New 'N' Tasty / Abe's Oddysee Comparison

if you're anything like me you were delighted to hear that odd world would hopefully be making a resurgence in recent times the original Abe's Oddysee in Exodus are very close to my heart so the possibility of odd world returning to its former glory was a very exciting one to me now new and tasty is here and unfortunately I don't think it stacks up to the original for a multitude of reasons in this video I'll be comparing new and tasty to the original version of odd world Abe's Oddysee and talking about the places I think the new version went wrong if you want to balance the overview of new and tasty this isn't the place to find it I'm disappointed about the new version and I'll be focusing on all the issues that got in my way of enjoying it I'll be assuming you're familiar with the game so if you haven't played it you might want to do so first personally I'd recommend the original version from the very first intro FMV new and tasty already likes behind the original and I found myself disconcerted about the art direction only a couple of seconds in rupture farms is the most important location but the feel of it is completely off in the new version in the original it's a grim and horribly dark looking place new and tasty keeps the smokestacks but the exterior of the building has been arbitrarily changed to look much cleaner and downright futuristic compared to the original there's almost something inviting about the neon signage on the exterior this kind of problem sums up the issues with the art direction perfectly but to talk about what's wrong with all of this I first have to illustrate what Abe's Oddysee was striving for and how it was accomplished the art direction of Abe's Oddysee was a simple but effective combination of two very different ideas on the one hand the game was supposed to look weird and alien those concepts were then rendered in a very realistic-looking manner in fact hoping to see some confirmation of this design philosophy online I did a little sleuthing and came up with a post from back in 1998 where Paul O'Connor game designer on Abe's Oddysee and Exodus lists the six artistic commandments of odd world each one starts with all images must I'll give you a second to try and guess what the first commandment was all images must be realistic each screen in Abe's Oddysee in Exodus were pre-rendered kind of in the same way in taystee is rendered today in real-time the differences after the scene was rendered an artist would look over each image carefully and digitally add in additional details or tweak the visuals to get what they wanted the end result is that every background in Odyssey looks like it has a huge amount of care and attention to detail put into it you can feel the artists effort deliberating how the lighting should fall in certain places or what additional details might make the world seem more credible at the moment I might be the first person to argue against the realistic style since many modern developers seem obsessed with making their games look as realistic and bland as possible but even over 15 years after the initial release of Abe's Oddysee seeing an alien planet rendered this way is still a very unique thing there is no denying that thanks to its vastly increased resolution new and tasty has a big advantage over the original but apart from that the new graphics don't live up to the pre-rendered screens of old where there used to be grit detail and a sense of realism there's no flashy lights coated in an over up bloom effect even the stockyard Escape which takes place at nighttime is heavily coated in bloom let's examine this screenshot and see exactly how many sources of it there are in this scene just in case anyone doesn't know what I'm referring to bloom lighting is the soft glow effect you see emanating from bright objects which are overwhelming the IR camera with their light first of all there's the moon in the background which causes the left side of the scene to be a muddy blue there's also these lights on top of the lamppost as well as the checkpoint the bioluminescent mushrooms have a strong glow to them even though they should be quite dim compared to the other lights in the scene the mines also have it as do the eyes on the Schlage when the floating mine is flashing each point and it has a small bloom effect and the little points of light on the side of the motion detectors are the same let's be generous and just count each object once in total in this supposedly dark nighttime scene there's at least 16 sources of bloom on the screen notice as well how the bloom is used as a substitute for actual lighting the lamp posts should be illuminated by the bright lights on top of them but are not bloom isn't the only way that an object can be clearly find as a light source there are several other options some of which were used in the original the lampposts could genuinely cast a little light across the scene the mines could flicker the Slig masks could have some small animation on it the mushrooms could start out brighter in the middle than they are at the edges instead of opting for any of these they took the easy way out and relied on the engine itself to convey everything automatically the extravagant views of bloom gives the impression that this entire scene should be well lit by various strong sources of light but it's mostly dark which doesn't make much sense at all keep in mind the first commandment of art on odd world these aren't even the worst looking areas of new and tasty other places which used to be silhouetted for dramatic effect are now fairly well lit its rupture that suffers worse than anywhere else though the painting techniques used in the original had clear advantages which haven't been replicated with the real-time rendering the textures in particular used to look a lot more rich since the artists were free to just draw over the existing picture creating complex layered imagery take a look at this silo in Zhu lagg-3 there's a few things going on here first of all at the eye level of the glocken face there is a partition on the silo but this was no problem for them since they were just painting over the scene in the same way someone might paint over the silo itself notice how there's three overlapping textures here one for the metal surface itself one for the glucan decal and one for the copious amounts of blood some of which is carefully placed over the glucans eye to avoid interfering with its outline and make the image more striking it's not surprising that this background detail is completely absent from new and tasty considering it would need three carefully overlapped textures some of which go over the partition there were so many benefits to the pre-rendered style of Ed's Odyssey that I have to question whether real-time rendering and the scrolling camera were even a good idea at all the original technique allows for rich texture work results in stronger silhouettes for dark scenes gives the player a consistent angle on the gameplay make certain puzzle situations more clear and means artistic details can be carefully positioned to provide a bigger impact to use the same example from before the glow can face on this silo had so much attention because they knew it could be positioned in a prominent location on the screen the player was likely to spend a few moments moving carefully back and forth across these gaps during which time the background art rests prominently in the middle of the frame in a new version the glocken face would have been on screen for a much shorter amount of time and thanks to the dynamic camera it's constantly changing position would have de-emphasized it as with the stockyards the lighting in rupture deviates heavily from the original the strong sources of light in these areas lead to a huge amount of lens flare artifacts making the screen appear as though it's a dirty camera I can only speak for myself but I'm really tired of games developers trying to mimic camera effects in games where they don't belong I have no reason to believe I'm viewing odd world through a camera and I wouldn't want the camera into art world anyway I'd be happier with a window into art world adding camera effects like this just serves to remind me I'm not looking at a real place if they're absolutely had to be some showy lighting effects it really should have been some high dynamic range to cut down on the irritatingly strong lighting if I had to choose two words to describe rupture in the original they would be repulsive and dull the bloodstains slavery and grime sell the repulsiveness but it's the lighting that completes the picture and really makes rupture seem like a hellish place to work for long stretches of time there's a harsh white light here that makes the place look as though it's lit by cheap fluorescent bulbs that bathes everything in an unflattering and unnatural looking light slaughterhouses aren't known for their keen sense of decor and since the areas outside rupture usually have softer lighting I think it's fair to say this was an intentional choice in new and tasty rupture is often lit by much softer sources of light which seem incandescent instead of fluorescent such as the billboards and various small lights on the edges of platforms it seems to me in their eagerness to show how flashy they could make the game look on modern hardware they forgot that some areas of the game weren't supposed to look good in the first place everything was just more grounded in the original for example the advertisements used to be worn posters which first of all shows that rupture have been making these products for a long time and secondly makes them blend in better with the gritty environment in the new version there flashy billboards and you have to wonder why they would waste so much energy marketing their products in their own factory the original has a very subdued color scheme with a lot of Gray's which reinforces the boring and oppressive nature of being a slave there this feels lost in new and tasty since rupture is now a much more colorful and visually interesting place the contrast in lighting and tone between rupture and the other areas was important because it helped reinforce the core theme of anti-consumerism speaking of which those billboards I mentioned occasionally have advertisements on them for real-life games which was what prompted me to make this video in the first place there's a lot I don't like about new and tasty which have yet to cover but this was the real deal breaker for me I was only a kid when I played Abe's Oddysee for the first time but I was easily pulled in by the extremely strong art direction the story and visuals weren't just interesting to look at on a surface level though it's impossible to play Abe's Oddysee even as a child without seeing how it holds a mirror up to our own world encouraging us to ask questions it shows how advertising can be used to cover up an ugly truth how much corporations might exploit us if they could get away with it and how we can be complicit in a wide range of issues just by buying certain products these are heavy themes for a game to tackle and Odyssey did it in a heavy-handed put on obtrusive manner the humorous touches stop you from taking things too seriously but it never shied away from portraying the horrible work of rupture firms in other words it was a game with a message and regardless of what you are I personally think of those messages I think we'd all have to admit they conveyed them in an effective manner without crippling the gameplay to get them across being a remake of Abe's Oddysee new and tasty obviously still has an anti consumerism viewpoint only now it tries to use billboards to sell me things as well the contradiction is clear and quite frankly disgusting I don't think just that water or oddworld inhabitants got paid for any of these they may have but regardless they should have seen how completely wrongheaded this idea was it's harmful to the players immersion undermines the core message and shows a lack of respect for the work of the original team while I'm talking about advertising there is one area of new and tasty I'd actually liked defend in this regard one complaint I've seen floating about concerns the change made to the mood darken pops image in the opening sequence now I'll admit I'm a touch nostalgic for the old gruesome picture but I have to say that the new one makes much more sense in the context of the situation it's supposed to form a matching set with the advertisements for paranoid pies and scrub cakes the idea is to make MODOK and pops look appealing and the bloody head on a stick doesn't do that I think it's a shame that this is one of the things I've seen complaints about when if anything it actually improves the game world since it makes more sense than the original especially when there are plenty of other changes to the visuals which genuinely detract from the experience the addition which annoyed me the most were the visual cues to show checkpoints especially the ones in rupture farms as Abe's trolls pass these the clock and face on the front changes to a picture of a mood darken as though we're playing Sonic the Hedgehog what I don't understand is what the game gains by having a visual cue for checkpoints at all it's not vital that the player know where these are located especially since the game can be quick saved at any time now whether or not they've arrived at a checkpoint shouldn't influence a player's play they should still be striving to stay alive no matter what so their presence is completely irrelevant until the player dies visual cues for checkpoints can encourage bad player behavior if you make a mistake near one that would cost you time you can simply die to reset the situation even if you're not using quick saves this takes players out of the experience rather than dealing with the consequences of a mistake and trying to rectify it like Abe would have to you're just a player gaming the system there's been other changes or additions to the visuals made for seemingly no reason that I also found attracted from the aesthetic when Abe chants there's now birds that appear over his head where before there was a sparkly effect that looked like his soul was leaving his body he's also got a hideously ugly glow texture surrounding him now for some reason the birds for the board portals now also transform into some kind of stone portal instead sometimes less is more these visual effects were fine the first time around the original chant in particular conveyed a much better sense of what was going on and why Abe was vulnerable while doing it I get the feeling these changes were made because the particle-like effects of the original wouldn't stand out enough in the new lighting engine rather than fix the environment to have more muted tones and help those particles stand out they just changed the particle city models instead another pointless change is one of the FMV scenes which was totally redone even though the original was perfectly fine if not better in the original aid lands in a barrel and narrowly avoid some slicks in the new version he narrowly avoids some scrubs but there's a difference between how these two scenes play out in this one Abe dodges the scrubs by himself he barely manages it and it causes him to fall off but it's his action which saves his life in the original his life is saved by pure chance which plays into his characterization as an unlikely hero and provides a bit of comic relief altering a 20-second cutscene is hardly a big deal by itself but it's more the principle of the matter if it ain't broke don't fix it especially when your fix adds nothing to the situation I have another even more a pedantic example along these lines the slick visors in Abe's Oddysee this legs all have the same type of mask a visor that covers their whole face this was changed in Exodus where basics legs had the original visor but flying ones were given a pilot mask instead to differentiate him a little bit in Munch's Odyssey the pilot mask became the default design which I think was a mistake that mistake has now been retro actively carried over into new and tasty we're all slaves were the pilot masks I think it's a mistake because of the role slaves play in the world just looking at ass legs model it might seem like their eyes should be on the side of their head their face does seem to be built that way but the whole point of their cybernetic enhancements is to turn them into killing machines a Schlage wearing a pilot mask wouldn't be able to properly because he can't see in front of them the original visor gives them this forward-facing vision but the new one doesn't they're supposed to be predators but their eyes make them prey I think even in abe's exoddus the artists were aware of this because the flying slaves use bombs and their stance is usually tilted a little to one side or another as though they're looking out to the side rather than the front I don't get how I can see this issue immediately while several people are paid full-time to do the art for these games and let this stuff slip by there's nothing wrong with the initial visor if anything it makes this legs look way more menacing than the pilot mask again if it ain't broke don't fix it and if you really can't resist fixing it then at least think it out to its logical conclusion first as if the downgraded art direction and in-game advertising wasn't enough the animations have also taken a huge hit as well abe's oddysee is a cinematic platformer which means the animations have more importance than in many other genres in the original there's a sense of weight behind everything Abe does this doesn't necessarily mean he's sluggish he can certainly run jump and roll quickly when he needs to but climbing ledges are dropping from a height has a sense of heaviness to it in new and tasty many of the animations seem to run much faster which removes this sense of weight and realism just look at how quickly he disappears through doorways it's as though they animated a regular doorway transition but then play it back at double the speed they should the menu of the new game shows this very clearly as well this seems like the kind of timing issue you might get if you make your animations assuming the game will be locked to 30 frames a second but then unlock the framerate restrictions only that can't be the case because apparently they were happy to release the game in this state on top of those speed issues the transitions between animations often snap two completely different poses with no in-between it seems to me seventeen years after the original the animation should be getting better not worse the tubes are also particularly bad aybe seems to flop in and out of them with no regard for gravity whereas in the original he be launched into the air and land naturally at a speed that made sense using the chime bells might just be the best example though notice how in the original there's a rhythm and way to this that makes sense the metal ball smashes off each Bell and moves swiftly on to the next one as though Abe is throwing it around in the new version it moves at a slow set speed barely grazing each Bell it's downright lazy in comparison to the original animation the sound design and new and tasty gets about as much of a downgrade as the visuals scrubs in particular sound less unique and intimidating their screeching noise has been replaced by various roars which sound much more like something you'd hear on earth some sound-effects suffer even though they're completely unchanged such as the possession noise that kicks in writers Abe takes control of a Slig this is by far my favorite sound effect in the original it has a kick to it and once it happens it's our cue that the gameplay mode has changed drastically from what it was before all of Abe's focus is going into the possession so it makes sense it should be the most noticeable sound whenever it plays in the original you can practically hear Abe's consciousness invading the mind of the possessed Slick's it's still in new and tasty but the sound balancing is so jumbled you can barely ever hear it I had difficulty hearing what I was saying during certain cutscenes for this very reason it's probably best if you see for yourself I had just got past those slugs when the strangest thing I saw a big moon was before me and its face was my car then I fell down a cliff I had just got past those laws when the strangest thing I saw the big moon was before me in its face then I fell if you ask me Abe's narration is much more convincing in the original but I suppose that's to be expected since Lauren laning hasn't done the voice in so long and he's trying to match the original delivery the bigger problem is the audio balancing in the new version where before we could clearly hear what I was talking about and the emotion in his voice the new version is a massive noise the music in the old version was also much more reserved only swelling slightly when a puts his hand over the moon to underscore the moment I'm going to continue these clips now pay attention to how the music and footage in the original version makes this moment seem like a spiritual awakening for Abe while the new version destroys the music and replaces certain scenes for no good reason and smashed my head when some big face appeared and said I was dead said our land was changing was in bounds at best he told me my fate was to rescue the rest for a pair of mites and scribes had been sacred one but that was before rupture farms turned him into lunch and they live in the temples and that's where they still nest and facing these creatures that was my test you especially when some big face appeared and said I was dead said our land was changing wasn't balanced at best he told me my life aim was to rescue the rest for para might subscribe at fit sacred work that was it jimbob's turned a bit to lunch and they live with the temple if that's where they still best and facing these creatures that was my test the voices have been read on for the in-game stuff as well with the mood darkens and slags being given a plethora of new lines on the surface this seems like a good change but the end result is the mood Dawkins in the new version constantly chatter to themselves even when you're not speaking to them due to the limited number of phrases this results in a lot of repetition it might be funny the first time you hear me Dakin complain about not getting paid but the tenth time it's a lot less charming I have a real problem with this because most of the new lines are played for laughs which minimizes the plight of the mood Dawkins and makes this league seem less intimidating I love that odd world is infused with a sense of humor but the serious tones are equally as important in the original I got the sense that rupture really wasn't the kind of place you'd be talking out loud since you'd risk being beaten to death by a slag the MU Dawkins used to seem genuinely downtrodden but it's impossible to feel the same way about them when they're constantly making the kind of petty grumbles you might hear from an office worker on a Monday morning well I've spent a long time talking about some issues big and small with the art style animations and sound so you might be thinking at this point at least it's got the same old gameplay you know and love well yes and no the controls have undergone some serious tweaking and not always to its benefit first of all there are some good changes throwing rocks and bombs is easier and better than it ever has been you can also now drop bombs just by tapping a button which I found came in handy a few times Abe can also crawl while crouching which makes the game a little easy in some parts but that's okay it's a decent addition and I suppose you don't have to use it if you're a purist the best change by far is the ability to talk to multiple mudokons at once which was always one of those things that made it a little difficult to go back to Odyssey after playing Exodus while these changes are good there's others that are at least equally as bad first and most notable Abe is no longer controlled with the d-pad instead he's controlled with the analog stick this means running and walking are just different levels of analog input rather than a button making the movement feel a lot more sloppy than it was previously analog control can be a great thing but abe's oddysee wasn't designed with it in mind there's plenty of times where you want to go precisely from a run to a walk which is much harder to do now in the grand scheme of things this doesn't cause too many issues but a much larger oversight is the fact that the X button is now used for both jumps and ledge grabs in the original if you wanted to grab a ledge from underneath you just pressed up the UP button wasn't used for much else so this made perfect sense the triangle button was reserved for hops which will be long if you were running and short if you were stationary in new and tasty it's incredibly finicky to get abe to do a short hop what used to require a simple button press now requires players to press the jump button and move the analog stick around the same time move the stick too soon and a blocks forward into a mine move the stick too late and he uselessly jumps straight upwards the levels weren't designed to work this way at all there are several situations that require the player to patiently short hop and Crouch between various obstacles that become utterly unworkable with the new control scheme it's much more sluggish having to carefully move the analog stick than it is just tapping the triangle button a few times which makes the timing very difficult to get right in certain places this section in pair ammonia is a simple and satisfying challenge in the original in a new version it's a frustrating mess and I found the best way to get past it was the charger that repeatedly like an idiot because it was better than putting up with the new controls there's some easier difficulty modes this time around which ties into the control problems unless you choose to play on hard mode aybe nail has some health instead of dying in one hit to almost everything having played Abe's Oddysee about four times already I chose the hard mode to start off in now in theory I have no problem with some easier difficulty modes especially since they want to try and use this remake to get more people into the series I don't think that having AIDS survive multiple gun shots makes sense for a cinematic platformer but I get that maybe the developers feel the same way and just needed to make this concession to keep the series alive as long as the hard mode was as hard as the original I'd be happy it is a little easier slaves don't have quite as much range and you can fall from great heights without dying but even so it matches the original for the most part the problem is the triangle button is reserved for showing AIDS health which is completely useless to me on hardmode I have to suffer terrible jumping controls because of a difficulty level I'm not even playing not only that but again this is the same problem as the checkpoints the player doesn't gain any useful information by knowing how much health they have left it's not like Abe has health packs and he needs to use them carefully he's either a library's not the player gets through the next section or they don't the exact amount of health is irrelevant even if I ignore that problem it still makes no sense because the R 3 and L 3 buttons are completely unused which would make a hell of a lot more sense for such a trivial action there's a simple solution which could have fixed all of these issues for me some control options in the menu as it is now there's no way to swap back to the classic control scheme even though this would have been a very simple thing to implement instead I'm forced to trade the precision of the old version for the sloppiness of the new one it's sloppy in more ways than one I was surprised by the number of bugs I ran into during my playthrough of new and tasty considering I didn't attempt anything even slightly out of the ordinary first up and one of the worst ones I wound up in an area where a couple of slugs are supposed to chase you only no matter what I did they wouldn't wake up in the end I was forced to reload an earlier save in order to rescue the Medoc ins here this was my favorite glitch of the lot because of how ridiculous it was at one point trying to use a pedestal to hear a password kept teleporting me into a nearby tube blocking my progress in my several playthroughs of the original Abe's Oddysee I can't recall ever running into any glitches which goes to highlight the difference between development back then and development now back then if a show-stopping bog made its way into a release it was a huge hassle to get it fixed by shipping out new discs to affected players now it just requires a patch as a small development team I should probably cut them some slack here but it's just another thing that highlights to me how new and tasty feels like an amateur project compared to the original if it was a brand new game I'd probably be willing to overlook this stuff but I can play Abe's Oddysee without any bugs under disk I bought 17 years ago despite my misgivings about the new camera system earlier I have to admit it has some undeniable advantages when it comes to gameplay the LM parts are far more exciting than they were before and the transitions between screens can no longer be abused to get out of certain situations that said there's obvious disadvantages - it's much easier to accidentally wake up's leagues since their boundary of hearing is no longer clearly defined the same is true for the chance suppressors in the original it was immediately clear what areas were off-limits for chanting whereas in new and tasty the player needs to move around the environment first to gauge where the suppressors are active and inactive this lack of information takes some satisfaction out of the puzzle solving a player who's clever enough to get the solution in a glance in the original will instead have to explore their boundaries manually in new and tasty so even if they would have been able to solve the puzzle with all the information they're now arriving at the solution by trial and error this is a huge change the chance suppressors are arguably the most important gameplay element in the entire game you might not think of them as a gameplay element and I suppose it might be more descriptive to say they're a gameplay limiter of sorts but that limitation is extremely important to many situations personally I've never been remotely frustrated by the screen based layout of the original and can during the sweeping art and gameplay changes the new camera results in I'm not at all convinced it was worth the effort after finding that developer post I referenced earlier where the game designer talked about the visual style of the originals I decided to see if I could find something similar for new and tasty in the process I run across a blog post from Matt Glanville game designer on the new version where he talks about the changes they made to the motion detectors in the stockyard the 3d environment of the new version forced them to rethink the way the motion detectors should look which is reasonable enough sticking a frame around them makes some sense although honestly it's not the most forward-thinking solution because they'll have to do something different for the greater enemies in the sequel anyway at the end of the blog post he goes on to make this statement most importantly we managed to keep the original classic gameplay completely intact without rendering limitations forcing us to make compromises this is my favorite kind of solution I'd say this change was a resounding success what do you think I think one man's resounding success is another man's order failure the challenge in the original version wasn't just standing still as a beam passed over you the challenge came from the way the three beams overlapped with each other and moved at different speeds this meant you had to watch all three beams to know when it was safe to move in new and tasty the frames around the lasers prevent them from overlapping so the beams move back and forth at a set speed it might seem like a reasonable compromise but the new design and the old challenge aren't mutually exclusive what they should have done here is set each frame to a different speed and allow them to travel the full length of the rail when two frames get too close to each other they reverse direction in gameplay terms this would still be slightly different than the original but effectively the same thing players would have to be aware of all three frames before they could move I find it very disappointing that nobody thought of this and worse still that this was touted as some great solution the rest of the game was already designed anyway and one of the very few gameplay elements they had to change didn't get enough attention to arrive at this simple fix by the way Matt Glanville also designed Luminess Co which is one of the games to get an ad on the billboards and rupture farms I suppose it was just a friendly gesture to himself to put an for his game into a much more popular game where it could gain some exposure it's very generous of him I hope he sent himself a thank-you card the thing about new and tasty is I want to give it some slack might not sound like it from this video but I really do want to be kind to it I mean it's the first proper odd world stuff in about ten years it could mark the return of the entire series I know I'm far from the only person that feels this way the idea of more odd world is almost intoxicating after feeling that the series was dead for so long it seems to me like we're all too eager to gloss over the obvious flaws in new and tasty because at its core it's still a absurdity which is a brilliant game there's a big problem with this line of thought though what happens when just add water tried to make an art well game from scratch so far they haven't impressed me and without the benefit of established game mechanics and visuals to work from I'm not convinced I'll be able to put out a quality game let alone something that lives up to the standards set by the a games I mean we're talking about the same people that pick this abomination to play over the end credits just to be clear to anyone who doesn't believe me this is actually the song that plays at the end of the game I can't point to any one part of new and tasty and say it ruins the experience completely it's more just a series of small differences that result in the whole thing feeling off it walks talks and acts like ABS Odyssey but it just doesn't have the same feeling to it to be fair to just add water other world inhabitants themselves didn't manage the transition to real-time rendering any better I wouldn't say wenches Odyssey did a good job of retaining the atmosphere the Abe Games had either although strangers wrath was definitely a huge step in the right direction ultimately this game needs to be judged on its own merits and not awarded free points for any other reason as far as I can see the art is worse the sound is worse the animations are worse and the gameplay is a lateral move at best I suppose new and tasty is a good game but only because Abe's Oddysee was a great game to begin with if I'd never played the original I'd probably be very impressed and clamoring for more but I know it can be done better I played a better version of it 17 years ago apart from being able to talk to multiple mudokons I see no reason to stick with new and tasty over the original sure the resolution sucks but at least it's the odd world I know and love you

Channel: Matthewmatosis

Views: 597,423

Keywords: review, analysis, critique, retrospective, comparison, new 'n' tasty, abe's oddysee, abe's exoddus, munch's oddysee, stranger's wrath, oddworld, oddworld inhabitants, cinematic platformer, platformer, puzzles

Id: QkhDrngAQZ0

Length: 37min 12sec (2232 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 25 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

I think the end of the video, where both credits are played back to back, speaks volumes about both versions of the game. Oddworld was very subtle in it's sound design and presentation whereas the remake seems more interested in being flashy.

It's a shame to hear that the new team didn't fully understand why the original was so great and instead chose to simply poke around at it during development and make unnecessary changes while excluding the more subtle details from the first game. It does it no justice, as he said, it's good because the original was a great game.

What really rubs me the wrong way are the checkpoints, those have no business being there. What ESPECIALLY rubs me the wrong way is they changed the noises the scrabs made. Those sound effects were strange and terrifying, it was unlike anything you had heard before and here it's been all pissed away.

Boo.

[u/newbkid]

I have never heard of Matthewmatosis, but thank you for introducing me to him. He is a very meticulous reviewer who clearly does his research. He has great diction, and is a very well thought out linguist as well.

Thank you!

[u/That_otheraccount]

Great analysis as usual.

I was never a huge fan of Oddworld, but I can respect what the creators were going for, and removing the gritty realism the first one had kinda seems like you're missing the point.

I wish developers would stop throwing so much bloom into games, especially HD remakes/remasters. It doesn't automatically make your game look good if you use it so liberally. That's not saying bloom is bad, it just shouldn't be a substitute for great art direction.

[u/SativaSammy]

Wow. A very blunt and harsh analysis... albeit justified in a lot of cases. I played the original in '97, and played New n' Tasty, both to completion. It's one of my favorite game franchises of all time, and it's crazy to see all of these nuances pointed out to me in such a detailed fashion.

When I was playing through the PS4 version I never honestly noticed much of this, but when it's slowed down and dissected you clearly see the faults.

Someone had a comment that pretty much sums the remake up perfectly:

• "The whole remake comes across more as a commission to a developer who might have played it in the past, but were just told to make a modern version, and not really think of the aesthetics or the meaning behind the game. Ironically like rupture farms, just turning ports into a sausage factory."

The number one thing that stuck out to me in this analysis, was just 49 seconds in. The difference in lightning is insane. The original looks so gloomy, so barren... the new version looks like they just wanted to show off their lighting abilities and make it look futuristic with complete disregard to what the original stood for.

[u/Wastelander_21]

I could have made my peace with the cleaner environments and neater textures, but the cutscenes have really killed my interest. "The Moon" cutscene was one my all time favorites and they ruined it.

[u/[deleted]]

Wow, the audio balance was the most shocking for me - i haven't played yet, but I'm looking forward to it on PC, maybe a little less now, but still going to have a look

[u/aphidman]

Scathing! But very interesting. He has some interesting analysis but I don't personally agree with everything - and some of his other points feel very minor and don't seem to ruin the experience I think (fast animations, the bell animation, audio balancing, repetition of idle dialogue etc) but are things I'd like to see worked on more for the tentative Exoddus remake.

But I'll defend New n Tasty (NnT) and Just Add Water (JAW) more than he certainly did. And although this is a good video it's fair to say that the majority of fans do not share his dissatisfaction with the game - and not just because they're blinded by the first piece of Oddworld content in 9 years - and the visuals are probably the most praised thing about this game in critical reviews and fan reaction across the board.

Obviously the atmosphere is far more stylised than the original, and Oddworld are clearly listening judging by their responses on Twitter and the Oddworld Forums (OWF), Matthew isn't a lone voice in the crowd and I do think we'll see a bit more of that grimness returning for the next game. But to completely forgo everything they did, visually, with NnT would be ridiculous considering the sheer amount of positive reception they've had for this aspect of the game.

But since he was pedantic I'll be a little pedantic amount a few things! :)

• Matthew's analysis of the Slig visor doesn't hold up. First and foremost the single visor Sligs DO appear in game alongside the pilot mask Sligs. They are just less frequent and seem to be portrayed as the Elite Sligs. Also, the only reason the single visor Sligs appeared in Exoddus was because they reused the same ingame sprites from Oddysee to save memory space. Otherwise, in cutscenes, they were ALL pilot masked. Also, when Sligs shoot they lean a little to the side which answers the vision issues Matthew has with the pilot mask logistics. And logically this can be explained away with the Glukkons skimping out on high quality equipment - which is not unheard of in the real world. So the majority of Sligs get the impractical masks. Can't argue against preference but not everyone hates the Exoddus look so having both in game is a perfect compromise I think.

• With regards to in game advertisements I think he's missed the mark completely. Particularly the philosophy behind it. Whether or not it's immersion breaking is another issue and I've seen convincing arguments on both sides of the fence. Oddworld may be anti-consumerist, anti-capitalist but the idea that Oddworld is anti-product in anyway is ridiculous. Oddworld itself is a product. What OWI believe in, what Lorne Lanning believes in, are great products that don't have horrible business practices like the Glukkons or, in real life, like their former publishing partners.

• Someone on OWF put this more succinctly than myself.

And contrary to what some people here say it's exactly what Oddworld is all about. It's about the little guys bonding with each others in order to try to survive in a world currently ruled by the big guys.

Oddworld Inhabitants & JAW have been open from the beginning on what these ads were about. Indies cross promoting each other because they lack the marketing budgets of the big publishers they turned away from. This was a philosophy put forth by Lorne Lanning a few years ago and he's so bloody anti-capitalist that some fans think he's some crazy deluded hippy. And since JAW spent the last 3 years helping bring this game to life I don't see why including Matt Glanville's personal indie game, Luminesca, or JAW's other game, Gravity Crash Ultra, in these brief billboard advertisements creates a hypocrisy about a message that Oddworld never espoused in the first place.

• Also these ads only ever appear in secret areas. Although this doesn't matter to some Oddworld wouldn't be the first game series to break the 4th wall in secret areas, and promote the games of their friends and colleagues - which, to me, doesn't seem like a disgusting business practice.

• But I cannot argue that people did find them intrusive - and it's a fair argument even if I don't personally share it. And it's an argument JAW have responded to.

• I also feel he does a disservice to JAW by calling the aesthetic a serious visual downgrade. Aye, he has some very well thought at points - and in some areas I agree with him. But not to the extent that NnT massively disappoints. But there are areas of NnT that are far more visually interesting than the original - even if some of the original appeal has been lost in the transfer to 3D.

• RuptureFarms, for example, is actually a pretty generic place. Zulag 1, and a few of the areas he showcased in this video, stand out as very impressive. But a lot of the factory sort of looks incredibly generic - and not in and interesting way. You can look at Exoddus and see how the industrial areas can look "generic" in that industrial sense yet still remain visually interesting at times. Yes, there is a grime, a lighting that I would have loved to see transferred but NnT succeeds in bringing the factory to life. Some of the later areas in Zulags 2-4 even beat out the original by just having something interesting in it. And, honestly, I would rather the repulsiveness stay completely intact but JAW still did a great job bringing something new to the area.

• The Dark silhouettes are something I agree with. BUT I do believe that some of NnT's natural environments, again, are very visually impressive even if the brighter lighting creates a slightly different mood at times. I mean just look at the Monsaic Lines. Absolutely fantastic art direction.

• And although I haven't played Alf's Escape (technically the first piece of original Oddworld content since Stranger's Wrath) many long time fans, even those who have similar criticisms to Matthew, have touted it as perhaps the best part of NnT. And since Oddworld have even responded to Matthew's criticisms respectfully (even if they privately don't agree with some of his comments)

@Matthewmatosis thanks for taking the time to put all this together, we appreciate your feedback and critique. It's very comprehensive.

and have listened to much of the criticism thrown at them, particularly the control scheme, we may not see a complete overhaul of the NnT aesthetic but I see JAW as a company who really does love Oddworld, really don't, in fact, misunderstand it (judging from all their comments over the last few years) and although they've made a few missteps I think they'll be taking the appropriate criticism on board. I can only see them getting better at handling the property rather than - as Matt seems to see it - NnT being the high point of their downward spiral in mishandling the IP.

EDIT: Corrected a few mistakes.

[u/Pyroteq]

Thanks for introducing me to this channel!

I think some of the things were incredibly nitpicky but overall he has a good argument. I would have preferred it if he had spent more time going over the game play differences rather than the sound and graphics.

WHAT THE FUCK IS WITH THE FUCKING LIGHTING?!

It's like I have to put on sunglasses when I play games these days.

[u/stunts002]

I'm surprised at all the comments. I just finished new n tasty and I was a big fan of the original I have to say I really enjoyed it. The levels were all basically shot for shot remade.