ODDWORLD: SOULSTORM
Viva la revolución!
Format PS4 ETA 2020 Pub TBC Dev Oddworld Inhabitants
Described as a ‘retake’ of Abe’s Exoddus, with Soulstorm Oddworld Inhabitants hopes to get the quintology back on track. It follows 2014’s New ‘N’ Tasty, itself a reimagining of PlayStation 1 platformer Abe’s Oddysee, and is intended to be a true continuation of Abe’s journey as he becomes the leader of a revolution. Of course, one Mudokon does not a revolution make. You once again recruit a horde of followers to traipse after you, though this time around they’re useful for more than determining which ending you get. These ones can fight back. In our time with a demo, we saw our amassed Mudokons hurling an array of flammable craftables at armed Sligs that would have annihilated Abe had he gone it alone.
But to balance this, there are more hazards to snip away at your numbers. The most notable example we’ve seen of this is the trains running through the demo level. Getting past these bad boys without a sizeable number of your Mudokons being reduced to a jammy smear requires deft co-ordination, timing and, of course, clenching. The trains are not only a teaser of the sort of hazards you will run into, they also sell the scale of this level. We’ll return to Oddworld to have more train-related anxiety heaped on us next year.
Long-awaited prequel Beyond Good & Evil 2 may someday soon breach the atmosphere and finally ask for permission to land. Maybe. What we know for sure is that the project is shaping up to be of an especially massive scope, as Ubisoft has recently shown not only space travel but also multiplayer. Your buddy could be cruising through Ganesha City while you’re half a world away, surveying a planet for points of interest with your spyglass. It looks epic.
But speaking of scope, few things could possibly compare to Disco Elysium’s dense web of story branches and skill checks – except for our excitement that it’s coming to PlayStation. A game where you play as a detective so debilitated by a hangover that he needs to rediscover his own identity on top of what he’s even good at? Talk about relatable!
Even more dread-instilling than a legendary hangover is the infamous xenomorph, and Cold Iron Studios, a subsidiary of FoxNext, is working on a multiplayer Aliens game. On top of that, while EA has said it won’t be launching a mainline entry in the Battlefield series next year, it’s only a matter of time before we start hearing about a new one. Soon enough, we’ll be chomping at the bit for Capcom’s Project Resistance as well as Ubisoft’s Skull & Bones… whenever that swashbuckling, tactical open world action game pulls into port.
But that doesn’t mean single-player, story-led experiences will be relegated to the past. If IO Interactive keeps up its current approach to sequels, the next Hitman is shaping up to be a phenomenally robust package that we still won’t see coming. Town Of Light developer LKA is promising plenty of scares with its dark, folkloric tale Martha Is Dead next year. 2021 will also see the release of what is perhaps PlayStation 5’s first confirmed title:
The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum. With precious little time left in the current decade at time of writing, the next one looks like it’ll be off to a cracking start.