ODDWORLD: Steef's Oddysee

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Game Informer Magazine, issue #124, page #20:

ODDWORLD UNVEILED

Oddworld Inhabitants' Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee was a marquee game for the Xbox's launch in 2001, but it failed to connect with consumers. However, the developer is coming back with an all-new title in the series that totally breaks away from the ugly duckling of Munch. Tentatively titled Oddworld 4, the developer is getting ready to unveil a new character, Steef, and a whole new direction.

While we personally think it's the tabacco indistry's sly attempt to introduce Joe Camel to a new generation of gamers, Oddworld Inhabitants' own Lorne Lanning describes Steef as a combination of a horse, lion, gorilla, and Clint Eastwood! Whatever the inspiration, Lanning is ditching Abe and Munch in favor of a more action-oriented experience that fluidly combines gameplay and story elements. Not only does the myterious Steef conceal a deadly crossbow -- which can be used in first-person sequences -- but he also alters his shape as the game progresses. We'll see him grow horns and maybe even gallop like a horse. Oddworld 4 is over a year away, but Lanning and crew are hard at work blending the amazing graphics we've come to expect from the developer with this new approach.

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The article also displays two screen shots (one of two "chicken-men," wearing overalls, conversing while leaning on a barrel; and another of a dead tree in a swamp with a character that bears an uncanny resemblance to a Hoodlum from Rayman 3, right down to the thatched tweed duds) and two bits of concept art (one of Steef up close and in-your-face, and the other of a sea-gate with a boat stearing it's way inside).

I must say I am extremely excited about this, but for the life of me can't see why they'd change the formula for the games. I like the "Game-Speak" puzzles and lack of any real weapons to directly dispatch threats. I like action games as well, but that is definitly not the direction I'd expect this series to turn.

There was absolutley nothing wrong with Munch and his adevnture, and for shame on Lorne for thinking sales make the game. It's one thing to say you're taking the series in a new direction to stimulate sales, but to say you're doing it because the original concept was flawed when it clearly wasn't is a critical error. Not to mention the game made Platnum Hits status!

I have many problems with the reasoning proportedly being poured into this new Oddworld, but I'm still excited. Lorne hasn't let me down yet (as far as I'm concerned Oddworld Inhabitants' track record is as good as Blizzard's), so I'll wait and see, but hearing this is still a big disappointment.

I seen something on the Discovery channel about this. The game is like a western kinda now. It looks nothing like the other games.

Yeah that documentary about developing for the Xbox showed quite a bit about this game. Didn't look very good, or like it could end up very good either. Not a fan of Oddworld though...

I was very interested...I love Oddworld...I really like the idea of a total spin-off away from Abe. It's kinda like a FF world thing.

Everything but the personality of the game was wrong with Munch. The control was sloppy, the objectives were tedious and boring, aside from the control issues the difficulty was non-existant, etc. It was just a bad game and a huge step down from the previous games in the series. It didn't sell because it wasn't fun, according to me and virtually everyone else I know who has played it.

It sounds like crap. My guess is that it's going to be annother souless platformer with little or no distinguishing characteristics to seperate it from the 7,000,000,000 others on the market now. I like the episodic nature of the first three and I was glad when I heard it would run atleast five games. Now however I am saddend at the prospect of them creating a sequel that isn't in any way true to its predecessors. What's going to happen to Abe?

I'm excited to check this out, it's a shame that Steef's original character design was scraped, he was more like a Centaur at first. The interesting thing about Oddworld is that according to Oddworld Inhabitants, the actual planet of Oddworld is so massively large, that each area can be wildly different from the last, since it takes so long for technology and other stuff like that to get around. This pretty much gives them the liberty to do whatever the hell they want.

Ah, so this IS part of the quintology, very cool. I dug what I saw on the Discovery channel thing.

im only interested in seeing if they give as much bs as they did to GameFan that one time.

I really liked the Discovery Channel thing because it showed how developers select games. It was funny to see Lornes face when he was told that they feared he had too many ideas. But yeah this game looks really weird, and seems to be all over the place. And looks to be nothing like any Oddworld game ever. I mean its got First Person shooting in it.