Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath

The Good
The game's environment is perhaps one of the most detailed and lush Wild West themed world you'll play in with fitting music to give the feel of the locations. Every part of the game has lots of atmosphere including the Grubb's city which capture's the perfect impression of a D-Day Omaha Beach invasion and Sekto's base which has the likeness to a Red Faction base. There's so much to do and places to go. It's fun to try being stealthy and capture enemies for that extra Moolah and ammunition. And you won't easily get stuck looking for your next objective because all the NPCs will clue you in. And it's amusing to listen to a Chippunk's non-stop commentary.

The Stranger is just the playable hero you want to play as. He has a double barrel crossbow with "live" ammunition, he can double jump, he can self-heal, he can do head butts and punches, he can climb, he can swim, and he can charge. He simply exceeds the abilities of Abe and Munch put together and his maneuvering rivals that of Lara Croft. The dialogue and outfit goes so well with his physique, he's almost like a cross between DC's Jonah Hex and Marvel's Wolverine.

The Bad
While the pacing of the game is smooth and at a steady speed for the most part, it turns to absolute creep when you're in water, so you just have to swim for as little as possible, especially if you don't want to get peppered with projectiles. Unfortunately the wall boundaries make it so that if you're cornered by enemies, you'll never be able to double jump or shoot you way out and they've nailed you, but that doesn't happen very often.

Although its fun to complete missions, this game might have turned out perfect if it were open world and you could explore every place you went to previously. It's a pity that Moolah becomes useless and you never get it in the second half of the game. This game could also have done with an alternate ending triggered by managing to get 20,000 Moolah before meeting Doc a second time.

The Bottom Line
Munch's Oddysee was the greatest letdown in the series, but Stranger's Wrath stuck out like a thumbs up when it reached the spotlight. If you're accustomed to Abe and Mudokons, you should not be disappointed in this title. If Spaghetti Western games were existent, that's what this game would be. Games with first-person and third-person elements heavily used from beginning to end are not something you play everyday. This is the best way you can enjoy the last of the Oddworld series (not counting the HD remakes).