nostalgia are formed in that murky landscape) but I don't mind it, it's an evolution I view amiably. I will say that this new visual style does illicit a distinct emotion from the creepy dread that the originals seemed to facilitate, but I don't feel it derides the overall brand. Soulstorm has a very mechanical and industrial look to it's factories, and that mirrors the mechanical puzzle elements of the gameplay, so I'll allow this change.

Another interesting change is the shift of perspective for the platforming title from traditional 2D to 2.5D. (or 2.9D, as they call it, because you actually have some control of the camera and even have a chance to enter the background locations.) Now the Oddworld series has actually dabbled with all kinds of perspectives in the past, with 2D games in Exodus and Oddysee, First Person games with 'Stranger's Wrath', and even full 3D with 'Munch's Oddysee', so it's interesting that they've decided to go for something brand new rather than regress to something they've done before. It's emblematic of this studios' dedication to improve upon their formula and it's the main reason why I can't deride any of the choices that I don't agree with too far, because I trust in this team to realise them in a manner that is ultimately right. In the IGN video, Lannin had a very interesting perspective on this... perspective, when he basically said that this choice was a compromise between telling a story with a guiding hand (which is what he wanted) and allowing the players to become the character. (which is what the fans wanted.)

What really interests me about this title, however, is what Lannin had to say about the story of it all. Now, being a child when I first played these games, I just excepted everything that I was shown without thinking of the artist's intent or their desire to tell a narrative, but now I'm being told that the Oddworld mythos was actually supposed to encompass a 5-part story. I'm unsure how this translates to the games we've had access to for the past 20 years, afterall there have been 5 games in the Oddworld series so does that mean the story has already been told? Well, apparently not because Lannin mentioned (rather vaguely) how their original plan didn't quite work out. So, does that mean that only 'Abe's Oddysee' and 'Abe's Exodus' count? Well, he did say that Odysee's remake, New n' Tasty, was closer to their original vision but that they decided not to remake Exodus and do Soulstorm. So is Soulstorm a sequel to Exodus or a reimaging? (That would make sense considering that Soulstorm brew is the drink which made that game's abilities work in their unique fashion.) I just need a little clarification.

There's quite a lot that I'm actively dubious about when it comes to Soulstorm and in fact some of the choices I find antithetical to the spirit of Oddworld; but I understand that it has been over 20 years since this franchise began and I shouldn't be confrontational about the mere prospect of change. Remember, I grew up with this game as a child so there'll always be some irrational part of me that flare's his nostrils everytime something new is offered, I just hope none of that blinds me to the potential for this title. This coming E3 I hope to get more of a concrete idea of how this game excels with it's specific style, but until then I will attempt to remain positive despite my bubbling discontent. This is the revival of a franchise that I thought long dead,  I just hope it's time in limbo hasn't washed everything familiar away in the rivers of Lethe.

What an Oddworld

When people run in circles it's a very, very...

You know, I've bought up a little game called 'Oddworld: Soulstorm' on my Blog a few times now and it has just occurred to me that I never really explained either what that this game is or what significance the series has to me. The reason for this is two fold; firstly it hails from a classic series of games from several generations ago that I'm unsure how many people are aware of and secondly because that series is incredibly creative and confusing, thus its also really hard to describe. Trying to explain the basic premise of the Oddworld is like trying to explain the intricacies of the Metal Gear Solid franchise in 40 minutes; you'll be struck with so many false starts and meandering threads until you realize by the end that you still haven't even decided where to begin yet. But I've had the igneous idea of talking about my relationship with this game at the same time in order to make everything a bit more palatable. ('Igneous' may be a stand-in for 'lazy', but what are you gonna do...)

Back when I was a little kiddie I didn't really have a track record for playing outside with my friends. That's right, I was a career nerd from day 1 and the one time that I invited friends over to my house I severely regretted it and have never repeated it since. (and that was back when I was like 7, so you know it must have had a serious effect on me to linger for that long.) As such, when I got into playing video games it was mostly something that I did by myself in the darkness of my bedroom. (A habit I kept up to this day.) The only moment when this wasn't true was in those times when I visited my Aunt and she would have a selection of computer games to choose from; most of which I honestly cannot remember to this day. During that time I would play games with my Aunt and sometimes even my parents back when they thought it was cool that I was getting into "this computer thing". From that time there was one title that really stood out as something that anyone could play and join in on without getting hopelessly lost; Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee. (Yes, I know that's not how you spell 'Odyssey', it's a pun.)

Abe's Oddysee was an adventure platformer that featured a humanoid creature called Abe on his journey to free his people, the Mudokons, from their enslavement by the evil corporate entity known as The Magog Cartel. On his quest, Abe owned no high calibre weaponry or superhuman powers (at least not at the beginning), all he had was his smarts, platforming prowess, and species inherent ability to temporarily control the minds of others and make kill themselves or eachother in deceptively brutal/merciless ways. (Yeah, I played this game as a kid. What do you mean, "that explains a lot"?) The reason why my father or even my gaming-inept mother could get to grips with this game is because it had such simple controls and presented a simple premise, everything you need to progress is present on the screen in front of you and all you have to do is figure it all out. It's the same sort of allure that draws me to the Hitman games, except whereas that is a puzzle hidden in a complex 3D environment, this is a puzzle more blatantly hidden in a weird 2D platforming space. (I'm saying that I could definitely get my parents into Hitman if they only trusted me a little.)

Sometimes you'll hear people tell those stories about how their dad got them into playing games and showed them how to stretch their imagination in RPG's and the like. Maybe they introduced the world of table-top to them early, or maybe just got them their first console. With the exception of the console acquisition (obviously) I share actually very little with those tales. I was the one who got my Dad into gaming and the only game that we seriously collaborated together in was 'Abe's Oddysee' and later 'Abe's Exodus', the sequel. (It wasn't really practical for us to share our 'Medal of Honor' save files, anyway.) As such, I have a deeply personal connection with the Abe games as they are remind me off being young, something that every neurotic chronophobe cherishes above all else. (Either that or a sledgehammer to smash every clock in the house.)

The real thing that sets Oddworld and it's games apart from every other platformer which approaches this premise is the way in which it presents itself. Oddworld is a curious mix between the macabre and the surreal in a manner that makes you laugh and uncomfortable at the same time. This sort of implaceablilty is far more memorable than those games that pick one theme or the other, as it keeps the player asking for more. Take the intro for instance, wherein we see Abe perfoming his janitorial services whilst wondering the halls of Rupture farms. The entire scene is narrated in a sing-song rhyming fashion that hearkens back to the original Grinch cartoon, but the subject matter he discusses is relatively grim. He talks about an oppressively corporate monopolistic conglomerate that decimates local wildlife in order to turn them into fast food. Then he reveals that his own species, the enslaved ones, are next on the chopping block to become a fast food item. (Oh that's a pleasant thought, wouldn't you agree?)

There's something decidedly Tim Burton-esque about this style of story and as a life-long fan of 'The Nightmare Before Christmas', (It's the second best Christmas movie behind 'Die Hard') I just eat that up completely. I think part of my reverence comes from the age at which I approached this game. (which was certainly younger than the proposed '12' tag. Shh, don't tell Pegi!) It appealed to that innate desire in children to be wowed by something fantastical and be slightly scared at the same time. (Hence why movies like 'The Secret of NIMH' are so widely beloved by eighties kids. Although, that doesn't explain the runaway success of 'The Secret life of Pets'...) Rapture farms seemed to perfectly encapsulate the archetypal 'big scary factory' that you imagine in your dumb little pre-adolescent head and Abe was just adorable enough, for an emaciated blue creep with his mouth sewn shut, to be the perfect conduit into this world.

Of course, nowadays the game is very much a product of it's time; but I honestly look on all those 'limitations' as an indistinguishable asset to the aesthetic. Abe's Oddysee is the one and only game for which I adore the 'static image behind a animated figure' style for the early 2000's. (And no, I'm not talking about the stylized way that 'Bravely Default' does it.) And I also cherish the rigid platforming controls wherein you knew exactly where you were standing and in which places you were safe. (This one is hard to describe, it's one of those things you have to be familiar with in these games to 'get'. In fact, the same criticism was raised against the Crash Bandicoot remakes, for they changed the way that platforming aspect specifically worked.) There was a heartfelt fan remake recently called 'Oddworld New 'n Tasty' which does sacrifice some of those more endearing aspects for modern tech advances, but the core experience is still very much the same if you're interested in this cult puzzle classic.

So that is the reason why I was so excited when I heard about a followup title after all these years called 'Oddworld: SoulStorm', and that is also why I am so critical of the Games industry when I hear about this game getting snubbed at so many successive trade shows. I mean if this title, which comes from a proven studio who already have built up a dedicated fan-base from making previous titles in this very series, can't get a spot at E3 than how are even fresher indie studios supposed to stand out? Oh that's right; by getting acquired by one of the larger companies so they can bring you up on stage and parade you about like a soon-to-be-sliced cut of prime cut beef. Okay, I'm getting off topic so I should probably wrap this up by leaving you with one final message; don't forget to pay attention to the little guys too, they may just surprise you.