Reviews// Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath (Xbox)

It's a huge shame, as the graphics are excellent throughout and the effort does show. The pre-rendered cut scenes are up there with the best of them and all the environments are quite beautifully realised. And beneath the strange aesthetics lurks an excellent, well-presented game by which some will rightly be seduced. But for us, those first impressions are all important and we never got over the fact that OSW didn’t feel like a game we particularly wanted to play. In the end it all comes down to personal taste. And, in artistic terms, this is the gaming equivalent of a water-colour poster picturing a valkyrie and/or white tiger.

EA knows its stuff, and OSW should manage to generate a certain amount of popularity. For the casual Xbox gamer, it’s largely what the doctor ordered. A bit of exploration, plenty of shooting and a reasonably hefty challenge. Nestled in a modestly sized games collection, Stranger’s Wrath would have several bases covered and would so make a respectable choice. But in SPOnGland, where a fresh fall of discs carpets the floor each and every morning, something a little more remarkable had been hoped for. We wouldn’t want to discourage EA from publishing more like this though, as it’s surely the least predictable title they have produced for a very long time.

SPOnG: B

Close, but no cigar. Fans of the Oddworld universe may well profess their love for this, but newcomers might be left wondering exactly what all the fuss is about. Gameplay-wise, there’s something for both FPS and platform adventure nuts; but if you’ve already got your share of 'proper' FPS and platform adventure games, this can be easily overlooked as middle ground.