In the spirit of Lorne Lanning and his unbeatable obtuseness, I have called upon my reserves of Michelob Ultra-a beer crafted solely for a demographic of those who wish to lose weight and stay inebriated-to write this review. You see, Stranger's Wrath, not to mention the entire Oddworld canon, is something that could not have been conjured up by a sane human being. The notion of plucked chickens giving bounties to a strange bearded... thing... that fires other things out of his... crossbow... doesn't make you think, "Oh-hoh! Another generic EA release! I hate those guys! They're killing the industry!" It may very well make you think of other things-darker things that may not have been mentioned since your mother last locked the basement.

Stranger's Wrath is a combination of 3D platforming and first-person shooting-a combination that in all other cases would lead to an unerring, frustrating disaster, but not in the hands of Oddworld Inhabitants. Possibly one of the only companies left in the industry that has managed to balance creativity with appeasing Electronic Arts, they've managed to create downright one of the most fun, engrossing, and hilarious games released in many a year.

The story follows the Stranger, the goateed lovechild of Clint Eastwood and Harold Pinter, in his quest to find enough "moolah" to have an operation of some sort performed on him, one that will potentially save his life. In the spirit of every cowboy story known to man, this involves him rounding up the local riff-raff by visiting the Bounty Shop, where he's assigned missions not unlike the card-system from Mercenaries. On the missions in which he chases these vicious varmints down, Stranger finds himself assaulted by many a different (and yet, all too similar) host of big-hatted vagabonds. Said vagrants chat amongst themselves with some reasonably chuckle-laden dialogue, some of which feels as if it's been ripped straight out of Brisco. Bold boasts of what they intend to do with the statues they're excavating guffaw from their maws, just before you send a screaming rodent into their foreheads and walk over their lumpy corpses, before sending an electric insect into their patrolling buddies. Although Stranger's Wrath may look slightly cartoonish at times, it is not for children-I can guarantee they will be scared for life, not to mention that these darling creatures swear!

Much has been made of the game's "live ammo" system that involves-you guessed it!-live creatures being plunged into the two barrels of your crossbow. Said crossbow's firing mechanism operates in exactly the same way as Halo 2's dual wielding system: the left trigger shoots the left, the right shoots the right. To get more "ammo," you have to find various places where these critters live and viciously shoot them with your (infinite supply of) electric insects, picking them up and putting them in your bag. These creatures range from the darling little tribbles with teeth that tear your opponents apart to Bombats, which as you may suspect, are bats that explode. Somehow, all of this manages to connect with a reasonably and intelligently crafted 3D platforming system.

The genius of Stranger's Wrath is how well these systems stick together-by a click of the right thumb stick, you can effortlessly switch between first- and third-person perspective, both of which can do certain things better than the other. All ranged combat is performed from the first person, but in the third person you can rain blows down upon your foes using one of two different close combat moves to knock them out, so that you may hoover them up and get the bounty for them. At no time have Oddworld inhabitants thought that combining these two elements-jumping over large chasms and shooting things in the face-should ever coincide, and for the tenure of the game you're never subjected to the usual cross-genre woes that a less adept developer would hastily shoehorn into their product, before attaching their soul to it and calling FedEx to ship it straight to EA.

Although it lacks the classic Oddworld inhabitants such as the Sligs, Abe, or Munch, Stranger's Wrath has the same bizarre charm that the series has held for the last three home console releases. Stranger's dialogue is at times tiresome but is liberally spread so that it doesn't become too irksome to the actual gameplay. At times, the game can be slightly frustrating when it comes to certain shootouts, as you frantically try to find your combatants as their (rather strong) bullets stab their way happily through your health bar. To balance this out, healing up is as simple as finding a safe place and holding the Y button. To top it all off, even on a violent death, you're never more than five minutes away from where you fell. Sadly, the game is even shorter than Mercenaries and lacks its freedom, replacing it with a sterling romp of a cowboy yarn.

However, for your well-earned or stolen dollar, you could do far worse than pick up this game. "Short" is in the eye of the beholder; the game will at the very least give you 10 hours of rootin'-tootin'-shootin'-jumpin' action, with a fair dosage of swearing to boot. It plays well, it has reasonable graphics (that seem to fail to capitalise on the Xbox's power), and it is more fun than a great many of the turgid action games that Microsoft's monolith seems to attract. Be proud, Lanning! You have done well. You escape my wrath for now.

Mar 22, 2005 | 3 comments
Ed Zitron