The Oddworld games never set the world on fire with their sales, but they have heart. The passion so clearly put into developing the world is apparent with every scene in Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD. But with so much love and time put into crafting an enchanting alien world, it seems like some annoying design choices and anger-inducing levels slipped into the final product. Still, what's here entertains and makes for an experience worth the occasional slog.

Watch the Video Review

Stranger's Wrath is about Stranger, a bounty hunter who tracks Oddworld criminals in an attempt to raise money for an unexplained surgery that he "needs to survive." Occasional parts of the plot drag as mission after mission seems slotted in to extend the length of the game, but the twist – which I won't spoil here – is great. Stranger's Wrath's story may not be the stuff of Oscars, but the clear attention to detail in the world kept me engaged in the universe and wanting to see the plot through to the end.


Part first-person shooter, part third-person action game, Stranger's Wrath has a bit of an identity problem. It doesn't do either exceptionally well, but it does blend them together better than you might expect. Shooting feels pretty good (if a bit floaty), the platforming is fairly limited in scope, and third-person combat is functional (if a bit clumsy). But overall combat stays fun thanks to the weird arsenal of living ammo Stranger can fire out of his crossbow while in first person. Each of his ammo types has different abilities, and gives you an array of options to tackle each skirmish. Want to set up a trap where vicious little monsters chew your opponent to death? Do it. Or maybe you'd prefer to go silent, luring them in with annoying little mammals and then wrapping them up with a spider. Go ahead -- it's up to you to decide how to tackle each situation.


And for a while, the ammo options give Stranger's Wrath a flair that makes it unique. But as you do bounty after bounty it starts to feel noticeably repetitive, with the scarce amount of enemies making for some pretty predictable encounters. Each bounty may bring you to a new part of the environment, but they all follow the same formula: go to area, fight the minions, then subdue or kill the boss. Occasional bosses mixed things up, but more often, they were just bullet sponges you had to pour the hurt on to win. Don't get me wrong, I never stopped having fun with Oddworld, but by the time the game makes a major plot shift and somewhat less major gameplay change, I was more than ready for something different.


Problematic difficulty spikes also add to the pacing issues. It's one thing to get stuck on a part of the game because it challenges your mental faculties with a puzzle or has a really clever boss, but more often than not, this wasn't the case. Instead I died due to an uncharacteristically brutal boss or failed because of a maddeningly difficult ending sequence where beating the clock is a serious task. I'm all for testing my skills, but these instances were just frustrating.


At times the graphics look nice enough in Stranger's Wrath that I could almost forget it's a last-gen game. The HD visuals look great, and nice touches like lens flare really help capture the raw beauty of the dangerous world Stranger lives in. The cartoony aesthetic also fits the humorous writing and lends the whole world a tongue-in-cheek feeling I appreciate.


The world itself is also well developed, steeped with lore and life. Towns you visit feel like actual places, with quirky characters that help to sell the universe. Stranger, too, is a mostly charming protagonist, though sometimes his slow drawl makes him sound a bit daft.

• More PlayStation 3 Reviews
• Latest PlayStation 3 News, Reviews, and Videos