The latest Oddworld game, Oddworld: Soulstorm, brings the venerable series to the PlayStation 5. It's also April's free game PS5 game for PlayStation Plus, making it a no-risk proposition for subscribers.
Oddworld has been around for years, but for many fans, it hasn't topped 1998's Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus. Abe's Exoddus is considered one of the best sequels in gaming history, but does Soulstorm live up to its example?
Chris Carter, Destructoid: "Billed as a revival of Exoddus (the second game in the series), Soulstorm feels more immediately lived-in. Whereas Exoddus felt more like an expansion pack, this is an entirely new game with a different framework and a grander scale. The new lens in which to view the story is lovely, as it allows us to become closer to Abe and his friends in a more meaningful and deliberate way."
Zackerie Fairfax, Screen Rant: "The overall story is more serious in comparison to other Oddworld titles, as the signature dark humor of the franchise takes a back seat to brooding hellscape it's set in. Oddworld: Soulstorm's narrative is very gripping and does a fantastic job of portraying what it would be like to be a Mudokon on the run, but the story alone wouldn't be as good if it weren't for the game's gripping visual quality."
Stephen Tailby, Push Square: "One major sticking point with the series has been Abe's restricted movement, which would make simple jumps potentially perilous. You had to be precise in your positioning and timing. Here, a double jump makes things a little more forgiving, allowing you to reach high platforms and recover from failed attempts. However, as much as it makes Abe feel more nimble, jumps are still difficult to judge, and simply climbing up ledges or swinging between monkey bars can be frustratingly tricky. Especially by modern standards, just controlling the character feels quite rigid."
Anthony McGlynn, Game Skinny: "Oddworld: Soulstorm is a buggy, shallow remake that does away with much of the idiosyncrasies that made those early Abe games so memorable. Instead, we have lavish scale, and lots of numbers and collecting, as a way to try and cover up for nostalgia that's just going through the motions, and poorly at that. ...It's not good, and at best, it serves as an indictment of the worst habits of big-budget video games in the current era."
Francesco De Meo, Wccftech: "Another area where Oddworld: Soulstorm truly shines is its presentation. All locations look great, seamlessly flowing from wilderness to industrialized areas, so much that they almost feel natural. This is also thanks to the amazing camera work used in the game, which highlights all the twists and turns of each location in a very cinematic way without taking control away from the player. The same amount of care has been placed into character models, which all look extremely personable, detailed, and hard to forget."
Azario Lopez, Noisey Pixel: "Oddworld: Soulstorm is hands-down the best entry in the series to date. It takes everything great about these games and packages it up in a beautiful and modern adventure that mirrors its classic gameplay mechanics used for over 20 years. Some of the item management systems weigh on the pacing, and the controls take a few hours to master, but there’s just something unique in every stage that makes this adventure enjoyable from beginning to end."
Chris "Atom" DeAngelus, Worth Playing: "The only real issues I noticed during my playthrough came from bugs. As of this writing, Soulstorm has received multiple patches, and more are promised in the upcoming weeks. As such, it's tough to judge how flawed the game will be in even a week's time. Even in its current state, very few of the bugs are awful. A few times, Abe would get stuck and not move, or I'd glitch through something, but a trip back to the last checkpoint usually solved my issues. I can't say the bugs are serious enough to hold off playing the game, especially with the regular patch updates coming down the pipeline."
Travis Northup, IGN: "Oddworld: Soulstorm is a fantastic modernized remake of one of those side-scrollers that we remember as great but the original doesn’t hold up. Although it can be an aggravating slog to get through its escort quest-heavy levels, it’s also a unique, delightfully bizarre, and utterly rewarding experience with a fantastic story and a lot of heart. Of course, it also has far too many bugs that force restarts to circumvent, and that can turn the frustration of a good challenge into the bad, controller-throwing kind, and the sound design is all over the place."
Jon Bailes, VGC: "Still, there is something endearing about Abe. His adventures are big and imaginative. And it’s hard not to root for him, with his sorrowful eyes and underdog demeanour. Who doesn’t like a little guy fighting back against oppression? We just wish he was a bit more up to the job."
Jade King, The Gamer: "The narrative goes to some fascinating places and expands on the mythos like I never imagined it would, and I hope it’s explored further in games to come, but the gameplay loop in Soulstorm just isn’t for me. It’s too janky, unbalanced, and pales in comparison to what came before it. Oddworld Inhabitants has thrown so much at the wall and only some of it sticks, with much of it crudely sinking to the floor and wailing in dissatisfaction."