Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee

Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee is the first game in the Oddworld series, produced by GT Interactive and Oddworld Inhabitants in 1997. It follows the story of Abe, a member of the Mudokon species which is revered as ancient and sacred, but which has been enslaved by the villainous business magnates the Glukkons, who are led by Mullock. Abe is content at RuptureFarms, which has been processing other sacred creatures like the Paramites and Scrabs for food. Abe has to go rogue and try to escape from the Farms when he learns that he and his other Mudokon co-workers are to be slaughtered for a new product. The Mudokons help Abe along the way, as they are graced with magical powers which they can utilize through chanting. Naturally, the ending gets better with the amount of Mudokons you manage to save through the course of the game.

I positively love this game. This is mainly because it could be the first game I ever played in my life...it was either that or Super Mario World. Anyway, you might wonder how I managed to play it, but I played it mainly with my mom, and it remains her favorite game.

Let me just come right out and tell you, this game is really hard. It's not quite Super Mario Bros. hard, but it's a serious challenge to figure out just what the next thing to do is in order to advance in the game. However, it remains a very fun game because it's not tedious as much as challenging. It makes you think before you run.

The reason for this, in turn, is because Abe himself has no offensive capabilities. He can run, roll very fast, throw things that he finds around, and jump. He can use things he finds in the levels, though, like mine cars, land mines that were meant to kill you, and also chanting. Chanting allows you to take over certain enemies in the area. While this can technically be used for offensive purposes, there are only certain places you can use it because of probes that zap you if you try.

All of these make the game, as I said before, quite challenging and highly strategic. This is a game that you'll have to be creative, resourceful, and clever to play successfully. That's why I didn't much like the third game in the series, Munch's Oddysee, because it was three dimensional and at times involved more fighting than strategy.

The level designs are actually pretty brilliant. The camera would change around in a nice way, the worlds looked pretty breathtaking, and the ability you had to jump in a well in the foreground, then appear out of the one in the background is remarkable. It's just a very great game both to look at and to play.

There aren't really any problems I can find with this game, other than the fact that it's kind of graphic at times. Yet, the PlayStation graphics of the time greatly reduce the severity of any graphic parts. However, it is still a bit prevalent, and can be creepy at times.

If you can possibly get access to this game, seeing as how it's for the "primitive" PlayStation, you really should try it. I believe that people these days will enjoy it, and that they will be perfectly eager to buy it. I recommend that.