Oddworld: New & Tasty - First Impressions

Hey Guys

One of my favourite games on PlayStation was Abe's Oddysee from the Oddworld series. It's a platform puzzle game where you're a Mudokon, called Abe, working at a meat processing plant. Meat supplies are running low and the CEO is forced to find a new product to increase revenue. Abe discovers the new meat is MUDOKON!! It's your task to escape Rupture Farms while saving as many of your kind as possible.

Recently I discovered they have remade the game and released it as Oddworld: New & Tasty which is a great play on the poster Abe sees in the beginning scenes of the original.

When I first heard about this game I was excited and really wanted to try it. I looked on Steam and found it was on sale at 40% off. So I jumped at the chance. Then the fear set in. What if it was just a remake in the way of graphics and not really a New & Tasty game. I settled on the thought that I could still replay the game with the new graphics. I would still enjoy it.

This morning it finally finished downloading and I jumped straight in, even before breakfast... shh don't tell Bel I skipped breakfast to play it....

So my first impression on the title screen was good. Really clean graphics and beautiful sounds. Abe even spoke a little more in the menu then before.

I wanted to play the game using a controller like I did on the PSX so I went into settings and tried to set that up. Now this was my first disappointment. My controller, even though the image on the screen was identical to mine, it would not work correctly. Now I didn't look too far into this so it could be another fault but to begin with, I can not use my controller. Keyboard will have to do.

I started the game. The cut scene didn't seem to have much improvement but once the game started I could clearly see the difference.

First scene

A few improvements I noticed is how the game played. For example in the original, the screen did not scroll. When you got to the edge of the screen the next screen would load. In New & Tasty the stages scroll into each other. The game feels a lot more fluid. I also noticed when you give commands to your friends, they respond instantly, unlike the older version. This was beginning to feel as though it was not just a graphic update, but a full recode of the game.

Bird portal in the original

Bird portal in New & Tasty

As I played further into the game I realised the game was not the same at all. There are set areas which are the same as the original, but only enough to link your memory to the original game. I now had in my hands a whole new Oddworld adventure.

Here is a comparison of a part of the game which stayed the same. It also shows the stage flowing into the next part.

I have always said it's the little things in games that make or break the game and this game is packed full of the little things. From the Mudokon workers grumbling about the lack of pay to the giggles they do when something happens.

If you are a fan of the Oddworld series and especially Abes Oddysee then my first impressions say to get this game. Seriously you will not be disappointed.

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SighFye