Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty Review

With so many games rereleasing on the latest iteration of consoles, none quite captured my imagination as Oddworld New ‘n’ Tasty did. It’s a beautiful reimagining of a late 90s classic, Abe’s Oddysee; with dozens of improvements from the PS1 edition, New ‘n’ Tasty offers something surprisingly fresh to catalogue of PS4 games.

For newbies, the game represents a challenging experience well worth playing. For those that played the original, there’s the familiar locations, puzzles and humour you’d expect. From the dingy and chaotic factory farm to the silhouetted stockyards and the vast ancient desert, now jaw-droppingly beautiful in fully realised HD graphics. Although at its heart New ‘n’ Tasty is a 2D puzzle/platformer, the depths of the visuals stretch out to create the impression of a truly Odd World.

However much the visuals work to disguise New ‘n’ Tasty’s old age, its difficulty gives it away in a heartbeat. A staple from the original was a trip mine that blinked green and red in a regular albeit fast sequence, forcing the player to disarm it only during brief green flashes. These return in New ‘n’ Tasty and are just as tricky as ever. Each and every mine is an example of the challenge and frustration enacted on the player, as they are required to do more and more to reach the goal. Bottomless pits, electric forcefields, meat grinders, as well as all manner of deadly creatures block your path, and you’ll have to be extremely patient in order to prevail.

Thankfully, one of the biggest shake ups Just Add Water added into the Oddworld formula attempts to rebalance the difficulty for the player, although at the cost of some of the accomplishment. Quick saves, a surprisingly old mechanic revived into a remake of a old game that didn’t originally have them. With a simple tap of the touchpad, the player can save exactly where they are. Although it might upset some purists who enjoy the relative gauntlets between checkpoints, others will be thankful they can save their progress between two difficult sections.

The controls also feel like they’ve come straight from the 90s, with fiddly and awkward movements and jumps sometimes ruining the fluidity. It can be irritating to try and repeatedly make a simple jump, which gets even worse when you find yourself under pressure. However for the most part you’ll be able to get to grips with how to move around Abe as he ventures forth on his odyssey without too many issues.

His adventure is a simple albeit strange one: enslaved to Rupture Farms, a massive industrial food processing centre, our hero accidentally uncovers a plan to turn his indentured race, the Mudokons, into the latest tasty treat. Abe sets out to escape the factory, learn the lost culture of his people and return to put an end to the evil Rupture Farms. It’s a very usual tale, but matches the mood and style of the gameplay surprisingly well.

For the most part your goal is simple: get to the next room. But within the factory, and the secret levels scattered through the other locations you’ll also be given the chance to help your fellow Mudokon’s escape servitude. Saving enough of them will give you access to the ‘good’ ending, but they’ll have to survive the same trials and perils you face to escape. Luckily this is another instance of improvement from the first Abe’s Oddysee, finally allowing you to command groups of them at once, rather then slowly ferrying handfuls at a time.

One of the most effective weapons Abe has at his disposal is his chanting. Chanting opens portals that allow your fellow Mudokons to escape, but it can also disrupt savage animals and (even better) possess guards.

This is your most offensive capability during the game, as it allows you to shoot and kill others (friend and foe), but with a variety of measures to stop you over using it, the experience feels rare and weighted. Other than those moments you’ll spend a lot of your time being careful and slow. Most puzzles have only one solution but hundreds of ways to fail, and sometimes you’ll have to start again when you realise you’ve trapped yourself. But overcoming those challenges is an extremely rewarding feeling.

 

With intelligent old school gameplay with a twist, as well as amazing visuals, New ‘n’ Tasty feels entirely different from any new release of the past few years. If this is the level all rereleases that are coming to new generation, who knows what other lost gems we might uncover.