Oddworld: Soulstorm
Dweveloper/publisher Oddworld Inhabitants Format PC, PS4, PS5 (tested) Release Out now
The sound of hard rocks slapping against bloody, wet meat. The vicious barks of ancient, feral creatures rending flesh from bone. The pneumatic march of machine legs patrolling dank prisons and factory floors slick with grease. These are the sounds you may remember of Oddworld – an oppressive state where capitalism seems to have almost reached its logical, doomed conclusion. A world where the proletariat is worked to death, ground up into food and then served the ruling class. Where the slaves quite literally feed the system.
Or they would if it weren’t for Abe, who overheard the baddies’ plot to turn the in 1997 and its shot-for-shot remake in 2014. Eager not to be turned into a canaille cannoli, the Mudokon emancipator flees RuptureFarms and – canonically – takes his fellow workers with him, eager to serve perennial big bad Molluck the Glukkon his just desserts. Enter , a loose retread of 1998’s . The world is as unwelcoming as you remember it: fascistic Sligs roam the roads, itchy trigger fingers primed to shoot Abe on sight. The native fauna sleeps restlessly, hackles raised and teeth bared at the first sign of any interloper. But it’s not just the world that’s unwelcoming – the game itself has somehow taken on this hostility and often feels like it simply doesn’t want to be played. It’s not merely trying to be hard - at times, it’s intentionally obtuse.
