![]() Story-wise, nothing has changed between the very first Xbox-exclusive release of Stranger’s Wrath in 2005 and this one. As such it marries the typically off-kilter Oddworld sense of humour with an imaginative alien world setting and some wonderfully creative gameplay mechanics, all buffed up with a HD cloth and lovingly squeezed onto the Vita’s pretty little screen. ![]() #Oddworld strangers wrath hd ps vita Pc#The cartoony aesthetic also fits the humorous writing and lends the whole world a tongue-in-cheek feeling I appreciate.Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath on the PlayStation Vita is the handheld port of the HD remake of a spin-off from Oddworld Inhabitants’ seminal puzzle-platform series that begin in 1997 with PC classic Abe’s Odyssey (did you get all that?). The HD visuals look great, and nice touches like lens flare really help capture the raw beauty of the dangerous world Stranger lives in. At times the graphics look nice enough in Stranger's Wrath that I could almost forget it's a last-gen game. I'm all for testing my skills, but these instances were just frustrating. Instead I died due to an uncharacteristically brutal boss or failed because of a maddeningly difficult ending sequence where beating the clock is a serious task. ![]() It's one thing to get stuck on a part of the game because it challenges your mental faculties with a puzzle or has a really clever boss, but more often than not, this wasn't the case. Problematic difficulty spikes also add to the pacing issues. Don't get me wrong, I never stopped having fun with Oddworld, but by the time the game makes a major plot shift and somewhat less major gameplay change, I was more than ready for something different. Occasional bosses mixed things up, but more often, they were just bullet sponges you had to pour the hurt on to win. Each bounty may bring you to a new part of the environment, but they all follow the same formula: go to area, fight the minions, then subdue or kill the boss. But as you do bounty after bounty it starts to feel noticeably repetitive, with the scarce amount of enemies making for some pretty predictable encounters. And for a while, the ammo options give Stranger's Wrath a flair that makes it unique. #Oddworld strangers wrath hd ps vita how to#Go ahead - it's up to you to decide how to tackle each situation. Or maybe you'd prefer to go silent, luring them in with annoying little mammals and then wrapping them up with a spider. Want to set up a trap where vicious little monsters chew your opponent to death? Do it. Each of his ammo types has different abilities, and gives you an array of options to tackle each skirmish. But overall combat stays fun thanks to the weird arsenal of living ammo Stranger can fire out of his crossbow while in first person. Shooting feels pretty good (if a bit floaty), the platforming is fairly limited in scope, and third-person combat is functional (if a bit clumsy). It doesn't do either exceptionally well, but it does blend them together better than you might expect. Part first-person shooter, part third-person action game, Stranger's Wrath has a bit of an identity problem. Stranger's Wrath's story may not be the stuff of Oscars, but the clear attention to detail in the world kept me engaged in the universe and wanting to see the plot through to the end. ![]() Stranger's Wrath is about Stranger, a bounty hunter who tracks Oddworld criminals in an attempt to raise money for an unexplained surgery that he "needs to survive." Occasional parts of the plot drag as mission after mission seems slotted in to extend the length of the game, but the twist which I won't spoil here is great. ![]()
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