Game review 29 January 2020, 12:23

author: Michael Grygorcewicz

Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD Switch Review – Wild West Like You've Never Seen It

Even though it's fifteen years old, Stranger's Wrath is still holding on well, mainly thanks to the extraordinary gunplay and the fascinating game world. But the port on Switch is sloppy, and could have been a lot better.

The review is based on the Switch version.

Released in 2005 on the original Xbox, Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath is one of the titles that's forever on my pile of shame. With each remaster and port, I told myself "I will complete it this time!" To no avail, of course. The night, however, is darkest right before dawn. When I nearly dropped all illusions and was about to admit my crushing defeat, I unexpectedly was commissioned to review Stranger’s Wrath HD – the latest version released on Switch. Fifteen years after the Stranger's debut, I finally met him. And guess what? I wasn't disappointed. Although the port has been created by following the path of least resistance, the game simply remains relevant.

An odd west

While most of the games in the Oddworld universe are... let's call them "funky" platformers, Stranger's Wrath is unique – both within the series and the video games in general. We play as the titular Stranger, a bounty hunter traversing the backcountry in search of job – mostly contracts for all sorts of monstrosities.

Despite being of an alien race (this time, not Mudokons, like the heroes of previous games), the appearance of the Stranger is clearly evocative with tough guys from westerns. The same goes for locations, at least in the first chapters of the game – it offers us a unique version of the Wild West, filtered through Oddworld's collection of strange lands, unusual fauna and flora, and unique races. Suffice it to say that the most normal characters we can encounter here are anthropomorphic chickens.

Also, the plot initially presents us a few western clichés, just to offer a few 180 turns later. The Stranger is a charismatic cool guy who does his job without uttering redundant words. He delivers the worst scum (dead or alive) and is mainly interested in cash prizes. His goal is survival: he needs money to pay for a mysterious surgery. Simple and obvious, maybe even formulaic? I can guarantee you that a thought like that will not occur to you once the game starts revealing its twists.

Dead or alive. Better alive, but I won't complain.

These, initially simple, plot premises are perfectly in tune with gameplay – in the day of AAA games offering dozens of side activities and squeezing collectibles even to the tiniest indie games, a title with clear objectives is breath of fresh air. The gameplay loop in Stranger's Wrath is clearly defined at the beginning of the game, and follows the established framework for most of the time. We accept an order for a criminal. We track them down, in the meantime completing simple platformer levels, and fighting minor enemies. We find the targets, and have to defeat them in spectacular duels. After winning, we return to the city to claim the reward and start a new order.

That's it. No side quests, no collectible items shining at you in corners. "Licking the walls" will get you to the cell with additional gold or bonus ammunition – in the best case. Fans of maxing games out can try to catch all the enemies alive, which brings much greater rewards, but also significantly raises the level of challenge.

I don't have words to describe how well this approach works, against the backdrop of modern solutions. A well-defined task, no distractions or fillers, nothing but a clean, condensed substance of what the game wants to be! And Stranger's adventures also have something interesting in mechanical terms. In the game, we observe events from two perspectives, and we can smoothly transition between them – the third and first person, that is.

I mostly used the former in platformer elements, and when climbing ladders, lines, or jumping over large gaps. Levels mostly have the structure of large corridors, so even though there are no markers or arrows guiding to the target, it's hard to get lost, and the excellent location design effectively nullifies any potential for frustration with failed leaps and such. A nice diversity for shooting.

The developers of Worms will be proud

And shooting makes up creme de la creme of Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD. The stranger doesn't tolerate firearms and so in the game, we use a crossbow, which instead of bolts uses... rodents and worms. I'm dead serious. I will add that Oddworld's insects are a decent substitute for led: wasps are the default ammo, spiders can be used to tranquilize enemies, and exploding bats can explode.

During the game we constantly can constantly choose from an array of various bugs, on top of that, we can have two types of ammunition equipped at the same time (and use left and right triggers to fire them), which allows a lot of experimentation. For example, we can produce a combined attack: use baits (squirrels) on enemies, and mine the area with traps that behave like land piranhas. One of my favorite combinations, though, was the skunk, able to paralyze multiple enemies, with the exploding bats. There are a lot of combinations, but there are also traps (which you can activate on purpose or otherwise), and stealth mechanics. If we run out of ammunition, it's enough to go look for a hive or some other web.

The broad range of available options makes combat captivating. Especially with bosses who often require more than sheer firepower – we have to resort to different methods, especially if we want to catch them alive. In different situations, different types of weapons are used: sometimes it's more profitable to methodically destroy enemies one by one, at other times, it's better to just jump into the thick of things. I truly felt an urge to go back to the game, even though the game is quite difficult for today's standards; if you're not careful in a "gunfight," the HP can be depleted in an instant.

The port remaster

The Switch version is another port of the 2011 HD remaster of the original game first released back in 2005. Which means that, despite the make-up, we're dealing with an old game. In some of the aspects described above, this works mostly in favor of the game. In others, unfortunately, you can't help but notice it's outdated – and, surprisingly, it's not about the visuals.

In terms of graphics, the game actually still has the legs. Of course, the levels are emptier than in modern games, and the polygons are sometimes crude, textures blurry, and individual spots with tufts of grass absolutely do not create the illusion of a living environment. At the same time, the character design still looks really good (especially Stranger's animations seem sort of ageless), and the artistic direction in many places still holds up. Oddworld, despite being based on outdated technologies, can still be enjoyed.

The main problem with the version on the Switch is primarily that the creators didn't make any adjustments compared to previous editions. The port works smoothly, and this is where advantages end. While shooting in the game is very enjoyable, it would definitely be better if someone made some effort to adjust the analog knobs' sensitivity. Aiming takes you back to the era before Xbox 360 and PS3, when FPS games were entering consoles – the knobs do not react at all to minor tilting. Then, if you increase the tilt, the crosshair twitches uncontrollably. All this makes accurate aiming a hussle, and we miss more often than we should.

The second big problem also concerns the camera, but in this case, in third-person mode. For some weird reason, the camera works well on the x-axis, but if you want to move it up or down, for example to measure how long the gap is between the platforms, the y-axis always moves extremely slow. I do not understand this at all; it's annoying, particularly when you notice that the problem does not occur in first-person.

Another huge problem, which may be a red flag for many, is the fact that while the game works great on a TV, playing it in portable mode is very inconvenient. The game generally wasn't designed for small screens, and the creators of the port didn't mend that, and as a result, you can't see much on the small screen of the Switch when playing Stranger's Wrath HD portable. In particular, it's almost impossible to see the enemies from a distance, who are just a few, indistinguishable pixels. Every time I tried playing the game in bed I was just disappointed.

Holidays in Oddworld

All these technical blemishes have a significant, negative impact on the comfort of the game. Most of them could be easily eliminated – increasing the sensitivity of analog knobs in FPP or fixing the camera in TPP are rather impossible to handle. Fixing the legibility in the portable mode is more difficult, but even highlighting the enemies would make the gameplay more enjoyable. None of these problems were addressed during the production, which goes to show that the Switch conversion is half-baked .

Stranger's Wrath certainly deserved better treatment, because it's still a very good game. Despite all the years, the game's artistic design renders it quite timeless in visual terms – it aged quite well. The plot is engaging and surprising. Mechanics are invariably entertaining, gunplay is still surprisingly inventive and fresh – even fifteen years after the original release.

Despite the problems with controls, the ten hours I spent with the game was a pleasant time that went by unnoticed. I can totally recommend Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD to fans of the Oddworld franchise, FPS aficionados, and also people looking for obscure, gaming gems. I don't recommend the Switch version because it doesn't offer it anything else than any of the previous ports.