100 Computer Games to Play Before You Die by Steve Bowden

Author:Steve Bowden
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781843584452
Publisher: John Blake Publishing
Published: 2011-03-24T16:00:00+00:00

ODDWORLD: STRANGER’S WRATH

Release date: 2005 | Plateform: Xbox | Developer: Oddworld Inhabitants

IT’S AN ODD world indeed. Oddworld’s odd world Oddworld is a gaming universe that bleeds charm from every river and sprouts charisma from every branch. To give you an idea of how much personality is packed into Oddworld, just be aware of this one fact: even the ammunition has attitude.

Stranger’s Wrath is an alien take on the Wild West staring bounty hunter Stranger. Think of him as a sort of gruff Creature with No Name type guy (ignoring the part about him actually having a name, that is) out to capture do-wrongers with bounties on their heads and cash them in for moolah to pay for a life-saving operation. Capturing them dead’s usually fine, but alive tends to result in better reward sums.

Stranger’s Wrath is a half-’n’-half game. Half third-person platform-and-adventure title, with plenty of ledge-clinging, rope-swinging and barrel-smashing antics to soak up; half first-person-shooter, with outlaws to be downed and bountied before they regain consciousness.

Stranger’s main weapon is a crossbow that fires little critters instead of arrows. There are nine different creatures in all and each animal has a different power. Spidery ‘Bolamites’ wrap outlaws in tight, sticky webbing; skunky ‘Stunkz’ act like stink bombs and make outlaws puke in disgust; chipmunky ‘Chippunks’ draw enemies away from groups and across levels with foul-mouthed tirades; fireflyey ‘Zappflies’ shock and stun foes; furbally ‘Fuzzles’ simply chomp on outlaws; trilobitey ‘Thudslugs’ are brute-force cannonballs; batty ‘Boombats’ explode after a few seconds; beey ‘Stingbees’ attack in rapid-fire modes; and waspy, er, ‘Wasps’ (how boring!) travel far and fast like sniper-rifle bullets. Seven of these even have upgraded variants with extra power and/or skills (usually involving homing in on the enemy).

When the ammo’s not hurling abuse and blowing raspberries at you, it’s usually found bouncing around in the Oddworld undergrowth. Apart from the endless supply of Zappflies, you must capture live ammunition before it can be used, giving Oddworld a rather unique two-tiered combat mechanism. Zappflies stun ammo so you can pocket the creatures for later firing, and store-bought attractor potions can be used to draw the rarer species out from their hidey-holes.

Stranger’s Wrath is definitely a thinking player’s shooter. While you can switch to a third-person viewpoint and bowl groups of enemies over by charging into them, most stand-offs require a little more tact and guile if you’re to emerge unscathed. And as Stranger’s crossbow isn’t exactly a rocket launcher, any straight-shooting competitions are likely to end with Stranger six feet under.

Most ammo types have more than one use and you need to use the creatures in creative ways. Fuzzles can be shot into the ground to act like proximity mines and Zappflies will override electronic panels when given time to charge up. You always earn more money by capturing outlaws alive, but when you spy a pair of chatty bandits palavering underneath a giant boulder-carrying crane and an electronic panel that kick-starts the arm and causes it to crash down on their heads, the temptation to fire a Zappfly its way is almost always irresistible.

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