Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD – A Perfect Fit for Your Vita Collection

Game Info

“Well, howdy Stranger!” I can still hear the chicken humanoids cheerfully welcoming me to their town. Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath was a last generation game that gave you third-person adventure mixed with a first-person shooter. I loved it back in the day, even with some of it’s control issues. I would have to say that this port is absolutely perfect. Every aspect of the game has been ported including the controls issues. Trust me though, that won’t stop you from enjoying OSW.

Stranger is the actual name of the cat-like humanoid character you play as in OSW. You move from town to town helping the Clukkerz with their outlaw problems. Upon taking bounties, it’s your job to find the outlaws then bring them back, dead or alive. Stranger is looking for a cure for a problem not first revealed to the player and along the hunting of the these standard outlaws comes the bounty of a lifetime.

My biggest gripe of OSW (to get it out of the way early) is the sensitivity of the camera. When trying to get it center just so you can clearly see both the ground and what may be slightly elevated, you’re probably getting one or the other. This was hard to get used to at first, but after some of the action picks up, you’ll no longer notice you had a problem with it in the first place. To switch from Stranger’s third-person view to first-person, you’ll double tap the screen of the Vita. While it may not take long to double-tap, in those moments when you’re in a fire fight and need to flee, those moments are life and death. OSW does an fine job of blending these two game play aspects together into one game, how you move from view to view is a different story. Third-person gives you much greater range of movement and speed, while first-person gives Stranger the ability to use his live ammo firing crossbow.

Go hunting, not just for outlaws, but for your preferred ammo.  Live ammo is your weapon and it ranges from smack talking squirrels that yell,”Hey, look over here stupid!”, to bomb-bats that will straight annihilate your enemies. When using the live ammo meant to take the outlaws alive, many hunting sections can almost come to a halt as you try to remain unnoticed.  This can lead to some very stale moments as some sections have dozens of outlaws and this repetition of taking them out drags on. But on the other hand, when you go buck wild in the game, you are unstoppable as you blitz through the outlaws. As outlaws are being blown sky high, killer bees are hitting their marks and the outlaws scream idiocies in terror as the one man army of Stranger attacks, it all comes together for an enjoyable experience.

OSW has a decently long campaign and the action picks up immensely the farther you progress. It keeps you moving from outlaw to outlaw and town to town at a brisk pace, keeping you from getting bored with where you are in the world. Each boss encounter is completely different from the last and each boss requires different problem solving techniques, if you wish to take them alive. Some boss fights for me took numerous times just trying to figure out how to knock the boss out. Then another couple of tries to actually pull it off. This game is definitely a challenge and one you’ll be happy to accomplish once you do.

Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath a few problems, few. Which do not overshadow the hours of enjoyment that come along with this fine blend of gameplay.