The Oddworld games more than live up to their title. A series known for its ugly, yet fascinating art style and eclectic gameplay mechanics, it's never been afraid to take risks and get really weird. Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath is perhaps the strangest game in the entire franchise - which is really saying something - and its unique combination of platforming and shooting not only still holds up, but feels pretty fantastic on the Nintendo Switch.
The Thing With No Name
Stranger's Wrath is about a bounty hunter coincidentally named The Stranger, who's obviously supposed to be some kind of alien Clint Eastwood figure. He runs around the outskirts of Oddworld capturing bounties so he can eventually earn enough money for a life-saving operation he desperately needs. Not a particularly groundbreaking story - although sadly realistic - but it does get more interesting as it goes along. It's the setting that really helped to keep me invested, as it takes place on an incredibly bizarre sci-fi wild west planet that feels cartoony, yet grim. I also thought there was some solid humor scattered throughout the game, although there are a bit too many fart jokes for my liking.
The voice acting is actually pretty strong, but it seems like they used the same voice actor to play an entire species of characters. While they do a good job, hearing the same voice over and over for the bad guys or the chicken-like Clakkers becomes tiresome after a while. It doesn't help that there's a limited amount of voice lines, so you'll also hear the same voices repeatedly spout the same lines. On top of that, since this is a 15-year-old game, some of the audio clips haven't aged all that well. The quality of The Stranger's grunts and cries isn't great, which in unfortunate because you're going to hear those noises quite a few times.
Blasting Varmints With Vermin
Stranger's Wrath is a third-person platformer/first-person shooter hybrid which was a pretty ambitious idea for 2005. When in third person, you can run, jump, or capture bounties, while first-person mode is used to fire your crossbow. You also have a headbutt and running attack, as well as a Crash Bandicoot-esque spin attack that was kind of a prerequisite for platformer games around that time. You accept missions to catch wanted criminals and then suck them up in your arm-mounted vacuum apparatus. You get more money for capturing them alive and can then spend that cash on ammo and upgrades.
The crossbow is probably Stranger's Wrath's biggest and coolest gimmick. You don't use regular, boring ammunition. Instead, you grab the local wildlife and fling it at your targets. There's a pretty good variety of critters for you to fire and they have different effects in combat. There are bats that explode, flying slugs that knock enemies back, spiders that wrap bounties up for easy retrieval, chipmunks that attract baddies with their inane chatter and so on. It's about as wacky of a concept as you'd expect from a shooter in the Oddworld universe.
Surprisingly, this all still feels fun to play even after all this time. A lot of games from 15 years ago feel a little clunky by today's standards, but Stranger's Wrath holds up great. I really liked the option to capture enemies alive to get more of a payout, as it makes you consider what kind of ammo to use to maximize your profits. The firefights also get pretty intense. You have to prepare properly in order to effectively use the right kind of ammo to survive.
The Good, The Bad, & The Surprisingly Not So Ugly
Considering Stranger's Wrath debuted on a console from two generations ago (going on three) it actually looks pretty good. Some of the textures are quite blurry and some models are pretty blocky, but aside from that, I could easily be convinced that this came out within the last year. Characters look good and their animations are surprisingly fluid and detailed. The game also runs at a smooth 60 frames per second with little to no dips or stutters.
The only thing that looks like it crawled out of the 2000s is the cut scenes. They look pretty grainy and low quality, so I'm guessing those were left as they were for this port, which makes sense as remastering those was probably going to be more work than needed. For the most part, this is a pretty impressive remaster. It's not going to win any rewards for graphics, but combined with its odd visual style, it's pretty easy on the eyes.
Even A Good Apple Has A Few Bad Seeds
There are some aspects that aged a little poorly. Getting around is hampered by the lack of a useful map system. You can usually find your way towards your next bounty, but some kind of mission tracker would have made navigation a little easier. You can talk to locals in order to get information about where to go, but it isn't a perfect solution.
While most of the gameplay works as intended, I thought the platforming wasn't as smooth as I wanted it to be. The Stranger's jumps feel slower and heavier than something like Jak & Daxter or Ratchet & Clank. There's also a very light stealth system that mostly boils down to hiding in tall grass and taking potshots at enemies. It's fairly easy to abuse because you can usually just run back and forth between the grass and become hidden pretty quickly. So, it's not entirely perfect, but taking into account that this is an HD remaster of a game from the original Xbox, a lot of these problems can be forgiven.
A Rooting, Tooting, Chipmunk-Shooting Good Time
I never got to play Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath when it originally released because I chose to get the PlayStation 2, and this was only available on Microsoft's fledgling console at the time. I always thought it looked charming, but never got the chance to play it, and it disappeared from my mind like a lot of original Xbox exclusives.
I'm very happy that the wait was worth it. Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath is still a unique experience that manages to blend its platforming and FPS gameplay mechanics pretty well. There are some parts that haven't aged as well as others, but if you're looking for a game where you fire smack-talking chipmunks at criminals with names like Joe Momma, then this will fit perfectly on your Nintendo Switch.
A Nintendo Switch copy of Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD was provided to TheGamer for this review. Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD is available on the Nintendo Switch.
Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath
Initially launched in 2005 for the original Xbox, Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath moves away from the series' side-scrolling platforming and into the action-adventure genre. You play as the Stranger, who must hunt down a series of deadly outlaws.