Meet Stranger and let him be a stranger no more
Currently available as a downloadable HD re-release for the PC and PS3, but originally released for the Microsoft Xbox in 2005, Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath was developer Oddworld Inhabitants' attempt to move away from their platforming roots and into the popular genre of first-person shooters.
They still maintained a bit of platforming, however, which is why you can also play this game from a third-person perspective when that is required. And more importantly, the signature art style and atmosphere of the previous Oddworld games are still very much what sets Stranger's Wrath apart.
But this time they placed their creation in a setting that is very familiar, yet often unused in games. A setting that is similar to traditional western films and with a main character who might resemble Clint Eastwood in his early spaghetti western years, had he not been devilishly handsome, but rather a grotesque, otherworldy (or 'oddworldly') animal walking on two feet while wearing a cowboy hat.
"Stranger" is the protagonist's name, and he is indeed a stranger, a mysterious outsider, much like the kind of character Clint used to play. The player spends about half of the game knowing not much else about Stranger than that he is a bounty hunter, and that is the kind of work you'll be doing, initially. You go about your tasks using a crossbow that shoots a rather unique assortment of ammo made out of varying kinds of insects and animals, although their function is more like traditional kinds of ammo, be they machine gun-esque or grenade launcher-ish.
You'll be spending a lot of time attempting to knock enemies unconcious rather than killing them as you can then suck them up, Ghostbusters-style, to earn more moolah (the game's currency). This can be a bit annoying and feel a bit too much like work when you just want to shoot the crap out of everyone, knowing that you'll get more out of it if you stop to clean up neatly after every single encounter. It's not so much that you have the option to collect unconscious enemies, but rather that you have to hold down a button and wait a while to do so that gets in the way of the otherwise well-paced and fine-tuned action.
The initial goal of Stranger's journey is to collect bounties and obtain enough moolah for an operation that he needs, and without spoiling anything I will say that the game gets much more interesting and much more fast-paced after the bounty-hunting portion of the first half of the game is over. This first half consists of a basic routine pattern that can be summed up as: "go kill/capture wanted outlaw somewhere, return to town to collect the bounty" - repeated ad nauseum.
I think this part of the game should have been considerably shorter, especially considering there is not much going on to motivate your progression through it all, neither in terms of interesting characters nor story-related events. Instead you are presented with town after town inhabitated by nothing but talking chickens who all look and sound the exact same, in addition to a selection of outlaws who are ultimately forgettable as both characters and boss battles.
However, in the second half the game is much better paced, more action-packed, offers better set-pieces and more interesting locales and scenery. When I first played it in January 2005, just a month or so after I had finished Half-Life 2 for the first time, I actually found myself thinking that this second portion of Stranger's Wrath was veering closer and closer to the quality I had been offered all the way through HL2. This is probably the highest praise I can give Stranger's Wrath. It is not a consistently brilliant game, but it is one that builds up nicely to a satisfying second half and conclusion (apart from the final boss battle, which is a bit of a disappointment like every other boss in the game).
So, to summarise my praise and criticism of this game, I suspect that many may find themselves getting bored before getting halfway through the game. But even so I would certainly recommend these people to continue playing. It is definitely worth following Stranger to the end of his adventure: It is filled with sights, sound and action that you won't soon forget, and now, thanks to the wonders of digital distribution on consoles and PC, you can enjoy it in HD for a very fair price.
