Oddworld: Soulstorm
A BEAUTIFUL PRESENTATION, BUT GLITCHY IN A FRUSTRATING WAY.
It’s easy to root for Abe. The Mudokons, a mystic race of amphibian-like pacifists, have been enslaved for centuries by the cruel industrial cartels of the Glukkons. The cartels’ greed is insidious, and it poisons everything on Oddworld. Mudokons are worked to the bone, institutionally drugged, and punished for any perceived insubordination. It’s up to one Mudokon to spark an insurrection and free his people from chains. That’s the plot of the 1998 Playstation cult classic Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus, and many of the same core story beats are preserved in this 2021 “reimagining.” Lorne Lanning, patriarch of the Oddworld cosmology, has only grown more pointed in his depiction of capitalism’s rot, and as usual, he uses a strange, off-kilter drama composed of nasal-throated aliens to get his point across.
Maybe Soulstorm is an ideal tribute to the PlayStation era, considering how much periodspecific jank is in the code. There were multiple times where the game’s checkpointing system put me in the middle of an active firefight. I would die and respawn with hail of bullets inches away from Abe’s tender, vulnerable head.
Oddworld: Soulstorm’s charm, characters, and sincere narrative are imprisoned within buggy, erratic software.
Luke Winkie