Recent reviews by FoXy 64

(Unfinished review.)


Odd world Soul storm is a game. With a magnificent story, not ever seen before. Amazing state of the art graphics, that push the boundaries and standards for story telling. But, Soul Storm isn't a master piece without its quarrels. You see, It all starts right at the main menu. Perhaps for many, it is right at the start of installation. Just after you had shelled out your mulla to the greedy gluck known as Lorne Lanning. The game is claimed to be the "Original vision" Or so to speak...

Fans of the series who have funded the game, and many who are interested in hearing this long awaited story, to finally be told by the amazing mind of Lorne Lanning and his amazing team of game developers. A game, we all been waiting
well over a decade. Instead of a continuation, we have all instead, received not a continuation, but rater a complete retelling of the bonus game, Abe's Exodus. A game that refined the game play and fun of Abe's Odyssey. In less than 9 months.

Soul Storm.... Is a game, with many flaws, or shall we say... "Oddities..." But of course, This is Oddworld Inhabitants we are talking about. Surely A team with high standards and up most perfection wouldn't serve a fine game after such a long time of waiting. As much as I want to see the beauty in such a fine game. It is tainted, with flaws, carelessness, the essence of what made Oddworld, well... Oddworld.

But, before I continue. I will like to do this, out of respect of the comparison of what is made... The Abe Guy's game, that started it all in the first place. I will only, ONLY, compare to its first game, that started it all. Since after all, the game Exodus was simply a bonus game in their eyes.







With the limitations of the Play Station, Abe was set in a grid. And the camera was set in flat angle. Making it easy to tell what was on screen and the view distance of everyone. making platforming flawless and fair. The decision to make the camera not set like this in the original was a neat idea, but executed terribly in many areas. Many times I wasn't given the information where enemies are, mines behind foreground objects, killed from projectiles off screen, and felled to my demise with out the sense of it being my own damn fault. In many areas, YOU. WILL. STRUGGLE. AND. FIGHT. AGAINST. IT.
Not to mention, the camera can also affect where your Abe guy will throw his items, making it even more infuriating than it has to be. The camera is not your friend, and so is the objects blocking your view. Also, I do want to quote from our loving god, Lorne Lanning.

"We Spent a lot of time on the camera system so it's more informative to the player. It has more choreographed way about
it. We're able to have that sense of gameplay that's familiar, but expand the dimensions of it with more of a Z and curved entrance into it."

Who can forget the wonderful music of Abe's Odyssey? A soundtrack that enhances the world, and gets us a bit more immersed into the environments. Lots of wonder flowing into the ears. Josh Gabriel did an incredible job in that game.
He is once again brought back for this game. Lord only knows what master pieces will be brought to the ear drums of the many fans who are eager to listen while playing.

As much as I would like to point fingers at who ever is responsible for the direction. I shall refrain from doing so.
The mind behind the choice of music seems to be influenced by the many stale tracks of cinematic movies/trailers of movies made in recent years. This has put a stain in the soundtrack of Oddworld games. It felt stale, although one of them I did thought was ok. It was all too bland, and unfitting compared to Odyssey. As it has like I said, made it more immersive.
The soundtrack was so unfitting, some tracks are reused many times. Not even possessing a Slig shifts the tone of music.
I will be honest, I am picky with music, and understand it is subjected. But this is so bad, I have to turn the music off. especially at times when the music loops in sections. Sections where it feels irritating, as some tracks loops 30 or less seconds. This is further insulting as the music bugs out. Looping too early or late, or cuts for a tiny bit. So much so, I simply couldn't take it, and had to put on MP3 of Odyssey music and some from Exodus.

Now, the dreaded topic... Bugs.... This mockery of a digital licenses copy of a game, that is the "Enhance Edition" Is infested with bugs. Bugs that will effect game play, and you will not go unscathed without encountering them. Bugs that will send that blue bastard flying across the unknown boundaries of the void, from garbing an invisible ledge for a millisecond, Sections of the game with questionable design that require Slig cooperation that can sometimes result in a soft lock, Mudokons with somoetimes fragile AI, and the most infamous... Ledge grabbing....

Ledge grabbing is broken... And yes, this will get its own paragraph so SHADDAP!
The Blue Guy will lock onto the closet ledge and monkey bars when you jump. This at times is a very helpful feature, but when you get into desperate scenarios or get unlucky dice roll of RNG. You will DIE. Abe will sometimes lock onto that said Ledge, but will not grab hold, and simply fall down into his painful death. It will even disable or slow down your movement to a crawl. In the vent this happens, you are 9 out of 10, "Simply screwed". Not to mention, there is a achievement to beat every level without dying. If you want pain and suffering to the point you end up buying more keyboards and controllers to smash. This is up your alley.

This will heavily effect speed running community if they so dared to even try to. Because not only ledge grabbing is not consistent, but also among other things and oddities that can heavily effect every run. Mostly due to game design and bugs.
This brings us back to our good pal, Swinging Spike Ball. Each time you die or reset to a checkpoint, it's position changes. Never being the same as it was originally, effecting how you need time your jumps, or even making it near impossible, if there are 2 next to each other. Even sniper Sligs and a few or one other thing I have forgotten about. Another thing to account is the bullet spread/accuracy when it comes to Sligs. They are never consistent and in some sections where you need to just keep running to avoid getting shot, you could die even doing what you were intended to do, or take so much damage.

This leads us to the "intended" ways of taking cover, when it comes to Sligs in the background. In most cases, you will get hit behind a wall, despite the amount of cover you have. Even at times you barely have any, and they placed a Slig so high up. He can still easily hit you and force you out to then only die immediately from the randomness of the bullet spread as you run. Again, there are some sections where you need to run none stop while Sligs shoot you from the background. Slig Barracks has a section where you need Mudokons to follow you behind and they will randomly die because of this, forcing a restart if you are going for that 100% completion. If you want to see how frustrating it is just trying to avoid this almost unavoidable damage. Go to the first level and try to get the no damage achievement. Also there's a no death achievement...

A no death achievement, for EVERY. SINGLE. LEVEL. That's right. A achievement that requires you to beat every level without the blue skinny fragile as a cracker, Abe. With all the things I have mention so far, putting it lower odds against you of ever even doing this legit. Without cheating... This is already asking so much from the player to do, when all these problems I have listed so far are not fixed in the game. They got a real bloody nerve to call this. "Enhanced Edition".

Sadly I can't type more, I will post a link soon of my review in its entirity when finished.

This game is a blast to play. I really love arcade rail shooters. At first, I thought it was just typing, but found out later it also has the original game mode in it. So I immediately bought it. However, the only down sides as for now, is the support for newer computers. I am on windows 11 and this took a little of figuring out but the fix was easy once I found it. thanks to this guide.
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2278525611

The only problems are sometimes sound not playing in certain events, like when you are taking down the rage mutants, getting slow mode but by the normal time the dialogue stops. The dialogue just ends while in slow mode. Waiting times for the game to load. (not sure if this is normal for this version of the game. or my higher end computer)

Despite all that, the rest of the game works pretty fine and is a great experience. Only one down sides as I can see are...
No typing mode for the directors cut version of the levels and no local co-op.

Now for the more positives. This was by far the funniest installment in the House Of The Dead series, great funny lines to quote, good soundtrack, weapons to mess around with and buy, some bonus content to unlock and even a comic to read, if you can find all the pages that is. (or look it up online, idk.)

If you want to play a House Of The Dead game on Steam. Get this one, ♥♥♥♥ the remake.

[This review will be update after completing the game, when ever that will be]

I play mostly retro games in my life, and it's amazing to see games made in recent years to be like the good old times of gaming. This is one of those games that really captures being an authentic old game. I would've actually believed if someone told me this was a very obscure underrated classic. Great use of limited colors, the soundtrack is amazing, to the point I forget this was released in 2018.

I honestly did not expect for 1 and 2 players to have their own levels, this is pretty great, and more levels encourages cooperation as the game progresses. It went further lengths to having different boss fights. (at least from what I've seen so far in the first cavern.) Already I can see lots of effort put into the game with the first cavern.

I do highly recommend if you are gonna play with 2 players online with Steam's remote play, have a strong internet connection. Because of the game's challenging difficultly and everything kills you in one hit. If you are one of those people who don't like having 3 lives and having to restart from the start of each cavern, you will get the option to have infite lives and start off from the level you lost at, after about 3 game overs. I highly recommend giving this game a try!

This game is trash, Sony wants me to connect my account with PSN, and agree with their EULA.

And yes I at least tried to read trough most of it. There's some form of arbitration and wants me to read on another link for more info on it. Knowing how Sony handles user data and how spectacular they "secured" your data. I wouldn't bee surprise if people get hacked with their info being leaked. Also https://store.steampowered.com/app/440/Team_Fortress_2/


Just play this game instead.

Now playable.

The UI is a bit confusing, but overall is a good free pixel art software.