I love me my anti-capitalist breakdowns especially with an aesthetic this strong and a core puzzle idea so intertwined with said aesthetic that it itself requires large amounts of praise, but this puzzler in many ways underwhelmed me. A lot of it to me, is due to the difficulty or to be more clear, how obtuse solutions can be at times. And at the same time, the puzzles also become pathetically easy past the halfway point. I found myself more often than not going through the motions. I was certainly in the zone a lot of the time, it's incredibly competent even with the large amount of cracks in the seams that irk me, but any recommendation I can do of it comes with hesitation.

It's a competent goodish puzzler that mostly holds up due to incredible story meets gameplay systems, and I can recommend it just on that.

Between the bleak dystopian setting, the need to rely on your wits more than your brawn to survive in a hostile world, and the complete lack of a UI that helps things feel more immersive, Abe's Oddysee wears the "Another World" influence proudly on its sleeve. It does have much stronger puzzle elements compared to Another World's largely trial-and-error gameplay, and that mostly works in this game's favor.

The puzzle elements largely revolve around manipulating the various hazards and hostile creatures in order to make it through the levels in one piece, whether it be sneaking past two fiercely territorial scrabs as they fight to the death, luring an enemy into a land mine, or 'possessing' a slig to have him take out some of the threats ahead. While some of the puzzles do get quite difficult, the AI is remarkably consistent and the various enemy types will always behave in a very predictable way which means you will actually get better and better at the game mechanics the more you play (as opposed to the rote memorization of 'gotcha' moments that plague many similar games).

The puzzle mechanics are greatly enhanced by the game's great sense of atmosphere, and in how much personality they infused into the enslaved Mudokons (who you spend most of the game trying to rescue). These ugly adorable flatulent dudes with the minion voices retain their spirit and sense of humor even in the face of frankly horrific treatment, and it gives the setting a very distinct and somehow very effective fusion of humor and tragedy. More importantly, it enhances the gameplay by giving you 'puzzle pieces' that you actually care about. Sure, you can get to the next area by using the other slaves as human mudokon shields but it'll also make you feel like a dick; conversely, when you find the perfect solution to set all the slaves free and (often barely) just survive yourself, it's doubly satisfying.

This ties in very well with how the game cleverly sidesteps my frequent gripe with puzzle games: the difficulty. Puzzle games have it tough because unlike other genres, you either know the solution or you don't, and there's no in-between; this makes it difficult for games to find the tiny middle ground between "braindead easy" and "so difficult that you get stuck and consult a guide". Abe's Oddysee has its share of difficult puzzles, but the majority of those are optional and just lead to you being able to rescue more Mudokon slaves (who as we've established, you tend to feel honor-bound to try to save). What this means is that you will want to save as many slaves as possible, but if you find yourself really stuck you can just continue with the main game without having to consult a guide.

Abe's Oddysee unfortunately also suffers from a common issue with similar games: the stiff controls. For the most part they don't spoil the experience, but there are just a few too many time-sensitive situations that you need to rush through and demand near frame-perfect timing that I can't also give the game a free pass on that.

In the end, the frustrating moments were far outweighed by the game's strengths. When I used the experience gained in my first playthrough to save more Mudokons the second time through and was rewarded with a different better ending, it gave me a real sense of accomplishment (and guilt about the two guys I allowed to get beaten to death). I'm looking forward to playing its sequels!

Oddworld Abe's Oddysee is one of the earliest games I remember playing. This game is super nostalgic to me. The atmosphere in this game is just Godly. The early levels of Rupture Farms especially, which I'd play through over and over as a kid, are just iconic to me. The huge factory with barrels in the background and blood all over the place. It really is unmatched in setting the tone of the horrible world this takes place in, and then you get beautiful locations like the stockyard at night, and the areas with all the giant statues of the unique creatures that inhabit Oddworld.

The game controls very well thanks to the consistency and tightness of controls, like a jump will always move you 2 spaces and a running jump will move you 3.

Gameplay varies between slow stealth sections that involve a lot of waiting, some puzzles which will have you feeling satisfied once you figure out how all the pieces come together and some intense chase sequences with split second decision making to add some faster paced gameplay into the mix. The faster paced parts are a nice break from the majority that require a lot of patience. I don't mind that, but what I do mind is the times when you need to throw a rock/grenade perfectly, and if you miss you need to waste time going back to get more.

It's not perfect, and there's some inclusions in the sequel that this game desperately needed, such a quick save to help with those stingy checkpoints - especially if you're trying to save all the Mudokon's. Also the fact you can only ever have 1 person following you at a time becomes a real time waster in some parts.

I'm also not a big fan of the Elum sections as he tends to be very slippery which makes those jumping sections that require perfect timing harder than it is with Abe who controls so smoothly.

Basically the game is unmatched in its aesthetics, while gameplay is generally very fun and unique, but can become a bit too slow, or even trial-and-error'ry at times.

Anyway I saved 98/99 Mudokon's and now I'm kicking myself for missing 1 and being unable to set the game to mastered :')

This is one of my favourite games of all time. The atmosphere is so immersive and I still remember when I played this game as a child.
The dark theme of the entire games sets the character development and story up complete. You find yourself immersed in the creatures and environments of the game.
Mechanically, the game has seen better days with it playing best on PC rather than PS. The puzzles can be hard for new time players but ultimately rewarding when you get them right.
Highly recommend this game for someone who enjoys dark themes and platformers

Abe é um personagem curioso e com visual um tanto repugnante. De fato todo a direção de arte de Abe é repugnante, e um dos motivos que não me prenderam neste clássico dos puzzles-platformers.

Apesar da direção de arte exótica, Abe tem um bom level design e uma certa dose de humor, pra quem consegue ultrapassar a barreira da arte.

Não conseguiu me prender até o fim.

*sneak sneak sneak

Bang bang bang

Oh

This definitely has a few difficult moments that seemed like mistakes that turned out completely intentional. I guess that's archaic game design for you. Despite those select occurrences of N.K.W.T.D (Not Knowing What To Do), this was an absolute blast. I've been wanting to try this out for six years, and finally playing through the whole thing was cathartic. The visuals are insanely well done and the atmosphere surrounding this narrative is brilliant. The level design has some really cool puzzle ideas and mechanics that keep getting better and better the longer it goes. The PS1 keeps blowing my mind with how much these developers were able to pull off on this hardware. Truly the wild west of video game generations.

I should really play Wild Arms.