Oddity Is A Commodity - Oddworld certainly lives up to its name. Although heavily influenced by tales of the Wild West, Stranger’s Wrath doesn’t even attempt to fool you into believing its tale is anything but fiction. Our protagonist, Stranger, is a feline-esque creature, and he travels through imaginatively named towns such as ‘Gizzard Gulch’ and ‘New Yolk City’, which are largely populated by Buzzards. If I heard this as a sales pitch, I’d think you were drunk, but Stranger’s Wrath makes it work.

Cult of Personality - Ammunition is a severely neglected aspect of modern videogames.  Oftentimes, it just sits there statically, looking bland and boring. In some games, ammo doesn’t even have a face at all, instead appearing in the form of a gun. Stranger’s Wrath makes a stand for ammo, and gives it a voice! To take down the bad guys, you’ll be using bees, skunks, spiders, and other forms of critters that are blessed with various destructive attributes. There’s nothing more endearing than hearing your killing tools talking to you from the end of the barrel of your gun.

Beautiful Dust - Stranger’s Wrath looks surprisingly good in Hi-Def, with smooth graphics, decent mechanics (including an interesting yet welcome take on healing), and a good variation of scenery and environments. The only thing that detracts from this is the blurring of scenery when you’re travelling at pace. Some games include this for style points, but in Stranger’s Wrath it feels more like a game showing its age. 

STRANGER DANGER

Mysterious Shadows - For all the praise of the graphics and mechanics I just gave, there’s one thing that really throws me off, particularly in the stealthy sections of Stranger’s Wrath. I don’t know why this would happen, and it’s a little hard to explain, but sometimes you’ll see an enemy’s shadow on a wall which is on the other side of the object where he is standing. This also occurs sometimes with shadows appearing on walls or ceilings, where there is no light source that should be causing this to happen. When you’re trying to sneak around and spot enemies without being spotted yourself, this can lead to much frustration.

Assassin’s Creed Disease - Whilst Stranger’s Wrath does offer more variety than the initial title in Ubisoft’s series, you will find yourself jaded by repeating the same actions over and over. Aside from the occasional mixing-up of the formula (such as an Indiana Jones-inspired Minecart sequence), you’ll find yourself repeating the same actions of entering a town, picking up a bounty, asking about the bounty, shooting some bad guys on your way to the bounty, bagging (or killing) said bounty, getting your reward, and then repeating the process. It’s not the kind of game you can play for hours without feeling more than a hint of déjà vu.

Even with an extra seven years of gaming experience behind me, there were still points in which I felt Stranger’s Wrath was showing tendencies of borderline schizophrenia. Trying to merge all the different genres makes for an interesting mix, but there are definitely times where it feels like the game’s various elements been forced together a little too hard. Luckily, when Stranger’s Wrath works, it works pretty well, even when held up against more recent releases. The HD upgrade makes for a surprisingly good-looking game, and for those who overlooked it on its original release, this offers a perfect opportunity to make amends. There are some moments where you have to remember the age of the engine that lies under the pretty exterior, but more often than not, you’ll get lost in this strange and wild world and enjoy every minute of it.

*This review was based on the PS3 version of the game with a review code provided by the publisher.*