Finally someone who doesnt ignore the games issues and doesnt praise it mindlessly. Im extremely dissapointed in OWI and it saddens me how they qre no longer these legendary dev team they once were .
I literally do not understand how or why this game is getting anywhere near the amount of praise it's getting. I've hardly seen anyone speak negatively about it. I thought maybe I was just getting unlucky with stuff I was encountering but eventually I knew that couldn't be the case! But yeah, even if they manage to update Soulstorm and make it more like what was actually advertised, it still won't be as good as Abe's Oddysee or Exoddus.
@@PixelPursuit only place where actual discussion on this game' quality is seemingly taking place is the Oddworld subreddit, I really dont know why that is though.
@@PixelPursuit I think for many reviewers they're playing it on ps5 for free. So it's hard to be rough on a game that was free. So as a game it's probably not that bad. But our standard of quality is much higher considering the first two games. So it feels even worse as long time fans. And I don't think that's nostalgia speaking. It's genuinely a lesser quality product from sound design to gameplay and story as well. Very tedious to play through as well, especially with all the looting of lockers and etc. Felt like time filler. With no pay off. I will agree the quality of the cutscenes was nice tho. I did feel the voices were a little off from the animation tho. Ps4 version.
@@dr.ogremitsu-77 Yeah I do think that could be the case. It's a bad way of looking at it though because it's not going to be free forever and it's not free on the other systems. Even if you disregard the fact it's an Oddworld game, I still think it's not very good. But it definitely appears even worse than what it is due to the standard of quality of the older games being so high. I agree that Soulstorm was filled with tedious elements that were seemingly put in there to extend the game time. The levels were far, far too long and could have done with a lot of trimming to make them more consistently fun. It just feels like you're constantly doing busy work. Maybe they should have just made a film or something? Haha!
Unfortunately I have to agree with everything you've said. I love this series so much. I love every single game. I love that Soulstorm even exists. But it is definitley a disappointing experience. There's no great storytelling, outstanding sounddesign or unique atmosphere...it lacks nearly everything that made the series so good in the first place. The immersion breaking hud and tutorial messages are just the icing on the cake. It's obvious that OWI have lost their whole design philosphy.
I agree. I think they lost there way with design when they made Munch's Oddysee to be honest. Stranger's Wrath was really great but that was a very different style of game. Maybe they should attempt something similar to that again, they might be better at that. New 'n' Tasty was good too, but they didn't actually develop that one!
Very quick update - I'm actually nearly finished with the game! I have FeeCo Depot and the other levels to go, but my thoughts are as follows (Shared it on Discord with a few servers I'm in) The Good: - Abe and the characters are visually more interesting. Good enough model work and general design overall makes them extremely appealing. - Sligs being able to aim up and down is an improvement, and adds a layer to using them that wasn't there before. - The story is fairly interesting, though you'll be disappointed with it if you expected a remake of Exoddus like me - Nods to previous games in good ways. Subtly they have Vykker's Labs products and the Vykkers themselves plastered on advertising. - Once you reach Necrum (level 10) the game starts to feel somewhat better to play. - Ch'i (Abe's chanting) is given a cooldown and used in very neat ways. The Bad: - The crafting system feels tacked on, and could've used a bit more time to be introduced. - Very repetitious enemy types. Where it's cool seeing more Slig variety, it's strange how you never once encounter Paramites or Scrabs. Sligs, Slogs, Greeters, and only one new enemy in the form of Sleeches are there. - The game will constantly throw tutorial windows up at you, even with mechanics you already know about. - Getting 80% Quarma is good, though a specific level early on only has one Mudokon. And the game doesn't tell you about where they are or that once you find out where they are, that you have to race a timer and speedrun through half of a level. It's infuriating. - Sometimes the game doesn't even tell you how certain mechanics work, i.e. they never tell you the Supply Delivery Cannon fires whatever you're holding when you get to it. - Aiming on PS4 is finnicky. The Odd: - The first 9 levels of Soulstorm are very unpolished. They feel like they were afterthoughts and that Necrum onwards was built before. - No quicksaving. Where there is the potential to patch this in, playing the game in it's current state is a lot like the first game. You waste your time dying and repeating until you get it right. Overall: 7/10 - Wait for patches. To my surprise, Necrum and onwards feels strangely more polished than what came before it. The Sanctum which comes after is imo the best level of the game.
Nice! I should probably become more active on Discord to be honest haha! I should make a sever for the channel or something, maybe I'll do that soon but I've got no idea what I would post on there haha! So the game gets better at level 10? Isn't that like right near the end of the game though? Haha, it's weird how it gets better as it goes on, normally games are the opposite of that and start well and get worse! There's quite a few things you've mentioned there that I've not even seen yet! The Sleeches are a mystery to me and I've not come across a Supply Delivery Cannon either! I guess I've got all that to look forward to when I replay it in the future! I wish the Vykkers were in Soulstorm properly... That seems like a massive missed opportunity. The Vykkers could become really scary antagonists if they were implemented properly. They become a bit of a joke in Munch's Oddysee but I've always liked the idea that one day we'll see a super dark interpretation of them. That seems like a really solid review! Maybe you should make a video about it! :D
I completly avoided all reviews and news on this game as I wanted to experience it all first hand. After playing 6 or 7 levels I've taken to TH-cam to see if everyone is as disappointed as me. Found this channel and I agree with most of what you've said. +1 subscriber
@@cristiansalas7197 I actually like the game. I just wish I knew before playing it that it was full of game breaking bugs. And the on screen hud has really started to annoy me since Pixel pointed it out 😂 I'm still happy that we have this game. Just wish it was released finished with less bugs. I want to see more games in the oddworld universe
Thanks for subscribing! :D But yeah, I did exactly the same thing, only when I looked at all of the reviews for the game they were all praising it and giving it extremely high scores. I was very confused haha! Apparently in the next update for the game, they're adding the option to disable the HUD, so that will make it a lot more immersive straight away. I agree with you there! I'm happy the game exists too. Even though I don't like it at the moment and I don't think it'll ever be anywhere close to as good as the original Abe's Exoddus, I'm glad it seems to be doing well because it'll most likely result in more Oddworld games in the future. @Cristian Salas You probably aren't dumb if you're 12 and playing an Oddworld game! You probably have excellent taste compared to most other people your age! :D
Exoddus is one of my favourite games. But Soulstorm looks pretty terrible. Atmosphere isn't there. Artistic direction isn't there. Level design isn't there.
In all honesty, i love soulstorm and although it did deliver some of the hype it had from it's gameplay, i can't ignore the fact that it's buggy mess, especially with most of the levels the game has. There was one bug where apparently, i was in phat station but the game soon freezes out of nowhere at the mid way of the level and i had to start back in sorrow valley in story which was weird since when i checked level select, i can somehow play phat station and had my quarma and badges in sorrow valley. The game has some beautiful graphics that it feels like you're watching an animated film along with it's lovable cast of characters (yes even toby.) but the bugs it has along with the painfull length of how tedious the level which sours the fun out of it and enjoyment you get out of it. Soulstorm is an great but not perfect game that at least deserves to be successful in order to continue the quintology but should be seen for it's flaws.
Oh man, that sort of glitch is really annoying because it's not just like a small thing that you can laugh about, it's a huge issue that causes such a waste of time... Haha, to be honest I've not seen that much of Toby yet! He's been in the train sequence but I've not seen him outside of that as far as I'm aware! I agree with you there though, I want Soulstorm to at least do well enough so that they can make another game. It would be a massive shame if this was the last game they ever made :(
Sounds fair and reasonable, looking forward to the review when you're ready for it. 🙂 I am quite surprised to hear the game has had this many problems to be honest. Let's hope they iron out most of these problems that are fixable with time, like they seem to be doing, so the game can be the best possible experience.
Thanks! I'm looking forward to making the review too! Hopefully by then they'll have fixed all of the issues and it'll be a much smoother experience! Yeah, I'm surprised by that too. It's quite a massive mess at the moment but it's good how they've been fixing things so rapidly. It's just a shame that they couldn't have done these fixes before the game actually came out haha!
Bit of a backstory of my history with Oddworld. Been a diehard fan of Oddworld ever since Oddysee. It was an early Birthday gift from my Dad, who bought me Oddword & another game (Ninja Shadow of Darkness). I had never heard of or seen either game, but being a kid the Ninja game immediately grabbed my attention. After a few hours I had enjoyed the game enough but lost interest, so I turned to give Oddworld a try. I really didn't know what to expect, but the game's cover & such didn't really do much to hype my younger self up. Abe didn't pop out like Crash did or other more in-your-face covers. But IMMEDIATELY after the game booted up, I was hooked. The odd sounds, the foreboding music, the insane cinematic at the time, the voice acting, the tongue-in-cheek humor and the satire about capitalism & consumerism instantly drew me in. From that day one I was hooked. Oddysee, Exodus, Munch, Stranger's Wrath...I loved the beautifully crafted & unique world of Oddworld. Wel fast-forward to today and I got Soulstorm a few days after release. I actually managed to get a pre-order down for the Collector's Edition of Soulstorm before it sold out. And no matter what I saw going forward, it was still worth it because I'm still a Oddworld fan, thru thick & thin. So I'll still cherish the statue, the absolutely beautiful artbook & thr other goodies. Now, that outta the way, I've gotten through the first 4 or 5 levels of Soulstorm and I honestly do see the major complaints & gripes people have with it. Currently it's about a 7/10 for me, a 8/10 if I wanna feel generous. Gonna start with positives & neutrals. Off the bat, the game is gorgeous. Cinematics are top-notch, the levels have some great detail (tho the coloring & lighting is a bit too dulled out compared to the originals). There hasn't been too much story but so far there's enough to have hooked me and I do like talking to other Mudokons as npcs. So far I like the length of the levels too, some decent cutscenes and background occurrences to pair with gameplay. I like the gadget/inventory system as a way to have some tools to play differently or get past obstacles. I love the voice acting, tho I am more partial to how Molluck sounded in the original. He was a bit more cool, calm & calculated ruthless character , but I'm open enough to enjoy different takes with remakes/reimaginings. But that's about it for positives. My BIGGEST issues is music & sound design. My Gods there is like almost no music at all. One of the biggest reasons Oddworld games worked was because of the tone & picture the music mad...it set the tone & mood flawlessly imo. Here? The cinematic was good, but as soon as you start playing it's so muted & uninspiring. I STILL, after decades remember what the music of levels & possessing Sligs sounds like. Way too many odd issues like the wonky jumping or how aiming items sometimes is inaccurate. Feels bit undercooked. I'm also not a fan of the medal system or the collectibles and feel they detract from the game and it's sense of being in the world & the world building itself. Some bugs are still around as I had a couple times had Sligs get stuck or not spawn fully. The biggest thing I hate is audio cracking/popping where a loud sound erupts in my ears and hurts...it's immersion breaking and happens too often. As for core gameplay, there's not TOO much so far that I hate, but I wish there was a bit more life to the game itself. The first two games I feel were groundbreaking and just instant classics & wins for myself, while Soulstorm is pretty good but needed more time in the oven.
@@loudneiv4653 I finished the game the other day and I'm do torn between how much I enjoyed and hated my experience. The game is like a 6.5/10 overall. Almost every level from the mid point to the end was fairly good EXCEPT they'd have like 1-2 sequences that were baffling bad. The Crane section....whoever signed off in that and designed it...never again please. The game had way too many action/Horde defense sections imo. I much preferred when the game was a puzzle platformer instead of devolving into a pseudo stick shooter. Cinematics and story were great if you get the True Final Ending, without it the game suffers heavily. There's really only 2 endings, tho it tries to say there's 4. Annnnd yeah, the lack of music throughout the whole game really got annoying as ambient sounds is what mostly you'd hear, which in the last level is just constant machinery sounds. I still don't regret getting it and playing through it but they HAVE to do better going forward.
@@nikkis.2066 Well, congratulations for your dedication ! I will maybe go through the end of it, but I will certainly not get the good ending. I do not want to spend thousands of hours trying to save every soul with those unbearably sketchy controls and aiming mechanics (playing on PS4). It is not so much the lack of music than the constant blurry noise in the background. English is not my first language so I will not convey my feeling very well but damn I miss the crispy, impactful, stark sound design of the first two PS1 games. The OST was also absolutely perfect, I get you ! It has come to the point where I must cut off entirely the music whle playing Soulstorm. I found it made for a much better experience overall.
Thanks for sharing your history with the series! I'm always happy to see how much it means to other people too! That's a very comprehensive breakdown of the game right there! You should consider doing your own review of the game because it seems like you have a lot of awesome points! I won't go too in detail as to what I thought of the game because I want to save that for my review which will be done in October, but yeah, I agree with a lot of the things you're saying here. I too am a huge fan of the Oddworld series, I consider the first two games to be some of the greatest video games ever made, so to see them fall this far from that is a little upsetting. Based on what I played, I wouldn't even give it a 7/10, it would probably be like a 3/10. I really didn't like it haha! But I'm putting that aside for when I eventually play it again :D But yeah, the sound design is horrendous at times. I literally found it impossible to hear what people were saying in some areas because the audio balancing was so bad...
The update issue is a non-issue, big publications still have to review a game as it is at release, and holding back because of "possible updates" just means any future review will *also* be outdated, because the game won't be new anymore.
That’s true and it’s important that big publications review games upon release so that people know what state the game is in before they buy it. However, my channel is a lot more niche than that. I don’t feel like I really have to make a review of the game straight away because I’m not catering to a massive audience, I’m aiming my Oddworld videos at fans of the series. I feel like making a video after the initial set of updates have been released will be more beneficial to a future fan because I’ll be talking about the game in it’s updated and finalised form rather than what it used to be (which won’t be relevant anymore). Plus, I pretty much do nothing but talk about old games on this channel haha! Recently I’ve been covering newer stuff as well but the focus will probably always be on retro games!
That's true and it annoyed me in New 'n' Tasty as well haha! I don't like how the PC versions of Abe's Oddysee and Exoddus have a weird symbol appearing over Abe's head which notifies you you've hit a checkpoint either. It's not necessary. I'm glad the PS1 versions didn't do that!
@@PixelPursuit In Abe's Oddysee. Although it's immersion breaking, it is good in one regard. It lets you know that you can save your game without dying, to find out.
Obviously, I kinda agree on your opinions like the one opinion where you're talking about the double jump that Abe has at the start of the game. For me, it really feels weird to double jump at the start of the game. And there's another issue that I have is that about the tutorial pop ups and the mission pop ups. It's just really annoying because when you enter to a level, you get the pop up of telling you about what to do in that level and the tutorial pop ups just really is bugging me. So what I really need for the next 1.08 update, I want to have an option to turn off the tutorial pop ups and the mission pop ups and maybe the option for the double jump, but that's probably not gonna happen until the future update.
Yeah, I mean I'm not completely opposed to the idea of him being able to double jump (although at the same time, I would rather he didn't because the whole point is that he's supposed to be a normal human-like person and not some kind of action hero), but they could have had him gain that ability later in the game or something. It's just really jarring starting the game and being able to fly around! I agree with those mission pop ups being really annoying! I just want to be able to play the game how I want to play it, not be given really specific things to be focusing on while I play! Luckily they have already said that the next update will allow you to turn those off, so that'll be good! I doubt you'll ever be able to turn double jumping off though, some of the platforming would be impossible without the double jump so it would break the game not having it now :(
That's good to know, I think I was on the Slig Barracks level when I completely gave up! I'm not going to be going back to it until it's in a more polished state, but I look forward to seeing what happens story-wise!
100 percent agree with you on everything you said. This game was a chore for me to play through. Regardless of all the flaws gameplay wise, I felt the story was weak and lacking overall too. So much for that darker deeper story.
Yeah from what I've experienced of the story, Abe's Exoddus is far, far superior. All of that talk of Soulstorm being darker and the complete story seems like utter lies from what I can tell. I've not finished it though so I can't really say that with absolute certainty, but Exoddus for sure has a much better start.
i totally agree with you with literally everything. I love Oddworld, and the first two are my favorite and i’m still waiting for another cinematic side scroller. I don’t care much for the glitches cus they can fix it, but they can’t fix the gamey and unrealistic nature of it all. I was hoping for an updated version of the actual exodus game with a more detailed story cus they said that one had been rushed out.
I kinda wish they had gone in the direction of just straight up remaking Exoddus as well... I was excited by the premise of a retelling of it, but it just didn't really work out the way I had hoped! If you want to play something similar to the older Oddworld games, I recommend you check out a game called INSIDE. It's absolutely incredible and easily one of my favourite games. You might have already played it but if you haven't, check it out!
I've just bought it and I must say it's the most frustrating game i've ever played. I wish it was just glitchy, but it's genuinely just a poorly designed game throughout. Just as it threatens to be enjoyable, it throws out another terrible curveball and I end up hating it
I completely agree, I was really trying to enjoy my time with it but every time I attempted to do that it did something to stop me. It's just not very good at all. :(
I don't like this game too much either and not even because of the bugs. I don't like the Omitted content from the PS1 Exoddus, like how the music is pure atmosphere with no soul (the originals had atmosphere AND GOOD MUSIC!), omitting other enemy types and the omitted area's. I also think its stupid you lose crafting materials upon level completion, they maybe should have kept that kind of thing to hard mode. They took away puzzle variety for action. I feel the same way at the end, i want to love this game too, i really do, but i like Exoddus more and this is not counting bugs.
Wow! The real Spyro the Dragon! :D Yeah it's super weird how they were saying that Soulstorm is what Exoddus should have been, and then it comes out and has a ton of content straight up removed from Exoddus? So what... Exoddus was supposed to be a lot worse that what it was then? I completely agree with you on the crafting materials! I literally wrote about that in the script I was working on. Why should we spend out time searching through lockers and bins to find scraps of stuff when it all just gets taken away from us for no reason anyway? It completely de-incentivises exploring and as well as that it removes all elements of experimenting with the environment because when you come up with a complicated way of progressing using items, you never have the items you need. It's like they wanted to make the game this physics playground but then didn't give you the tools to actually utilise it. It just results in this feeling of every area only having one proper solution, when it feels like it was supposed to have more experimentation that that. The bottom line is that it's just not very well designed or thought out. Such a shame...
What blew me away in the original Oddysee game was that the tutorial instructions, and lore drops, we each a work of art. This seems to be missing from soulstorm but I do hope to play it when it finally comes to xbox. I hope you feel better about it all now it's 4 months later. Apparently there will be dlc, which is great, as they must have made some moolah. 😁 😂 😂
Just picked up Soulstorm and it exceeded expectations for me. I didn't experience the glitches and I'm glad I waited. It has the best story of any game, it's challenging and the epic scope is fantastic. There are some moments I don't enjoy like the canon or trying to save hundreds of mudokans climbing but other than that's it's freaking amazing.
So many people seem to not like the cannon, but I didn’t have a single issue with those parts, I don’t think I ever even died on any of those sections come to think of it haha! But yeah the parts where you rescue the climbing Mudokons can be a real pain, or the part near the end where you’re on a crane and you need to survive against the flying Sligs… Jeez that was rough… But yeah! Overall it’s a great game, it has a lack of polish in some areas and could have probably done with being shorter and more focused, but it’s still very good! The updates made it sooooo much better than the original release too!
It's a real shame that they couldn't do a reimagining while also keeping all of those elements that made Exoddus so good. Like where are the Magog on the March TV broadcasts and where's General Dripik, Director Phelg and Vice President Aslik? So many elements are missing :( and it's not like they were replaced by something good either, they were all replaced with nothingness.
So i just bought the physical version, i don't know how much has been fixed, but it's still glitchy as hell more than 2 months after. It breaks my heart to bash an Oddworld game but i have absolutely no idea what they were thinking with this one.
I never even got the physical version because I'm just so disheartened by it. I'm going to go into it with an open mind when I play it again for my review and if I end up liking it I'll get a physical version!
It's a shame that it's in such a bad state, I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt by saying COVID and possible crunch from higher up but New N Tasty had a lot of bugs at the start and supposedly so did the Vita game that came out. However patch 1.07 was released yesterday so hopefully you'll see an improvement. I'm going to lay off of buying it for now and come back to it in a year or so.
Yeah it's extremely disappointing to say the least... I suspect that COVID played a part in the quality of the finished product but I also suspect that they rushed it out because of running out of money to keep developing it. New 'n' Tasty was definitely improved by it's patches but it was nowhere near this bad when it released. But yeah it's really good to see them working on patches so quickly, hopefully they'll keep it up and do significant updates to fix some major stuff. Waiting a while to pick it up is definitely a smart move. It'll probably be a way better product by then. I'm hoping it's better by October too!
Very, very hard agree. Oddworld has been a series I've had interest in since 2016 when I first watched Caddicarus talk about it. Where I've played and completed most of the series - recently even going for 100% on Exoddus and New 'n Tasty in hype for this new title, I feel that Soulstorm is honestly the first time I've thought about giving a game in the series a score lower than an 8. Now Munch is another title I haven't finished and give around a 6, but Soulstorm is a 7 for several reasons, many of which you've said in the video. What I dislike about it compared to Exoddus is how much from that game got lost when remaking this one. No moods for your Mudokon followers (but given how the AI acts, that's probably for the better), no quicksaving, incompetent AI, the list goes on. Soulstorm is such a letdown for a guy who's been in love for the series and was willing to spend $50 since I don't have a PS5 and just recently bought a PS4 pro from a family friend last week. I wouldn't say it's a waste of $50, though it's such a saddening entry to a series I absolutely love since it has a clear vision of wanting to move the series forwards, though it seems stuck in the mud of PS1 era jank like New 'n Tasty. I have incredible faith that Lorne Lanning and OWI can turn things around, but for now, it's a shame that Soulstorm has turned out the way it has. It oozes with the charm of the previous games enough for me to not rate it any lower and has some interesting ideas, but it happens to stumble a lot at the same time.
Yeah I think Caddicarus introduced a lot of people to the Oddworld series with his videos which is awesome! I've been with the series literally since the beginning, so my anticipation for Soulstorm was pretty high! Going for 100% in Exoddus is no easy task, you're obviously a big fan if you even attempt that :D As bad as Soulstorm is, even I have to admit that it's better than Munch's Oddysee... I really didn't like that game when I last played it for my review haha! Have you played Stranger's Wrath? I actually think that's a really overlooked one, probably because it's completely different to the other games. Oh jeez... Yeah I really do feel bad for you spending that amount of money on Soulstorm. It seriously isn't worth anywhere even close to that amount. It probably should have been like £20 given all of it's flaws. But yeah, I do agree with you that there's still time to turn it around to a certain extent. If they do some serious work with updating it, it could turn out to be far better than the state it released in!
@@PixelPursuit Oh yeah, Stranger's Wrath is awesome! Actually the second game I completed in the series, first being the original Abe's Oddysee at 100%
@@dasantihero2827 Oh nice! A lot of people don't bother playing Stranger's Wrath because it's kind of a spin off! I would like them to do another side game like that with a completely new character. They would probably be able to do something really interesting with that!
@@PixelPursuit I think what'd be cool post-Soulstorm is if OWI released a few "side games" in between the development of the next Quintology title. I'd be down to see games on Western Mudos, or some other half of East Mudos. Heck, use that game to reintroduce Munch and actually aim for the animal experimentation message they were aiming for in MO without the slapstick?
Yeah I literally do not understand why it was getting so much praise when it was released in quite a bad state... Very weird... Maybe it's because a lot of people were viewing it as a free game because it was on PS+? But that's a bad way of looking at it considering it's normally going to be a fully priced game...
The game looks bizarre and nothing like the originals. Not like it needs to be exactly the same but it looks like an abstract little steam puzzle game from years ago rather than a puzzle adventure with great level design.
Yeah, it's a massive decline in quality from the originals in practically every single way. It's definitely got some elements of very dated design with the whole crafting element that feels quite tacked on, I'm really not sure what they were thinking with this, it could have been so much better if they had stuck closer to the style of the original games. It definitely would have been more unique that way!
I wanted to buy the game but, well...Epic Store exclusive... Why do we have to register on x different sites just for a few special games? And then... 50 € - seriously?! Even the New and Tasty game was just like 20 € and a whole remake, too.
Yeah I've heard that the Epic Store exclusivity was annoying a lot of people. Luckily I'm not affected by that with me sticking to consoles! Apparently the reason for the exclusivity is because Epic partially funded the development of the game, so I guess it sort of makes sense. As for the price... Yeah it's absolutely ridiculous that the game is being priced like that. It should be like £30 brand new, not £50 like a standard AAA game would be. Again, I got lucky with that because I got it for free on PS+, but still, it's super annoying for other people.
I hope eventually they'll update a lot of the UI to make it less intrusive. That alone would make it look a lot more polished. The aspect of the game that concerns me the most is how lacking in variety it is and how long the levels are. They can update the visuals and some of the audio issues but the core gameplay and level design won't be changed :(
I have a love/hate relationship with the game sadly. Currently I uninstalled it due to not being able to progress the game on PS5. I was forced to use level select due to the game constantly loading a old game save on continue game :|. I'm so annoyed we are basically playing a early access game, Lorne should be ashamed of releasing it this way :(
That's super annoying... Luckily I never encountered anything that was literally game breaking like that. Everything I experienced either just resulted in me having to load a checkpoint or stopped me from getting 100%. It definitely feels like it's in early access right now, which would be a lot more acceptable if they had said beforehand that that was the case, but they're selling it as a full priced game and advertising it as a finished product when it clearly isn't... :(
Yeah... I don't like how he can do that either. It takes away from him being this normal human-esque character that is super relatable because he can (mostly) only do things that a normal person can and it turns him into a super agile video game character. Sort of takes away from his personality in a way...
I agree with most of the points, especially the bugs. But as it seems they're all ready on it to fix the most critical bugs as fast as they can. But other points, like the whole immersion argument is kind of weak imo. Sure, it's very different from the old games, but games back then were also vastly different from today, and when you're a videogame dev, you gotta make sure that your game has mass appeal. And taking that into concideration, i would say that they were still going very lightly with modernising the franchise. Sure, hud elements, tutorial pop ups etc take away from the immersion, but are also a small price, and in the case of pop ups, can even be completely disabled if so desired. The amount of creatures and enemies are definitely a bummer, but at least they tried too squeeze as much gameplay out of them as they could. So the quality of the enemy encounters is as great as it's ever bin imo (at least when there are no bugs that is).
I am very pleased with the work they've done so far with updating the game and fixing some of the biggest problems, I just hope they keep it up and fix some of the smaller issues too. I don't know, I would say that people who play games nowadays are even more able to pick up mechanics without being directly spoon fed information than what people were back in 1998. I don't think the Oddworld series is ever going to have true mass appeal, but that's always kinda been the beauty of it, like it's always been this thing with a cult following and they should really lean into that rather than trying to hit more and more people. I found the enemy encounters really bland honestly, like they always just felt really generic. Like you could just replace Abe with a human character and the Sligs with random soldiers and it would be your standard 2D stealth game. Nothing about it screams Oddworld. Like in Abe's Oddysee and Exoddus you had these moments where enemies would interact with each other like with Glukkons shouting for help and spawning Sligs, or the Sligs ordering Slogs to attack and stuff, but that wasn't really a thing in Soulstorm. The world of Oddworld felt a lot more alive in the original games and I think that's a huge thing that's sort of missing in Soulstorm.
@@PixelPursuit I'm not just talking about the tutorials and such, but also scavenging and crafting, double jump, sandbox puzzle solving, etc. Stuff like that is just what "modern gamedesign" is unfortunately, so i personally understand why they decided to implement these changes. Also you gotta remember thazlt they don't have a publisher, and when you develope games out of your own pocket, you really can't just focuse only on your hardcore fanbase. I mean, the money's gotta come from somewhere. But yea, the personality department i definetely agree on. During gameplay it really dosn't deliver the same quality of experience that for example exodus did. And the interactions with multiple species is definitely a bummer. No paramites, scrabs, glukkons, fleeches etc as enemies and mostly just sligs can make encounters feel a little 1 dimensional. But i think personally that at least from a gameplay stamdpoint, the sandbox definitely helps out to counter that. During my playthrough i usually tried to look for an "intended approach" for a situation but often times had to admit that there probably wasn't any, and you had to come up with something yourself to solve it. That's pretty neat, and it's something they should definetely evolve upon with future titles.
I could never get into New n Tasty and have been enjoying Soulstorm so far (Slig Barracks as of now). It can get a bit frustrating as you will die 100+ times.
I'm glad you've been enjoying it! Why couldn't you get into New 'n' Tasty? Yeah, one of the things that was really annoying for me about Soulstorm is how you'd die so much and lose so much progress that it became a slog (pun intended) to get through. It wasn't so much of a problem in Abe's Exoddus because you could just quick save and create your own checkpoints. I find it so weird how they removed that from Soulstorm when it feels like it would have greatly benefitted from it.
Could be the presentation. By the time I played it on Plus I was playing many AAA games so I couldnt be bothered to play past the first couple levels. This one looks FANTASTIC to me, really enjoying the art style and cutscenes are enjoyable. Never played the classics from PSOne tho.
Also the scope seems to be much much bigger this time, New n Tasty looked a bit small and just couldnt get into it. Once I finish Soulstorm I will give it another try.
Yeah that would be fair enough. New 'n' Tasty lacks the visual polish that the Oddworld games normally have. The cutscenes in Soulstorm are incredible, that's like the one area of the game I'll give some serious credit to, it makes me want to see them make an Oddworld film! I would very highly recommend you check out the PS1 games if you're able to play them. They're amazing and they still have amazing graphics even playing them all this time later. I have no idea how they managed to get the cutscenes looking as good as that on PS1 hardware. But the in game graphics are also incredible because of the painted backgrounds just oozing detail.
I don't mind that it's not a straight up remake and that it does it's own thing separately from Exoddus, but it's just such a massive shame that all the things that make Soulstorm different from the original are also the things that make it worse. I would have preferred a straight up remake too compared to what we ended up with. I hold out hope that in a few months the game will be significantly improved though. It still has key elements that will be flawed regardless of updates though, so Exoddus will always be better in the end.
imo i like the games story and cutscenes, but i feel like the gameplay itself and the glitches make it seem really janky and unfun. I honestly wish that oddworld inhabitants goes back to their roots and get rid of the inventory system, but i'm all for other mechanics that stay true to the old franchise while still being new.
I didn't actually like what little of the story I experienced. It didn't really seem to be going anywhere but maybe it gets better as it goes on (although I'm pretty certain I was about 75% of the way through the game when I stopped). The cutscene quality itself is amazing though, easily the best thing about the whole game! I think they took this in a weird direction... It's like they wanted to add in all of these modern game mechanics but while also sticking with the side-scrolling gameplay of the originals and I don't really think those two things quite work together in the way it was intended to. They probably should have stuck with doing a 1:1 remake of Abe's Exoddus and then done a more ambitious project afterwards... I just hope that they get another chance at another game because I suspect that Soulstorm might not have done as well as they hoped...
I actually think that is true. I've not read too much into it because I want to avoid heavy spoilers, but I believe you earn a worse ending if you kill a bunch of Sligs. But yeah, don't quote me on that because I'm not 100% sure.
It’s why I’m waiting for the physical version the pc version as far as I can tell Runs really good but I am annoyed I feel it should have released in July the same time as the physical version as for the story without spoiling it the endings have two big plot twists and hint at the next game
That's probably a good idea to be honest. I had the collector's edition pre-ordered but I actually cancelled it after my experience with the game. The PS5 version doesn't run all too well, so I'm glad to hear the PC version is a bit better in that area. I agree that it should have been delayed until July though. It almost feels like that was the intended release date but they rushed it out for some reason. Awesome, that at least gives me something to look forward to for when I decide to go back to it! :D
@@PixelPursuit I also just realized why I think the game was released early think about it Sony had an exclusive deal and at the same time they said they see little positive even though they get most of the money from funding smaller indie Developers like Oddworld inhabitants and this news broke out only a week after the release
Man, going from the bullet proof platforming of the older Oddworld games to this one has been hard, I have to constantly battle with the game just to get it to work. Wanna jump up on that ledge while your trying to sneak past some sleeping slogs? oh woops sorry, hit detection error! Wanna throw a landmine at an enemy? woops its now stuck in mid air above their head! just trying to get through an annoying section while you keep dying? well here's a sound file were going to repeat 10000 times a second to annoy you even more. Been running through a level without encountering any glitches? well lets fix that by randomly throwing you under the map. Playing on pc? wanna use your mouse to navigate through menus? nope, that's right you definitely don't want to click on menus with a mouse so we'll just make you use the wasd keys and space bar like a pc game from the 80s. But all this is nothing compared to the biggest disappointment I've had with this game, wanna know what that award goes to? you can't fart, yes... you cannot fart in an Oddworld game, Lorne even said himself that he doesn't want Abe to be remembered as that fart guy but guess what, Abe is that fart guy and that's why I liked him so much in the first place, taking away Abe's ability to fart on command is like taking away Gordan Freeman's crowbar. They just aren't the same character anymore...
It seems we encountered a lot of the same issues! The big issue with the game is that it's just really, really rough around the edges. It literally feels like it's in early access or something which is kind of inexcusable when it's been in development for so long and they were marketing it as being this massive high production value experience. Hahaha! Yeah the lack of farting is a bit weird isn't it! Especially when you consider that the farting was actually a pretty major mechanic in Abe's Exoddus where you could make your farts explode and even possess them! A lot of the Oddworld charm is certainly missing in Soulstorm.
That is IF it gets fixed! Haha! I wonder if they will ever port it over to the Switch though. They seemed to be wanting to make a game that utilised the more powerful hardware of the other consoles so it would probably take a lot of work to get it running on the Switch. At least for now we have Stranger's Wrath, Munch's Oddysee and New 'n' Tasty on Switch though!
Oddworld is about slavery.. And so is Soulstorm.. Treating gamers as unpaid betatesters. Thankfully I don't own it yet.. Did pre order the CE because of the Abe statue.
Haha, yeah that's a good parallel you've noticed there :D I did pre-order the CE too, however after playing the game I promptly cancelled that pre-order haha! Even for the Abe statue, I don't really want to spend any money on Soulstorm if I can avoid it! The statue does look cool though I have to admit. Maybe with time I'll regret not getting it, but we'll see!
@@PixelPursuit I feel the same way. I have a Pi 3 and with some filters applied, the old Oddworld games look as good as ever. I prefer them over the remakes. I don't think I will ever play Soulstorm but an Abe figure is something I wanted for many years. So to me it's worth it, just for the figure alone.
I don't know what to think about this game I love it and I hate it it was a real epic game world like it looks amazing I licked the charakters the levels building stuff the challenges expect that one where you had to to the escape thing like 6 times in a row or something but it was soooo tidious to play through because sometimes you don't hang onto the monkey bars or corners edges or just get bombed away even tho u are standing under something the checkpoints are placed realy badly like there is one right after a saw crusher thing and I lost one mudokon and I refused to replay the level because it was already a tortute to get through I had a level breaking bug that the saw crusher things would move after deactivating them so I had to play the level again the non existence of scabs and paramites is well sad and one of the most fun things that exoddus had was playing as the glukkons I love these dudes and I reaaaaly was looking forward to posses them but NOP nothing sooooo yea I don't know what to think of this game I want to love it but I just can't
Yeah that's a very similar feeling to what I have too. I like what the game represents, like I'm all for a continuation of Abe's Oddysee that sort of reimagines Abe's Exoddus in a new way and I loved the cutscenes too. But the general gameplay is so glitchy and just lacking the variety that the original games had that I struggle to get into it. Certain parts of the game are just incredibly tedious as well which doesn't help! Plus, I completely agree that the absence of any of the main Oddworld creatures is stupid. It almost feels like they were making this game with a tiny budget and had to just cut loads of stuff out, but I'm fairly certain they would have had quite a lot of money behind them to make this. I don't know what happened...
@@PixelPursuit maybe all the money went into the scenery and cutscenes because they look mh👌🏻 just mh👌🏻 gorgeous and the ending was also realy realy meh it's like ok so I played a game but where is the big pay of the the ending feels like the whole game is just to introduce the charakters and the new setting of oddworld games like its the borderlands 1 to the comming games because there will be more oddworld games continuing this one's story
Yeah the environments can look really good can't they! But mostly it's the cutscenes that look incredible. I really wouldn't be against them just making a film about Abe with those graphics! Maybe the quality of the ending changes depending on which one you get? Unless you've gotten all of them? But yeah that kinda sucks that it doesn't really end and just sets up the next thing... Don't worry about your English! It's perfect! I'm always impressed when people can use different languages like that, that's an awesome skill to have!
@@PixelPursuit thanks ma guy :) yea i got all the endings but well the first one i got was the bad one because you NEED to have at least 80% in every lvl to get the good one and the bad ending just comes out of nowhere like in munchs oddysee and i was like "What ok" well and then i played again just to get the good ending and like you get to play 3 more levels wich are NOTHING to drive home about like you littarly do the same thin in the same looking areas 9 times or so and yea the ending like i said leaves open allot of things that are probably gona get explained in the next game because the ending is REAAAAALLY teasing a next game
I can actually really agree with everything he's saying in this vid because I literally raged quite near the end of the game because of it being way to hard. (Spoilers) near the end of the last level you are against a bunch of flying sligs and NO JOKE I HAVE BEEN PLAYING THAT PART OF THE LEVEL FOR 2 DAY AND IT'S LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO COMPLETE THAT I CAN'T COMPLETE THE DAMN GAME ! And Its not usual for me to rage quite a game unless it really sucks or it's so hard that it's completely unplayable. Soulstorm has nothing on exoddus it's more simular to oddessey than exoddus like THEY GOT RID OF QUICK SAVING ! But don't get me wrong it's a real beautiful looking game.
Oh I know how you feel! I raged several times during my playthrough because of how tedious certain parts were. I haven't played a game this frustrating in a long time. Haha, so you still haven't completed it after all this time? I gave up with it too but it seems you got quite a bit further into it than I did! Oh jeez don't get me started on the whole checkpoint system and quick save being missing. That was a huge thing I was going to be complaining about in my review. It absolutely sucks that once you've activated a checkpoint, you can't then go back to it and reactivate it to sort of update your progress. It results in situations where you take your time and gather loads of resources and do loads of crafting and then die and lose everything you've just spent ages collecting. It makes the game tedious. The fact there isn't a quick save is absolutely ridiculous considering how trial and error based the game is too. Plus it resulted in a section where I accidentally killed some Mudokons but ran into a checkpoint and then I couldn't go back to save them. With a quick save I could have gone back to before the checkpoint and rescued them all. And this was at the end of a level that took me well over an hour to get through. Seriously shoddy design there. If I still did the number rating thing I would be even more harsh than that. I would be giving it like a 3 or a 4 maximum in it's current state. I didn't even think it looked that good, I encountered absolutely loads of visual glitches!
@@PixelPursuit also the worst part is that I got the game at day 1 and took me most of the Easter holidays to get though and got stuck at the literal LAST PART OF THE LEVEL TO COMPLETE THE GAME ! Seriously I think most of there best minds left to work at J.A.W or something hahaha. Yeah this game has to be the most unfair oddworld game ever made in my opinion also why is it still glitchy it's been delayed for almost a decade now. This game is like the oddworld version of cyberpunk AND NO ONE WANTS THERE GAME TO BE LIKE CYBERPUNK
Haha, yeah I do wonder what this game would have turned out like if J.A.W. had done it instead. It probably would have been much more similar to the original Abe's Exoddus, but that would have been for the better! I also keep comparing Soulstorm to Cyberpunk in my mind haha! It's like the indie version of Cyberpunk! Although I guess technically Cyberpunk is indie... But you know what I mean! :D
Fair. At the end of the day I liked it a lot myself. Of course the bugs were my biggest gripe. After the bugs, which they hopefully will get rid of, there is still things I dislike however, such as the fact that slig gamespeak doesn't matter in soulstorm. In previous games using it was a way to solve some puzzles like ordering slogs to follow and attack or telling mudokons to duck so you could safely take out some other sligs. Now it's just there. You can say hi to other sligs but that's about it, it doesn't contribute to the gameplay anymore which is a terrible shame.
I agree that the game will be much better without the bugs, but you're also spot on in saying that they've removed a ton of mechanics from the original games. Not only is gamespeak massively downgraded but also there's no emotional states for the Mudokons anymore, there's no mine car sections and worst of all... No exploding farts! (At least, there wasn't at the point I got to).
Yeah I don’t blame you for being put off of it… While I’m sure that they’ve updated some of the glitches, the core of the game just seems extremely flawed to me. It’s unbelievably disappointing because I’m a really big fan of the first two games too and to have a new game come out that’s so… ehhh… It just makes me lose faith in the developers a bit to be honest.
yeah, agreed man you need to upgrade your capture card for the GX review too. And it is so depressing how games come out unfinished these days, I hate patches. Bro, it is unacceptable how games are releasing unfinished, you pay money to play fucking unfinished product, how the hell it even became a thing it is beyond me. The last modern AAA game that I was hyped for and I remember it was finished from launch was Max Payne 3, and it came almost 10 fucking years ago... 3:25 is that a joke? Thank god I play old games Jesus christ I can't believe how bad games are now... Abe's Exoddus looks better bro Rob this is literally stupid. Naughty dog started making cinematic movies instead of games, and ODDWORLD that actually benefited from being cinematic is now gamey with HUD ELEMENTS? What is even going on.... games have gone to shit. Man, I am devastated HOW GAMES RELEASE UNFINISHED? How is that even happen man and people don't mind it? I don't get it, who would buy unfinished games.
Yeah I do, it's something I've been meaning to upgrade for a while now but because of the PS5 being 4K, it's really highlighted how dated my current graphics card is. I suppose the one saving grace with the Soulstorm situation is that at least it's free for PS5 users. That doesn't at all excuse it's current state though. It shouldn't have been released like this to be honest. Haha, no that isn't a joke, that's very, very real and there's quite a few videos like that floating around too! Yeah, Abe's Exoddus looks a lot better. They can't replicate the style of those older games with modern 3D graphics, it just doesn't work. Haha! Yeah that's true! Oddworld have already said that the next update will allow you to disable the HUD, but my point is that you shouldn't need to wait for something like that to be patched into the game. Surely they knew it should have been there from release?
It’s hard to say if Covid had a big impact on the polishing period because I think the majority of the team work remotely anyways. Rough launch for sure though.
That could be a possibility. If that is the case though I would rather them have just delayed the game. Maybe that wasn't an option because they were running out of money though? Who knows what was going on!
@@PixelPursuit There might be time deadlines. For example there's a collectors edition with artbook (some of which will be autographed) and figurine, etc that's coming out in July 6th. So you can't really delay too long. Come to think of it, it's actually a good idea to release the digital months before the physical just to catch and fix the bugs. I recommend doing the review in July when the physical is due.
I just finished the game. I gotta say I'm disappointed. It's visually uninspiring, monotonous, repetitive and mostly boring. Nothing like Exoddus. And I really didn't like the crafting.
Yeah the crafting was pretty poorly implemented. I feel like maybe it could have worked but it needed a lot more flexibility to work as it was intended to. It's like they were trying to make it so that you could solve puzzles or complete areas however you wanted, but in reality there's obviously only one intended solution. They don't give you enough materials to be creative with the crafting which isn't helped by how what you're carrying isn't taken over to the next level.
Yeah, I definitely understand where you're coming from. I really struggled to get into it at first too but luckily when I tried it for a second time, it was a lot better. Still not perfect though unfortunately...
To be fair, when I eventually do make the review it'll probably still be negative. There's only so much they can change with updates and I think my issues with the game go far beyond just the glitches and bugs. I'm trying to remain open minded about it though I swear haha!
Bugs aside, for me this game looks incredible, but massively falls down in level design, oddworld atmosphere and tedious game mechanics. Crafting is annoying. Having to constantly loot from lockers and bins is annoying. Double jumping is inconsistent. Sometimes Abe doesn't grab the monkey bars for no reason. The sections with hundreds of mudokens climbing away from sligs is so unbalanced. The gameplay difficulty curve is all over the place. I'm about 80% through the game and I honestly haven't had any fun yet. Exodus was a far better platformer.
I completely agree with you about the crafting. I didn't like it at all and I feel like they really underutilised it. It feels like it's there just to jump on a trend rather than being expanded into something that adds something to the gameplay. Oh my god, the bits with hundreds of Mudokons are the absolute worst. The part in the Slig Barracks where you need to protect the Mudokons from the Sligs and it goes through about three phases of it is where I stopped playing the game. I literally killed almost every Mudokon because I just couldn't be bothered to keep repeating the sections over and over again. Then I just thought, "I'm not actually having any fun with this" and stopped playing to make this video instead haha! Exoddus will always be the far superior game!
I already decided I wasn't gonna support this game when I saw the gameplay footage, with the lackluster level design and the *shudders* item crafting...
Yeah... I have to admit I was also very worried about the quality of this game when I saw the gameplay trailers. It just didn't look like Oddworld to me. And now it's actually out, it doesn't really feel like an Oddworld game either! I still hold out hope that it'll eventually be updated to such an extent that I can at least bare to play through the whole thing though!
I can at least defend New 'n' Tasty to an extent because it functionally works as a game. Plus it sticks so close to the original game that they couldn't really go wrong with any of the level designs or puzzles. I still massively prefer the original though! Soulstorm on the other hand... Yeah I agree with you there!
I just found Oddysee as an experience far superior. The audio, pre-rendered background art and most of all just the atmosphere ad dark tone of the hame compared to how cartoon like and bright New N Tasty seemed to be! And my god did I bump into a lot of bugs with that game, yet can’t seem to remember any with the original?
Honestly, I doubt that waiting until October will really change your review that much. I mean sure, the glitches will (hopefully) be patched out, but stuff like the story, lack of different enemies and the visual elements most likely won't be changed. And you may like the series and all, but I think you're giving this game too much of a free pass with all the problems it has. Games being released in broken and unfinished states like this is a serious problem and this one shouldn't be let off the hook so easily just because it's Oddworld.
I agree, but the thing is, I was having a very hard time with even just playing the game because of the amount of issues I was experiencing with the core gameplay. Things like checkpoints not working properly, bosses seemingly not being balanced or making sense and loads of other things. The huge issues like the lack of variety, kinda bland looking environments and the slow story won't be changed and are all things I'll explore in a lot of detail later, but I at least hope that the game will be more playable by then without making me angry haha! I also agree that I'm giving it somewhat of a free pass when I otherwise wouldn't with any other series. I can't really excuse that to be honest. Like I said in the video, it's just a case of me not wanting to make a video going into loads of detail about all of the issues and then by the time I've uploaded it, half of the issues have been removed from the game. But yeah, I totally agree that games outright should not be released in these kinds of states. It's particularly infuriating because this normally doesn't happen to me because I normally don't buy the sorts of games this happens with... (Not that I actually purchased this one to be fair!)
I like that they were trying to be more ambitious but it really didn't pay off in the end unfortunately... It probably would have been a lot better to have just replicated Abe's Exoddus instead.
Everything I think is bad about the game. Bad main menu Just remove Double jump Items / crafting You can't fart AI back in the day can only see abe when his on the same hight. now they see him no matter how high or low he is The hud And probably other stuff Im sad this game is how it is. And I hope its fix some day.
It really does have a lot of problems... I'm still holding out hope that when I go back to it for my full review that it won't be quite as bad as when I first played it!
dont worry mate, i ABSOLUTELY despite the new soulstorm... im sad as the new and tasty was amazing and so are the classic games. i agree with all you said about how the game feels like a mobile game.. i hate the double jump with a passion !! it shouldnt exist !!! why not make ABE fly ? it would make no difference on how you would tackle the obstacles anyway!! life bar? constant popups? man this is garbage level of a mobile game, i wont be surprised to see it release on android one day
I'm glad I'm not alone in thinking it was rubbish haha! They really went against everything that made the original games stand out so much. The realism of those older games is completely gone in Soulstorm and it makes the game a lot less immersive and impactful. It's such a shame they went in this strange direction...
Yeah that's definitely the way I look at it too, no matter what happens the original games will still be there. Luckily though Soulstorm was updated quite a lot and it's significantly improved from what it was like when I made this video. I've done a full review of it now and I'm more positive about it :D
as big oddworld fan iam honest. The Game is trash, even without the bugs its a boring repetetive game. The Old Oddworld Abe's Oddysee and Exoddus had 10 times more varity.
Yeah that's one of the things that baffles me the most about Soulstorm. It was supposed to be the ultimate version of Abe's Exoddus and the experience that game was supposed to be. But it's just straight up worse in so many ways... It doesn't make any sense.
I'm glad that you enjoyed it! I really wish I could have had a good time with it. I really tried with it but after a while I just couldn't ignore the lack of polish put into it. It's just not the quality I expect from Oddworld personally.
Lorne didn't want to make video games. He wanted to make movies. Figure out the narrative of Oddworld and it's an easy guess as to why Hollywood wouldn't accept his ilk. The individuals responsible for the PS1 classics had him and his vision on a leash so as to convey it in the interactive format of Oddysee and Exoddus the way they did by a team that knew how best to do it. The industry at the time was far from the behemoth that it's become and so real effort had to be put in to the games so as to compel people to buy them. Those people are long-gone from the industry and are never coming back - having been replaced by the new generation of workers who strive to meet the wages they're paid and nothing more. Soulstorm was a movie-turned-game that floundered because the people who brought Oddworld to the spotlight in the first place are no longer there and neither is their drive to make it what it once was.
While I’m very glad he got into the game industry, I do think that Soulstorm might have made a better film or TV show than game. You can tell they put far more effort into the cutscenes than any other area of the game, so it probably would have been better if it wasn’t a game! If Oddysee and Exoddus was his vision being on a leash then he should probably go back to that to be honest. People do always say that when creative people are more restricted they end up creating better art and I think this is a classic case of that. The creative workarounds you need to do to get past restrictions can result in some really engaging stuff! But yeah I completely agree with you there. The new Oddworld Inhabitants team doesn’t seem to be as invested in the vision as the original team.
Finally someone who doesnt ignore the games issues and doesnt praise it mindlessly. Im extremely dissapointed in OWI and it saddens me how they qre no longer these legendary dev team they once were .
I literally do not understand how or why this game is getting anywhere near the amount of praise it's getting. I've hardly seen anyone speak negatively about it. I thought maybe I was just getting unlucky with stuff I was encountering but eventually I knew that couldn't be the case! But yeah, even if they manage to update Soulstorm and make it more like what was actually advertised, it still won't be as good as Abe's Oddysee or Exoddus.
@@PixelPursuit only place where actual discussion on this game' quality is seemingly taking place is the Oddworld subreddit, I really dont know why that is though.
Yeah, it's so weird. I watched loads of videos about it here on TH-cam and nobody was saying anything negative.
@@PixelPursuit I think for many reviewers they're playing it on ps5 for free. So it's hard to be rough on a game that was free. So as a game it's probably not that bad. But our standard of quality is much higher considering the first two games. So it feels even worse as long time fans. And I don't think that's nostalgia speaking. It's genuinely a lesser quality product from sound design to gameplay and story as well. Very tedious to play through as well, especially with all the looting of lockers and etc. Felt like time filler. With no pay off. I will agree the quality of the cutscenes was nice tho. I did feel the voices were a little off from the animation tho. Ps4 version.
@@dr.ogremitsu-77 Yeah I do think that could be the case. It's a bad way of looking at it though because it's not going to be free forever and it's not free on the other systems.
Even if you disregard the fact it's an Oddworld game, I still think it's not very good. But it definitely appears even worse than what it is due to the standard of quality of the older games being so high.
I agree that Soulstorm was filled with tedious elements that were seemingly put in there to extend the game time. The levels were far, far too long and could have done with a lot of trimming to make them more consistently fun. It just feels like you're constantly doing busy work.
Maybe they should have just made a film or something? Haha!
Unfortunately I have to agree with everything you've said. I love this series so much. I love every single game. I love that Soulstorm even exists. But it is definitley a disappointing experience. There's no great storytelling, outstanding sounddesign or unique atmosphere...it lacks nearly everything that made the series so good in the first place. The immersion breaking hud and tutorial messages are just the icing on the cake. It's obvious that OWI have lost their whole design philosphy.
I agree. I think they lost there way with design when they made Munch's Oddysee to be honest. Stranger's Wrath was really great but that was a very different style of game. Maybe they should attempt something similar to that again, they might be better at that. New 'n' Tasty was good too, but they didn't actually develop that one!
Very quick update - I'm actually nearly finished with the game! I have FeeCo Depot and the other levels to go, but my thoughts are as follows (Shared it on Discord with a few servers I'm in)
The Good:
- Abe and the characters are visually more interesting. Good enough model work and general design overall makes them extremely appealing.
- Sligs being able to aim up and down is an improvement, and adds a layer to using them that wasn't there before.
- The story is fairly interesting, though you'll be disappointed with it if you expected a remake of Exoddus like me
- Nods to previous games in good ways. Subtly they have Vykker's Labs products and the Vykkers themselves plastered on advertising.
- Once you reach Necrum (level 10) the game starts to feel somewhat better to play.
- Ch'i (Abe's chanting) is given a cooldown and used in very neat ways.
The Bad:
- The crafting system feels tacked on, and could've used a bit more time to be introduced.
- Very repetitious enemy types. Where it's cool seeing more Slig variety, it's strange how you never once encounter Paramites or Scrabs. Sligs, Slogs, Greeters, and only one new enemy in the form of Sleeches are there.
- The game will constantly throw tutorial windows up at you, even with mechanics you already know about.
- Getting 80% Quarma is good, though a specific level early on only has one Mudokon. And the game doesn't tell you about where they are or that once you find out where they are, that you have to race a timer and speedrun through half of a level. It's infuriating.
- Sometimes the game doesn't even tell you how certain mechanics work, i.e. they never tell you the Supply Delivery Cannon fires whatever you're holding when you get to it.
- Aiming on PS4 is finnicky.
The Odd:
- The first 9 levels of Soulstorm are very unpolished. They feel like they were afterthoughts and that Necrum onwards was built before.
- No quicksaving. Where there is the potential to patch this in, playing the game in it's current state is a lot like the first game. You waste your time dying and repeating until you get it right.
Overall: 7/10 - Wait for patches.
To my surprise, Necrum and onwards feels strangely more polished than what came before it. The Sanctum which comes after is imo the best level of the game.
Nice! I should probably become more active on Discord to be honest haha! I should make a sever for the channel or something, maybe I'll do that soon but I've got no idea what I would post on there haha!
So the game gets better at level 10? Isn't that like right near the end of the game though? Haha, it's weird how it gets better as it goes on, normally games are the opposite of that and start well and get worse!
There's quite a few things you've mentioned there that I've not even seen yet! The Sleeches are a mystery to me and I've not come across a Supply Delivery Cannon either! I guess I've got all that to look forward to when I replay it in the future! I wish the Vykkers were in Soulstorm properly... That seems like a massive missed opportunity. The Vykkers could become really scary antagonists if they were implemented properly. They become a bit of a joke in Munch's Oddysee but I've always liked the idea that one day we'll see a super dark interpretation of them.
That seems like a really solid review! Maybe you should make a video about it! :D
I completly avoided all reviews and news on this game as I wanted to experience it all first hand. After playing 6 or 7 levels I've taken to TH-cam to see if everyone is as disappointed as me. Found this channel and I agree with most of what you've said.
+1 subscriber
I like it but I’m 12 so I don’t know if I’m just saying that because I’m really dumb
@@cristiansalas7197 I actually like the game. I just wish I knew before playing it that it was full of game breaking bugs.
And the on screen hud has really started to annoy me since Pixel pointed it out 😂
I'm still happy that we have this game.
Just wish it was released finished with less bugs.
I want to see more games in the oddworld universe
Thanks for subscribing! :D
But yeah, I did exactly the same thing, only when I looked at all of the reviews for the game they were all praising it and giving it extremely high scores. I was very confused haha!
Apparently in the next update for the game, they're adding the option to disable the HUD, so that will make it a lot more immersive straight away.
I agree with you there! I'm happy the game exists too. Even though I don't like it at the moment and I don't think it'll ever be anywhere close to as good as the original Abe's Exoddus, I'm glad it seems to be doing well because it'll most likely result in more Oddworld games in the future.
@Cristian Salas You probably aren't dumb if you're 12 and playing an Oddworld game! You probably have excellent taste compared to most other people your age! :D
@@PixelPursuit thanks for the response.
I'm really looking forward to watching your review of the game in October.
It should be well finished by then
Exoddus is one of my favourite games. But Soulstorm looks pretty terrible. Atmosphere isn't there. Artistic direction isn't there. Level design isn't there.
In all honesty, i love soulstorm and although it did deliver some of the hype it had from it's gameplay, i can't ignore the fact that it's buggy mess, especially with most of the levels the game has.
There was one bug where apparently, i was in phat station but the game soon freezes out of nowhere at the mid way of the level and i had to start back in sorrow valley in story which was weird since when i checked level select, i can somehow play phat station and had my quarma and badges in sorrow valley.
The game has some beautiful graphics that it feels like you're watching an animated film along with it's lovable cast of characters (yes even toby.) but the bugs it has along with the painfull length of how tedious the level which sours the fun out of it and enjoyment you get out of it.
Soulstorm is an great but not perfect game that at least deserves to be successful in order to continue the quintology but should be seen for it's flaws.
Oh man, that sort of glitch is really annoying because it's not just like a small thing that you can laugh about, it's a huge issue that causes such a waste of time...
Haha, to be honest I've not seen that much of Toby yet! He's been in the train sequence but I've not seen him outside of that as far as I'm aware!
I agree with you there though, I want Soulstorm to at least do well enough so that they can make another game. It would be a massive shame if this was the last game they ever made :(
Sounds fair and reasonable, looking forward to the review when you're ready for it. 🙂
I am quite surprised to hear the game has had this many problems to be honest. Let's hope they iron out most of these problems that are fixable with time, like they seem to be doing, so the game can be the best possible experience.
Thanks! I'm looking forward to making the review too! Hopefully by then they'll have fixed all of the issues and it'll be a much smoother experience!
Yeah, I'm surprised by that too. It's quite a massive mess at the moment but it's good how they've been fixing things so rapidly. It's just a shame that they couldn't have done these fixes before the game actually came out haha!
Bit of a backstory of my history with Oddworld. Been a diehard fan of Oddworld ever since Oddysee. It was an early Birthday gift from my Dad, who bought me Oddword & another game (Ninja Shadow of Darkness). I had never heard of or seen either game, but being a kid the Ninja game immediately grabbed my attention. After a few hours I had enjoyed the game enough but lost interest, so I turned to give Oddworld a try. I really didn't know what to expect, but the game's cover & such didn't really do much to hype my younger self up. Abe didn't pop out like Crash did or other more in-your-face covers. But IMMEDIATELY after the game booted up, I was hooked. The odd sounds, the foreboding music, the insane cinematic at the time, the voice acting, the tongue-in-cheek humor and the satire about capitalism & consumerism instantly drew me in. From that day one I was hooked. Oddysee, Exodus, Munch, Stranger's Wrath...I loved the beautifully crafted & unique world of Oddworld.
Wel fast-forward to today and I got Soulstorm a few days after release. I actually managed to get a pre-order down for the Collector's Edition of Soulstorm before it sold out. And no matter what I saw going forward, it was still worth it because I'm still a Oddworld fan, thru thick & thin. So I'll still cherish the statue, the absolutely beautiful artbook & thr other goodies.
Now, that outta the way, I've gotten through the first 4 or 5 levels of Soulstorm and I honestly do see the major complaints & gripes people have with it. Currently it's about a 7/10 for me, a 8/10 if I wanna feel generous. Gonna start with positives & neutrals. Off the bat, the game is gorgeous. Cinematics are top-notch, the levels have some great detail (tho the coloring & lighting is a bit too dulled out compared to the originals). There hasn't been too much story but so far there's enough to have hooked me and I do like talking to other Mudokons as npcs. So far I like the length of the levels too, some decent cutscenes and background occurrences to pair with gameplay. I like the gadget/inventory system as a way to have some tools to play differently or get past obstacles. I love the voice acting, tho I am more partial to how Molluck sounded in the original. He was a bit more cool, calm & calculated ruthless character , but I'm open enough to enjoy different takes with remakes/reimaginings.
But that's about it for positives. My BIGGEST issues is music & sound design. My Gods there is like almost no music at all. One of the biggest reasons Oddworld games worked was because of the tone & picture the music mad...it set the tone & mood flawlessly imo. Here? The cinematic was good, but as soon as you start playing it's so muted & uninspiring. I STILL, after decades remember what the music of levels & possessing Sligs sounds like.
Way too many odd issues like the wonky jumping or how aiming items sometimes is inaccurate. Feels bit undercooked. I'm also not a fan of the medal system or the collectibles and feel they detract from the game and it's sense of being in the world & the world building itself.
Some bugs are still around as I had a couple times had Sligs get stuck or not spawn fully. The biggest thing I hate is audio cracking/popping where a loud sound erupts in my ears and hurts...it's immersion breaking and happens too often.
As for core gameplay, there's not TOO much so far that I hate, but I wish there was a bit more life to the game itself. The first two games I feel were groundbreaking and just instant classics & wins for myself, while Soulstorm is pretty good but needed more time in the oven.
I feel you, bro. Sound design is an absolute mess in this game, amongst other fuck-ups
@@loudneiv4653 I finished the game the other day and I'm do torn between how much I enjoyed and hated my experience. The game is like a 6.5/10 overall. Almost every level from the mid point to the end was fairly good EXCEPT they'd have like 1-2 sequences that were baffling bad. The Crane section....whoever signed off in that and designed it...never again please.
The game had way too many action/Horde defense sections imo. I much preferred when the game was a puzzle platformer instead of devolving into a pseudo stick shooter.
Cinematics and story were great if you get the True Final Ending, without it the game suffers heavily. There's really only 2 endings, tho it tries to say there's 4.
Annnnd yeah, the lack of music throughout the whole game really got annoying as ambient sounds is what mostly you'd hear, which in the last level is just constant machinery sounds.
I still don't regret getting it and playing through it but they HAVE to do better going forward.
@@nikkis.2066 Well, congratulations for your dedication ! I will maybe go through the end of it, but I will certainly not get the good ending. I do not want to spend thousands of hours trying to save every soul with those unbearably sketchy controls and aiming mechanics (playing on PS4).
It is not so much the lack of music than the constant blurry noise in the background. English is not my first language so I will not convey my feeling very well but damn I miss the crispy, impactful, stark sound design of the first two PS1 games. The OST was also absolutely perfect, I get you !
It has come to the point where I must cut off entirely the music whle playing Soulstorm. I found it made for a much better experience overall.
Thanks for sharing your history with the series! I'm always happy to see how much it means to other people too! That's a very comprehensive breakdown of the game right there! You should consider doing your own review of the game because it seems like you have a lot of awesome points!
I won't go too in detail as to what I thought of the game because I want to save that for my review which will be done in October, but yeah, I agree with a lot of the things you're saying here. I too am a huge fan of the Oddworld series, I consider the first two games to be some of the greatest video games ever made, so to see them fall this far from that is a little upsetting.
Based on what I played, I wouldn't even give it a 7/10, it would probably be like a 3/10. I really didn't like it haha! But I'm putting that aside for when I eventually play it again :D
But yeah, the sound design is horrendous at times. I literally found it impossible to hear what people were saying in some areas because the audio balancing was so bad...
The update issue is a non-issue, big publications still have to review a game as it is at release, and holding back because of "possible updates" just means any future review will *also* be outdated, because the game won't be new anymore.
That’s true and it’s important that big publications review games upon release so that people know what state the game is in before they buy it. However, my channel is a lot more niche than that. I don’t feel like I really have to make a review of the game straight away because I’m not catering to a massive audience, I’m aiming my Oddworld videos at fans of the series. I feel like making a video after the initial set of updates have been released will be more beneficial to a future fan because I’ll be talking about the game in it’s updated and finalised form rather than what it used to be (which won’t be relevant anymore). Plus, I pretty much do nothing but talk about old games on this channel haha! Recently I’ve been covering newer stuff as well but the focus will probably always be on retro games!
The Checkpoints lighting up were already a thing in New N' Tasty.
That's true and it annoyed me in New 'n' Tasty as well haha! I don't like how the PC versions of Abe's Oddysee and Exoddus have a weird symbol appearing over Abe's head which notifies you you've hit a checkpoint either. It's not necessary. I'm glad the PS1 versions didn't do that!
@@PixelPursuit In Abe's Oddysee. Although it's immersion breaking, it is good in one regard. It lets you know that you can save your game without dying, to find out.
Obviously, I kinda agree on your opinions like the one opinion where you're talking about the double jump that Abe has at the start of the game. For me, it really feels weird to double jump at the start of the game. And there's another issue that I have is that about the tutorial pop ups and the mission pop ups. It's just really annoying because when you enter to a level, you get the pop up of telling you about what to do in that level and the tutorial pop ups just really is bugging me. So what I really need for the next 1.08 update, I want to have an option to turn off the tutorial pop ups and the mission pop ups and maybe the option for the double jump, but that's probably not gonna happen until the future update.
Yeah, I mean I'm not completely opposed to the idea of him being able to double jump (although at the same time, I would rather he didn't because the whole point is that he's supposed to be a normal human-like person and not some kind of action hero), but they could have had him gain that ability later in the game or something. It's just really jarring starting the game and being able to fly around!
I agree with those mission pop ups being really annoying! I just want to be able to play the game how I want to play it, not be given really specific things to be focusing on while I play! Luckily they have already said that the next update will allow you to turn those off, so that'll be good! I doubt you'll ever be able to turn double jumping off though, some of the platforming would be impossible without the double jump so it would break the game not having it now :(
I just finished the game, i didn't liked at first, but after slig baraks level the story gets better
That's good to know, I think I was on the Slig Barracks level when I completely gave up! I'm not going to be going back to it until it's in a more polished state, but I look forward to seeing what happens story-wise!
isn't that like 70% through the game though? Should you only be enjoying it after that point.
I enjoyed the game I beat it, y’all tweaking
100 percent agree with you on everything you said. This game was a chore for me to play through. Regardless of all the flaws gameplay wise, I felt the story was weak and lacking overall too. So much for that darker deeper story.
Yeah from what I've experienced of the story, Abe's Exoddus is far, far superior. All of that talk of Soulstorm being darker and the complete story seems like utter lies from what I can tell. I've not finished it though so I can't really say that with absolute certainty, but Exoddus for sure has a much better start.
i totally agree with you with literally everything. I love Oddworld, and the first two are my favorite and i’m still waiting for another cinematic side scroller. I don’t care much for the glitches cus they can fix it, but they can’t fix the gamey and unrealistic nature of it all. I was hoping for an updated version of the actual exodus game with a more detailed story cus they said that one had been rushed out.
I kinda wish they had gone in the direction of just straight up remaking Exoddus as well... I was excited by the premise of a retelling of it, but it just didn't really work out the way I had hoped!
If you want to play something similar to the older Oddworld games, I recommend you check out a game called INSIDE. It's absolutely incredible and easily one of my favourite games. You might have already played it but if you haven't, check it out!
@@PixelPursuit what about little nightmares?
I've just bought it and I must say it's the most frustrating game i've ever played. I wish it was just glitchy, but it's genuinely just a poorly designed game throughout. Just as it threatens to be enjoyable, it throws out another terrible curveball and I end up hating it
I completely agree, I was really trying to enjoy my time with it but every time I attempted to do that it did something to stop me. It's just not very good at all. :(
I don't like this game too much either and not even because of the bugs. I don't like the Omitted content from the PS1 Exoddus, like how the music is pure atmosphere with no soul (the originals had atmosphere AND GOOD MUSIC!), omitting other enemy types and the omitted area's. I also think its stupid you lose crafting materials upon level completion, they maybe should have kept that kind of thing to hard mode. They took away puzzle variety for action.
I feel the same way at the end, i want to love this game too, i really do, but i like Exoddus more and this is not counting bugs.
Spyro has spoken!
Wow! The real Spyro the Dragon! :D
Yeah it's super weird how they were saying that Soulstorm is what Exoddus should have been, and then it comes out and has a ton of content straight up removed from Exoddus? So what... Exoddus was supposed to be a lot worse that what it was then?
I completely agree with you on the crafting materials! I literally wrote about that in the script I was working on. Why should we spend out time searching through lockers and bins to find scraps of stuff when it all just gets taken away from us for no reason anyway? It completely de-incentivises exploring and as well as that it removes all elements of experimenting with the environment because when you come up with a complicated way of progressing using items, you never have the items you need. It's like they wanted to make the game this physics playground but then didn't give you the tools to actually utilise it. It just results in this feeling of every area only having one proper solution, when it feels like it was supposed to have more experimentation that that.
The bottom line is that it's just not very well designed or thought out. Such a shame...
What blew me away in the original Oddysee game was that the tutorial instructions, and lore drops, we each a work of art. This seems to be missing from soulstorm but I do hope to play it when it finally comes to xbox. I hope you feel better about it all now it's 4 months later. Apparently there will be dlc, which is great, as they must have made some moolah. 😁 😂 😂
Just picked up Soulstorm and it exceeded expectations for me. I didn't experience the glitches and I'm glad I waited. It has the best story of any game, it's challenging and the epic scope is fantastic. There are some moments I don't enjoy like the canon or trying to save hundreds of mudokans climbing but other than that's it's freaking amazing.
So many people seem to not like the cannon, but I didn’t have a single issue with those parts, I don’t think I ever even died on any of those sections come to think of it haha!
But yeah the parts where you rescue the climbing Mudokons can be a real pain, or the part near the end where you’re on a crane and you need to survive against the flying Sligs… Jeez that was rough…
But yeah! Overall it’s a great game, it has a lack of polish in some areas and could have probably done with being shorter and more focused, but it’s still very good! The updates made it sooooo much better than the original release too!
Am I the only one disappointed its a reimaginging of Exodus instead of a faithful remake, like where are my ghostie bois? And the blind workers?
It's a real shame that they couldn't do a reimagining while also keeping all of those elements that made Exoddus so good. Like where are the Magog on the March TV broadcasts and where's General Dripik, Director Phelg and Vice President Aslik? So many elements are missing :( and it's not like they were replaced by something good either, they were all replaced with nothingness.
So i just bought the physical version, i don't know how much has been fixed, but it's still glitchy as hell more than 2 months after.
It breaks my heart to bash an Oddworld game but i have absolutely no idea what they were thinking with this one.
I never even got the physical version because I'm just so disheartened by it. I'm going to go into it with an open mind when I play it again for my review and if I end up liking it I'll get a physical version!
It's a shame that it's in such a bad state, I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt by saying COVID and possible crunch from higher up but New N Tasty had a lot of bugs at the start and supposedly so did the Vita game that came out. However patch 1.07 was released yesterday so hopefully you'll see an improvement. I'm going to lay off of buying it for now and come back to it in a year or so.
Yeah it's extremely disappointing to say the least... I suspect that COVID played a part in the quality of the finished product but I also suspect that they rushed it out because of running out of money to keep developing it. New 'n' Tasty was definitely improved by it's patches but it was nowhere near this bad when it released. But yeah it's really good to see them working on patches so quickly, hopefully they'll keep it up and do significant updates to fix some major stuff. Waiting a while to pick it up is definitely a smart move. It'll probably be a way better product by then. I'm hoping it's better by October too!
Very, very hard agree. Oddworld has been a series I've had interest in since 2016 when I first watched Caddicarus talk about it. Where I've played and completed most of the series - recently even going for 100% on Exoddus and New 'n Tasty in hype for this new title, I feel that Soulstorm is honestly the first time I've thought about giving a game in the series a score lower than an 8. Now Munch is another title I haven't finished and give around a 6, but Soulstorm is a 7 for several reasons, many of which you've said in the video. What I dislike about it compared to Exoddus is how much from that game got lost when remaking this one. No moods for your Mudokon followers (but given how the AI acts, that's probably for the better), no quicksaving, incompetent AI, the list goes on. Soulstorm is such a letdown for a guy who's been in love for the series and was willing to spend $50 since I don't have a PS5 and just recently bought a PS4 pro from a family friend last week.
I wouldn't say it's a waste of $50, though it's such a saddening entry to a series I absolutely love since it has a clear vision of wanting to move the series forwards, though it seems stuck in the mud of PS1 era jank like New 'n Tasty. I have incredible faith that Lorne Lanning and OWI can turn things around, but for now, it's a shame that Soulstorm has turned out the way it has. It oozes with the charm of the previous games enough for me to not rate it any lower and has some interesting ideas, but it happens to stumble a lot at the same time.
Yeah I think Caddicarus introduced a lot of people to the Oddworld series with his videos which is awesome! I've been with the series literally since the beginning, so my anticipation for Soulstorm was pretty high! Going for 100% in Exoddus is no easy task, you're obviously a big fan if you even attempt that :D
As bad as Soulstorm is, even I have to admit that it's better than Munch's Oddysee... I really didn't like that game when I last played it for my review haha! Have you played Stranger's Wrath? I actually think that's a really overlooked one, probably because it's completely different to the other games.
Oh jeez... Yeah I really do feel bad for you spending that amount of money on Soulstorm. It seriously isn't worth anywhere even close to that amount. It probably should have been like £20 given all of it's flaws. But yeah, I do agree with you that there's still time to turn it around to a certain extent. If they do some serious work with updating it, it could turn out to be far better than the state it released in!
@@PixelPursuit Oh yeah, Stranger's Wrath is awesome! Actually the second game I completed in the series, first being the original Abe's Oddysee at 100%
@@dasantihero2827 Oh nice! A lot of people don't bother playing Stranger's Wrath because it's kind of a spin off! I would like them to do another side game like that with a completely new character. They would probably be able to do something really interesting with that!
@@PixelPursuit I think what'd be cool post-Soulstorm is if OWI released a few "side games" in between the development of the next Quintology title. I'd be down to see games on Western Mudos, or some other half of East Mudos. Heck, use that game to reintroduce Munch and actually aim for the animal experimentation message they were aiming for in MO without the slapstick?
And yet so many 10/10 reviews in the first few days, madness
Yeah I literally do not understand why it was getting so much praise when it was released in quite a bad state... Very weird... Maybe it's because a lot of people were viewing it as a free game because it was on PS+? But that's a bad way of looking at it considering it's normally going to be a fully priced game...
It's called money and contacts.
The game looks bizarre and nothing like the originals. Not like it needs to be exactly the same but it looks like an abstract little steam puzzle game from years ago rather than a puzzle adventure with great level design.
Yeah, it's a massive decline in quality from the originals in practically every single way. It's definitely got some elements of very dated design with the whole crafting element that feels quite tacked on, I'm really not sure what they were thinking with this, it could have been so much better if they had stuck closer to the style of the original games. It definitely would have been more unique that way!
I wanted to buy the game but, well...Epic Store exclusive...
Why do we have to register on x different sites just for a few special games?
And then... 50 € - seriously?!
Even the New and Tasty game was just like 20 € and a whole remake, too.
wait I thought you are joking it is literally a Epic Store exlusive, yeah just pirate the PC version
Yeah I've heard that the Epic Store exclusivity was annoying a lot of people. Luckily I'm not affected by that with me sticking to consoles! Apparently the reason for the exclusivity is because Epic partially funded the development of the game, so I guess it sort of makes sense.
As for the price... Yeah it's absolutely ridiculous that the game is being priced like that. It should be like £30 brand new, not £50 like a standard AAA game would be. Again, I got lucky with that because I got it for free on PS+, but still, it's super annoying for other people.
Because steam is pretty shite to game publishers, and epic gives them a much bigger cut of the revenue. Boo hoo, cry about it.
You confirm my fears. It does look like mobile game with cheap mechanics. There isn't a patch for that.
I hope eventually they'll update a lot of the UI to make it less intrusive. That alone would make it look a lot more polished. The aspect of the game that concerns me the most is how lacking in variety it is and how long the levels are. They can update the visuals and some of the audio issues but the core gameplay and level design won't be changed :(
I have a love/hate relationship with the game sadly. Currently I uninstalled it due to not being able to progress the game on PS5. I was forced to use level select due to the game constantly loading a old game save on continue game :|.
I'm so annoyed we are basically playing a early access game, Lorne should be ashamed of releasing it this way :(
That's super annoying... Luckily I never encountered anything that was literally game breaking like that. Everything I experienced either just resulted in me having to load a checkpoint or stopped me from getting 100%. It definitely feels like it's in early access right now, which would be a lot more acceptable if they had said beforehand that that was the case, but they're selling it as a full priced game and advertising it as a finished product when it clearly isn't... :(
I was excited until I saw Abe double jumping?
Yeah... I don't like how he can do that either. It takes away from him being this normal human-esque character that is super relatable because he can (mostly) only do things that a normal person can and it turns him into a super agile video game character. Sort of takes away from his personality in a way...
I agree with most of the points, especially the bugs. But as it seems they're all ready on it to fix the most critical bugs as fast as they can. But other points, like the whole immersion argument is kind of weak imo. Sure, it's very different from the old games, but games back then were also vastly different from today, and when you're a videogame dev, you gotta make sure that your game has mass appeal. And taking that into concideration, i would say that they were still going very lightly with modernising the franchise. Sure, hud elements, tutorial pop ups etc take away from the immersion, but are also a small price, and in the case of pop ups, can even be completely disabled if so desired. The amount of creatures and enemies are definitely a bummer, but at least they tried too squeeze as much gameplay out of them as they could. So the quality of the enemy encounters is as great as it's ever bin imo (at least when there are no bugs that is).
I am very pleased with the work they've done so far with updating the game and fixing some of the biggest problems, I just hope they keep it up and fix some of the smaller issues too. I don't know, I would say that people who play games nowadays are even more able to pick up mechanics without being directly spoon fed information than what people were back in 1998. I don't think the Oddworld series is ever going to have true mass appeal, but that's always kinda been the beauty of it, like it's always been this thing with a cult following and they should really lean into that rather than trying to hit more and more people.
I found the enemy encounters really bland honestly, like they always just felt really generic. Like you could just replace Abe with a human character and the Sligs with random soldiers and it would be your standard 2D stealth game. Nothing about it screams Oddworld. Like in Abe's Oddysee and Exoddus you had these moments where enemies would interact with each other like with Glukkons shouting for help and spawning Sligs, or the Sligs ordering Slogs to attack and stuff, but that wasn't really a thing in Soulstorm. The world of Oddworld felt a lot more alive in the original games and I think that's a huge thing that's sort of missing in Soulstorm.
@@PixelPursuit I'm not just talking about the tutorials and such, but also scavenging and crafting, double jump, sandbox puzzle solving, etc. Stuff like that is just what "modern gamedesign" is unfortunately, so i personally understand why they decided to implement these changes. Also you gotta remember thazlt they don't have a publisher, and when you develope games out of your own pocket, you really can't just focuse only on your hardcore fanbase. I mean, the money's gotta come from somewhere.
But yea, the personality department i definetely agree on. During gameplay it really dosn't deliver the same quality of experience that for example exodus did. And the interactions with multiple species is definitely a bummer. No paramites, scrabs, glukkons, fleeches etc as enemies and mostly just sligs can make encounters feel a little 1 dimensional. But i think personally that at least from a gameplay stamdpoint, the sandbox definitely helps out to counter that. During my playthrough i usually tried to look for an "intended approach" for a situation but often times had to admit that there probably wasn't any, and you had to come up with something yourself to solve it. That's pretty neat, and it's something they should definetely evolve upon with future titles.
I could never get into New n Tasty and have been enjoying Soulstorm so far (Slig Barracks as of now). It can get a bit frustrating as you will die 100+ times.
I'm glad you've been enjoying it! Why couldn't you get into New 'n' Tasty?
Yeah, one of the things that was really annoying for me about Soulstorm is how you'd die so much and lose so much progress that it became a slog (pun intended) to get through. It wasn't so much of a problem in Abe's Exoddus because you could just quick save and create your own checkpoints. I find it so weird how they removed that from Soulstorm when it feels like it would have greatly benefitted from it.
Could be the presentation. By the time I played it on Plus I was playing many AAA games so I couldnt be bothered to play past the first couple levels. This one looks FANTASTIC to me, really enjoying the art style and cutscenes are enjoyable. Never played the classics from PSOne tho.
Also the scope seems to be much much bigger this time, New n Tasty looked a bit small and just couldnt get into it. Once I finish Soulstorm I will give it another try.
Yeah that would be fair enough. New 'n' Tasty lacks the visual polish that the Oddworld games normally have. The cutscenes in Soulstorm are incredible, that's like the one area of the game I'll give some serious credit to, it makes me want to see them make an Oddworld film!
I would very highly recommend you check out the PS1 games if you're able to play them. They're amazing and they still have amazing graphics even playing them all this time later. I have no idea how they managed to get the cutscenes looking as good as that on PS1 hardware. But the in game graphics are also incredible because of the painted backgrounds just oozing detail.
From what I’ve watched, I’m not a fan of the double jumps, throwing bottles, I wanted a straight remake lol
I don't mind that it's not a straight up remake and that it does it's own thing separately from Exoddus, but it's just such a massive shame that all the things that make Soulstorm different from the original are also the things that make it worse. I would have preferred a straight up remake too compared to what we ended up with.
I hold out hope that in a few months the game will be significantly improved though. It still has key elements that will be flawed regardless of updates though, so Exoddus will always be better in the end.
You never said you had a twin from Oddworld! :)
Haha! Yeah I do! But the question is, which one is the twin!?
@@PixelPursuit I'm guessing the one on the right. It's the eyes. :)
imo i like the games story and cutscenes, but i feel like the gameplay itself and the glitches make it seem really janky and unfun. I honestly wish that oddworld inhabitants goes back to their roots and get rid of the inventory system, but i'm all for other mechanics that stay true to the old franchise while still being new.
I didn't actually like what little of the story I experienced. It didn't really seem to be going anywhere but maybe it gets better as it goes on (although I'm pretty certain I was about 75% of the way through the game when I stopped). The cutscene quality itself is amazing though, easily the best thing about the whole game!
I think they took this in a weird direction... It's like they wanted to add in all of these modern game mechanics but while also sticking with the side-scrolling gameplay of the originals and I don't really think those two things quite work together in the way it was intended to.
They probably should have stuck with doing a 1:1 remake of Abe's Exoddus and then done a more ambitious project afterwards...
I just hope that they get another chance at another game because I suspect that Soulstorm might not have done as well as they hoped...
What happened to "you can beat the game without killing anyone" and "you get bad Karna for killing anyone even sligs"
Is that true or not?
I actually think that is true. I've not read too much into it because I want to avoid heavy spoilers, but I believe you earn a worse ending if you kill a bunch of Sligs. But yeah, don't quote me on that because I'm not 100% sure.
It’s why I’m waiting for the physical version the pc version as far as I can tell Runs really good but I am annoyed I feel it should have released in July the same time as the physical version as for the story without spoiling it the endings have two big plot twists and hint at the next game
That's probably a good idea to be honest. I had the collector's edition pre-ordered but I actually cancelled it after my experience with the game. The PS5 version doesn't run all too well, so I'm glad to hear the PC version is a bit better in that area. I agree that it should have been delayed until July though. It almost feels like that was the intended release date but they rushed it out for some reason.
Awesome, that at least gives me something to look forward to for when I decide to go back to it! :D
@@PixelPursuit I also just realized why I think the game was released early think about it Sony had an exclusive deal and at the same time they said they see little positive even though they get most of the money from funding smaller indie Developers like Oddworld inhabitants and this news broke out only a week after the release
Man, going from the bullet proof platforming of the older Oddworld games to this one has been hard, I have to constantly battle with the game just to get it to work.
Wanna jump up on that ledge while your trying to sneak past some sleeping slogs? oh woops sorry, hit detection error!
Wanna throw a landmine at an enemy? woops its now stuck in mid air above their head!
just trying to get through an annoying section while you keep dying? well here's a sound file were going to repeat 10000 times a second to annoy you even more.
Been running through a level without encountering any glitches? well lets fix that by randomly throwing you under the map.
Playing on pc? wanna use your mouse to navigate through menus? nope, that's right you definitely don't want to click on menus with a mouse so we'll just make you use the wasd keys and space bar like a pc game from the 80s.
But all this is nothing compared to the biggest disappointment I've had with this game, wanna know what that award goes to? you can't fart, yes... you cannot fart in an Oddworld game, Lorne even said himself that he doesn't want Abe to be remembered as that fart guy but guess what, Abe is that fart guy and that's why I liked him so much in the first place, taking away Abe's ability to fart on command is like taking away Gordan Freeman's crowbar. They just aren't the same character anymore...
It seems we encountered a lot of the same issues! The big issue with the game is that it's just really, really rough around the edges. It literally feels like it's in early access or something which is kind of inexcusable when it's been in development for so long and they were marketing it as being this massive high production value experience.
Hahaha! Yeah the lack of farting is a bit weird isn't it! Especially when you consider that the farting was actually a pretty major mechanic in Abe's Exoddus where you could make your farts explode and even possess them! A lot of the Oddworld charm is certainly missing in Soulstorm.
Also was it ever explained why Abe has become an acrobat? L
No, that's never explained and it's one of the things that really annoys me about this game haha!
Maybe after the game is all fixed and pretty, they might release a physical copy for Switch! I'll wait for that. Thanks for the truth.
That is IF it gets fixed! Haha! I wonder if they will ever port it over to the Switch though. They seemed to be wanting to make a game that utilised the more powerful hardware of the other consoles so it would probably take a lot of work to get it running on the Switch. At least for now we have Stranger's Wrath, Munch's Oddysee and New 'n' Tasty on Switch though!
Oddworld is about slavery.. And so is Soulstorm.. Treating gamers as unpaid betatesters.
Thankfully I don't own it yet.. Did pre order the CE because of the Abe statue.
Haha, yeah that's a good parallel you've noticed there :D
I did pre-order the CE too, however after playing the game I promptly cancelled that pre-order haha! Even for the Abe statue, I don't really want to spend any money on Soulstorm if I can avoid it! The statue does look cool though I have to admit. Maybe with time I'll regret not getting it, but we'll see!
@@PixelPursuit I feel the same way. I have a Pi 3 and with some filters applied, the old Oddworld games look as good as ever. I prefer them over the remakes. I don't think I will ever play Soulstorm but an Abe figure is something I wanted for many years. So to me it's worth it, just for the figure alone.
I don't know what to think about this game I love it and I hate it it was a real epic game world like it looks amazing I licked the charakters the levels building stuff the challenges expect that one where you had to to the escape thing like 6 times in a row or something but it was soooo tidious to play through because sometimes you don't hang onto the monkey bars or corners edges or just get bombed away even tho u are standing under something the checkpoints are placed realy badly like there is one right after a saw crusher thing and I lost one mudokon and I refused to replay the level because it was already a tortute to get through I had a level breaking bug that the saw crusher things would move after deactivating them so I had to play the level again the non existence of scabs and paramites is well sad and one of the most fun things that exoddus had was playing as the glukkons I love these dudes and I reaaaaly was looking forward to posses them but NOP nothing sooooo yea I don't know what to think of this game I want to love it but I just can't
Yeah that's a very similar feeling to what I have too. I like what the game represents, like I'm all for a continuation of Abe's Oddysee that sort of reimagines Abe's Exoddus in a new way and I loved the cutscenes too. But the general gameplay is so glitchy and just lacking the variety that the original games had that I struggle to get into it. Certain parts of the game are just incredibly tedious as well which doesn't help!
Plus, I completely agree that the absence of any of the main Oddworld creatures is stupid. It almost feels like they were making this game with a tiny budget and had to just cut loads of stuff out, but I'm fairly certain they would have had quite a lot of money behind them to make this. I don't know what happened...
@@PixelPursuit maybe all the money went into the scenery and cutscenes because they look mh👌🏻 just mh👌🏻 gorgeous and the ending was also realy realy meh it's like ok so I played a game but where is the big pay of the the ending feels like the whole game is just to introduce the charakters and the new setting of oddworld games like its the borderlands 1 to the comming games because there will be more oddworld games continuing this one's story
@@PixelPursuit oh and sorry if sometimes my English isn't that good I'm German 😅
Yeah the environments can look really good can't they! But mostly it's the cutscenes that look incredible. I really wouldn't be against them just making a film about Abe with those graphics! Maybe the quality of the ending changes depending on which one you get? Unless you've gotten all of them? But yeah that kinda sucks that it doesn't really end and just sets up the next thing...
Don't worry about your English! It's perfect! I'm always impressed when people can use different languages like that, that's an awesome skill to have!
@@PixelPursuit thanks ma guy :) yea i got all the endings but well the first one i got was the bad one because you NEED to have at least 80% in every lvl to get the good one and the bad ending just comes out of nowhere like in munchs oddysee and i was like "What ok" well and then i played again just to get the good ending and like you get to play 3 more levels wich are NOTHING to drive home about like you littarly do the same thin in the same looking areas 9 times or so and yea the ending like i said leaves open allot of things that are probably gona get explained in the next game because the ending is REAAAAALLY teasing a next game
I can actually really agree with everything he's saying in this vid because I literally raged quite near the end of the game because of it being way to hard. (Spoilers) near the end of the last level you are against a bunch of flying sligs and NO JOKE I HAVE BEEN PLAYING THAT PART OF THE LEVEL FOR 2 DAY AND IT'S LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO COMPLETE THAT I CAN'T COMPLETE THE DAMN GAME ! And Its not usual for me to rage quite a game unless it really sucks or it's so hard that it's completely unplayable. Soulstorm has nothing on exoddus it's more simular to oddessey than exoddus like THEY GOT RID OF QUICK SAVING ! But don't get me wrong it's a real beautiful looking game.
I would probably give this game a 4.9/10, it's a beautiful game that doesn't feel like oddworld
Oh I know how you feel! I raged several times during my playthrough because of how tedious certain parts were. I haven't played a game this frustrating in a long time. Haha, so you still haven't completed it after all this time? I gave up with it too but it seems you got quite a bit further into it than I did!
Oh jeez don't get me started on the whole checkpoint system and quick save being missing. That was a huge thing I was going to be complaining about in my review. It absolutely sucks that once you've activated a checkpoint, you can't then go back to it and reactivate it to sort of update your progress. It results in situations where you take your time and gather loads of resources and do loads of crafting and then die and lose everything you've just spent ages collecting. It makes the game tedious. The fact there isn't a quick save is absolutely ridiculous considering how trial and error based the game is too. Plus it resulted in a section where I accidentally killed some Mudokons but ran into a checkpoint and then I couldn't go back to save them. With a quick save I could have gone back to before the checkpoint and rescued them all. And this was at the end of a level that took me well over an hour to get through. Seriously shoddy design there.
If I still did the number rating thing I would be even more harsh than that. I would be giving it like a 3 or a 4 maximum in it's current state. I didn't even think it looked that good, I encountered absolutely loads of visual glitches!
@@PixelPursuit also the worst part is that I got the game at day 1 and took me most of the Easter holidays to get though and got stuck at the literal LAST PART OF THE LEVEL TO COMPLETE THE GAME ! Seriously I think most of there best minds left to work at J.A.W or something hahaha.
Yeah this game has to be the most unfair oddworld game ever made in my opinion also why is it still glitchy it's been delayed for almost a decade now. This game is like the oddworld version of cyberpunk AND NO ONE WANTS THERE GAME TO BE LIKE CYBERPUNK
Haha, yeah I do wonder what this game would have turned out like if J.A.W. had done it instead. It probably would have been much more similar to the original Abe's Exoddus, but that would have been for the better!
I also keep comparing Soulstorm to Cyberpunk in my mind haha! It's like the indie version of Cyberpunk! Although I guess technically Cyberpunk is indie... But you know what I mean! :D
Fair.
At the end of the day I liked it a lot myself. Of course the bugs were my biggest gripe. After the bugs, which they hopefully will get rid of, there is still things I dislike however, such as the fact that slig gamespeak doesn't matter in soulstorm. In previous games using it was a way to solve some puzzles like ordering slogs to follow and attack or telling mudokons to duck so you could safely take out some other sligs. Now it's just there. You can say hi to other sligs but that's about it, it doesn't contribute to the gameplay anymore which is a terrible shame.
I agree that the game will be much better without the bugs, but you're also spot on in saying that they've removed a ton of mechanics from the original games. Not only is gamespeak massively downgraded but also there's no emotional states for the Mudokons anymore, there's no mine car sections and worst of all... No exploding farts! (At least, there wasn't at the point I got to).
honest and detailed, enough so that i won’t be buying this game, it’s unfortunate because im a big fan of 1&2.
Yeah I don’t blame you for being put off of it… While I’m sure that they’ve updated some of the glitches, the core of the game just seems extremely flawed to me.
It’s unbelievably disappointing because I’m a really big fan of the first two games too and to have a new game come out that’s so… ehhh… It just makes me lose faith in the developers a bit to be honest.
yeah, agreed man you need to upgrade your capture card for the GX review too. And it is so depressing how games come out unfinished these days, I hate patches. Bro, it is unacceptable how games are releasing unfinished, you pay money to play fucking unfinished product, how the hell it even became a thing it is beyond me. The last modern AAA game that I was hyped for and I remember it was finished from launch was Max Payne 3, and it came almost 10 fucking years ago...
3:25 is that a joke? Thank god I play old games Jesus christ I can't believe how bad games are now...
Abe's Exoddus looks better bro
Rob this is literally stupid. Naughty dog started making cinematic movies instead of games, and ODDWORLD that actually benefited from being cinematic is now gamey with HUD ELEMENTS? What is even going on.... games have gone to shit.
Man, I am devastated HOW GAMES RELEASE UNFINISHED? How is that even happen man and people don't mind it? I don't get it, who would buy unfinished games.
Yeah I do, it's something I've been meaning to upgrade for a while now but because of the PS5 being 4K, it's really highlighted how dated my current graphics card is.
I suppose the one saving grace with the Soulstorm situation is that at least it's free for PS5 users. That doesn't at all excuse it's current state though. It shouldn't have been released like this to be honest.
Haha, no that isn't a joke, that's very, very real and there's quite a few videos like that floating around too!
Yeah, Abe's Exoddus looks a lot better. They can't replicate the style of those older games with modern 3D graphics, it just doesn't work.
Haha! Yeah that's true! Oddworld have already said that the next update will allow you to disable the HUD, but my point is that you shouldn't need to wait for something like that to be patched into the game. Surely they knew it should have been there from release?
It’s hard to say if Covid had a big impact on the polishing period because I think the majority of the team work remotely anyways.
Rough launch for sure though.
That could be a possibility. If that is the case though I would rather them have just delayed the game. Maybe that wasn't an option because they were running out of money though? Who knows what was going on!
@@PixelPursuit There might be time deadlines. For example there's a collectors edition with artbook (some of which will be autographed) and figurine, etc that's coming out in July 6th. So you can't really delay too long. Come to think of it, it's actually a good idea to release the digital months before the physical just to catch and fix the bugs. I recommend doing the review in July when the physical is due.
Man great pre review. I don’t like this game compared to the original version. it’s good to hear I’m not the only one who was disappointed.
Me neither! I’m hoping that by the time I go back to play it again it’ll be at least a bit better. But who knows!
I just finished the game. I gotta say I'm disappointed. It's visually uninspiring, monotonous, repetitive and mostly boring. Nothing like Exoddus. And I really didn't like the crafting.
Yeah the crafting was pretty poorly implemented. I feel like maybe it could have worked but it needed a lot more flexibility to work as it was intended to. It's like they were trying to make it so that you could solve puzzles or complete areas however you wanted, but in reality there's obviously only one intended solution. They don't give you enough materials to be creative with the crafting which isn't helped by how what you're carrying isn't taken over to the next level.
It really sucks cuz I really wanted to play this game and I think I love the world and the characters I just can't with the gameplay it's a real issue
Yeah, I definitely understand where you're coming from. I really struggled to get into it at first too but luckily when I tried it for a second time, it was a lot better. Still not perfect though unfortunately...
Just release a negative review.
To be fair, when I eventually do make the review it'll probably still be negative. There's only so much they can change with updates and I think my issues with the game go far beyond just the glitches and bugs. I'm trying to remain open minded about it though I swear haha!
Bugs aside, for me this game looks incredible, but massively falls down in level design, oddworld atmosphere and tedious game mechanics. Crafting is annoying. Having to constantly loot from lockers and bins is annoying. Double jumping is inconsistent. Sometimes Abe doesn't grab the monkey bars for no reason. The sections with hundreds of mudokens climbing away from sligs is so unbalanced. The gameplay difficulty curve is all over the place. I'm about 80% through the game and I honestly haven't had any fun yet. Exodus was a far better platformer.
I completely agree with you about the crafting. I didn't like it at all and I feel like they really underutilised it. It feels like it's there just to jump on a trend rather than being expanded into something that adds something to the gameplay. Oh my god, the bits with hundreds of Mudokons are the absolute worst. The part in the Slig Barracks where you need to protect the Mudokons from the Sligs and it goes through about three phases of it is where I stopped playing the game. I literally killed almost every Mudokon because I just couldn't be bothered to keep repeating the sections over and over again. Then I just thought, "I'm not actually having any fun with this" and stopped playing to make this video instead haha! Exoddus will always be the far superior game!
I already decided I wasn't gonna support this game when I saw the gameplay footage, with the lackluster level design and the *shudders* item crafting...
Yeah... I have to admit I was also very worried about the quality of this game when I saw the gameplay trailers. It just didn't look like Oddworld to me. And now it's actually out, it doesn't really feel like an Oddworld game either! I still hold out hope that it'll eventually be updated to such an extent that I can at least bare to play through the whole thing though!
Much rather just play the first 2. New N Tasty and Soulstorm are shite. Such a shame.
I can at least defend New 'n' Tasty to an extent because it functionally works as a game. Plus it sticks so close to the original game that they couldn't really go wrong with any of the level designs or puzzles. I still massively prefer the original though! Soulstorm on the other hand... Yeah I agree with you there!
I just found Oddysee as an experience far superior. The audio, pre-rendered background art and most of all just the atmosphere ad dark tone of the hame compared to how cartoon like and bright New N Tasty seemed to be! And my god did I bump into a lot of bugs with that game, yet can’t seem to remember any with the original?
The most brutal and honest review on soulstoem good job
Honestly, I doubt that waiting until October will really change your review that much. I mean sure, the glitches will (hopefully) be patched out, but stuff like the story, lack of different enemies and the visual elements most likely won't be changed. And you may like the series and all, but I think you're giving this game too much of a free pass with all the problems it has. Games being released in broken and unfinished states like this is a serious problem and this one shouldn't be let off the hook so easily just because it's Oddworld.
Exactly
I agree, but the thing is, I was having a very hard time with even just playing the game because of the amount of issues I was experiencing with the core gameplay. Things like checkpoints not working properly, bosses seemingly not being balanced or making sense and loads of other things. The huge issues like the lack of variety, kinda bland looking environments and the slow story won't be changed and are all things I'll explore in a lot of detail later, but I at least hope that the game will be more playable by then without making me angry haha!
I also agree that I'm giving it somewhat of a free pass when I otherwise wouldn't with any other series. I can't really excuse that to be honest. Like I said in the video, it's just a case of me not wanting to make a video going into loads of detail about all of the issues and then by the time I've uploaded it, half of the issues have been removed from the game.
But yeah, I totally agree that games outright should not be released in these kinds of states. It's particularly infuriating because this normally doesn't happen to me because I normally don't buy the sorts of games this happens with... (Not that I actually purchased this one to be fair!)
For real they would have been better off just making HD remakes of the originals....
I like that they were trying to be more ambitious but it really didn't pay off in the end unfortunately... It probably would have been a lot better to have just replicated Abe's Exoddus instead.
Everything I think is bad about the game. Bad main menu
Just remove Double jump
Items / crafting
You can't fart
AI back in the day can only see abe when his on the same hight. now they see him no matter how high or low he is
The hud
And probably other stuff
Im sad this game is how it is. And I hope its fix some day.
It really does have a lot of problems... I'm still holding out hope that when I go back to it for my full review that it won't be quite as bad as when I first played it!
dont worry mate, i ABSOLUTELY despite the new soulstorm... im sad as the new and tasty was amazing and so are the classic games. i agree with all you said about how the game feels like a mobile game.. i hate the double jump with a passion !! it shouldnt exist !!! why not make ABE fly ? it would make no difference on how you would tackle the obstacles anyway!! life bar? constant popups? man this is garbage level of a mobile game, i wont be surprised to see it release on android one day
I'm glad I'm not alone in thinking it was rubbish haha! They really went against everything that made the original games stand out so much. The realism of those older games is completely gone in Soulstorm and it makes the game a lot less immersive and impactful. It's such a shame they went in this strange direction...
Its so disappointing to see oddworld go down this path. Oh well we still have the 4 original games
Yeah that's definitely the way I look at it too, no matter what happens the original games will still be there. Luckily though Soulstorm was updated quite a lot and it's significantly improved from what it was like when I made this video. I've done a full review of it now and I'm more positive about it :D
@@PixelPursuit ok, im still not sure why they felt the need to redo exodus?
as big oddworld fan iam honest. The Game is trash, even without the bugs its a boring repetetive game. The Old Oddworld Abe's Oddysee and Exoddus had 10 times more varity.
Yeah that's one of the things that baffles me the most about Soulstorm. It was supposed to be the ultimate version of Abe's Exoddus and the experience that game was supposed to be. But it's just straight up worse in so many ways... It doesn't make any sense.
Finally someone who says it
Haha, yeah I've noticed people seem to be praising this game a lot and I have no idea why!
Oddtober the sequel
coming October 2021
Technically it’s the sequel to the sequel! It’s season 3! 😀
Damn, I enjoyed it. It's not Exodus tho.
I'm glad that you enjoyed it! I really wish I could have had a good time with it. I really tried with it but after a while I just couldn't ignore the lack of polish put into it. It's just not the quality I expect from Oddworld personally.
Lorne didn't want to make video games. He wanted to make movies.
Figure out the narrative of Oddworld and it's an easy guess as to why Hollywood wouldn't accept his ilk.
The individuals responsible for the PS1 classics had him and his vision on a leash so as to convey it in the interactive format of Oddysee and Exoddus the way they did by a team that knew how best to do it. The industry at the time was far from the behemoth that it's become and so real effort had to be put in to the games so as to compel people to buy them.
Those people are long-gone from the industry and are never coming back - having been replaced by the new generation of workers who strive to meet the wages they're paid and nothing more.
Soulstorm was a movie-turned-game that floundered because the people who brought Oddworld to the spotlight in the first place are no longer there and neither is their drive to make it what it once was.
While I’m very glad he got into the game industry, I do think that Soulstorm might have made a better film or TV show than game. You can tell they put far more effort into the cutscenes than any other area of the game, so it probably would have been better if it wasn’t a game!
If Oddysee and Exoddus was his vision being on a leash then he should probably go back to that to be honest. People do always say that when creative people are more restricted they end up creating better art and I think this is a classic case of that. The creative workarounds you need to do to get past restrictions can result in some really engaging stuff!
But yeah I completely agree with you there. The new Oddworld Inhabitants team doesn’t seem to be as invested in the vision as the original team.
i lick the game
Whatever you do, do not lick Nintendo Switch games. They taste horrible. Trust me!