Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath

Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath is the story of a mysterious bounty hunter, Stranger, and his travels through the Western Mudos. The game introduces 15 new species: Clakkerz, Slegs, Grubbs, Steef, Minions (8 kinds), Outlaws (11 kinds), Wolvarks (5 kinds), Bolamite, Oktigi, Gloktigi, Boombat, Chippunk, Stingbee, Zappfly, Thudslug and Stunkz.

Gizzard Gulch
The game begins by showing an opening scene set within the Grubb Graveyard. The Stranger, a mysterious bounty hunter, is taking some animals to use for live ammo whilst some of the local Grubbs are fishing nearby. They are disappointed, having only caught a small fish for food. They sniff the air, picking up a familiar scent, when Blisterz Booty bursts through and shoots at the Stranger as he passes through them. Blisterz continues to chase him through the forest, eventually getting bountied after falling into a fuzzle trap Stranger set up earlier. Stranger brings him back to the Clakker town of Gizzard Gulch after fighting his men to cash in on the bounty. Stranger, who is desperately in need of a mysterious operation (Which is later revealed to be surgery for the removal of his back legs), goes to the local doc's office, to find that Doc isn't in town. Stranger decides to take up some bounties to pass the time.

His first bounty is Filthy Hands Floyd, an Outlaw who was ambushing the convoys which brought supplies into town. Stranger beats down Floyd's outlaw henchmen and bags Floyd. After bagging Floyd the Stranger takes on the Looten Duke who is hiding out in the town's water facility. He fights his way into the facility and takes The Duke down and collects the bounty. When Stranger gets back to town he learns the Doc is back in the office. Stranger enters his office to ask about his surgery. The Doc then tells Stranger that his operation will cost a total of 20,000 Moolah due to the extreme complexity of the surgery. At this time Stranger learns that Boilz Booty is coming to town to rescue his brother Blisterz. Stranger and Boilz duke it out with Stranger eventually bagging Boilz in the end. However the town has been destroyed by Boilz and his gang throughout the battle and thus the Stranger moves on to the next town to get more Moolah.

Buzzarton
Stranger ends up in the town of Buzzarton, where he visits the local bounty office to turn in Boilz and takes on the bounty (actually a rescue mission) for Eugene Ius, a local Clakker who was kidnapped by outlaws. Stranger travels to a nearby Grubb temple and shows Eugene's captors who's boss. Next Stranger takes on Jo' Mamma, who is hiding in an old shipwreck past the town's sewers. Stranger travels through the sewers to the shipwreck and fights Jo' Mamma and her outlaws head on. He bags Jo' and heads back for town. The next bounty Stranger took was the one on Meagly McGraw, who has been making trouble at the local Opple Farm. Stranger quickly makes short work of McGraw's outlaws, then bags McGraw after taking out his monstrous mount. After McGraw is finished, Stranger takes the price on Packrat Palooka who is holed up in his junkyard hideout and stole Eugene's computer. Stranger goes down into the sewers and gets the password for the junkyard, which is not far from an outlaw called Skuz who has a grudge against Palooka after the latter double crossed him. He then goes to the junkyard and recites the password. Stranger then fights his way to Palooka, who has used the laptop to create a shield around himself. Stranger takes out the shield, then Palooka himself. After this bounty, Stranger learns that there isin't anyone in Buzzarton to make more Moolah out of, forcing him to move on to the next town. Before he leaves he has a call with Mr. Sekto who tells him that if he finds himself a Steef he will give him the 20,000 Mollah he needs.

Mongo Valley and New Yolk City
Stranger arrives in the Clakker city of New Yolk City, which lies near the banks of the Mongo River. Stranger learns that the Doc's office is further upriver, and he would need a barge to reach him. Unfortunately, the barges aren't running due to Outlaw activity. Stranger takes up the bounty on Xplosives McGee who is hiding out in the old mine shafts. Stranger quickly goes on a couple of cart rides through the mines and hauls in McGee's ass like a bag of coal. Stranger returns to town and gets his pay for McGee. Next, he takes on his next bounty, Lefty Lugnutz, who has been poaching Slegs in the river valley illegally. To bag him, Stranger had to learn a Sleg call from a local hunter. Next Stranger went after the cyborg Elboze Freely and his gang. After he hauled in Elboze, Stranger took on the bounty for Fatty McBoomboom, he convinced Skycart Joe (by knocking him out) to give him a lift to McBoomboom's hideout. Once Stranger brings in Fatty he learns that the barge is operating again, and can take him to Dusty Hollow, where the Doc has his Mongo River Valley Office. When he got there he found the Doc had been hanged. D. Caste Raider was waiting for Stranger. During the battle Stranger is knocked out, when he wakes up he is tied up in Raider's hideout with his gear and weapon stolen.

Stranger's Wrath
After the Outlaws have a short interrogation on the whereabouts of the Steef, the papers detailing Stranger's surgery fell out of his Poncho as he struggled to get free. Raider looked at the papers and, shocked at what he sees on them, orders Stranger's pants off, revealing that he was actually a Steef himself. Before Raider's men can kill Stranger, a hail of arrows flew into the hideout, freeing Stranger, taking his gear and killing some of the Outlaws. After some quick revenge on Raider and his remaining goons for unmasking him the Stranger escaped from the hideout and into the night. But upon arriving in New Yolk City he didn't recieve a very warm welcome from the greedy Clakkerz who wanted the reward on his head. After tearing his way through the city in a narrow escape the Stranger vowed to get revenge on Sekto. Finding himself in a native Grubb village the next morning he learns that they saved him earlier and took his gear. The Grubbs give him a set of Steef armor, an improved crossbow and directions to find a boat that could take him to Sekto's dam. Stranger first had to break through a Wolvark facility, then entered the cave where the boat was hidden. The boat was sadly in disrepair so a number of Grubbs offered to repair it for him whilest he saved their village from a Wolvark attack. After the battle is finished, Stranger is asked to save the Grubb city of Last Legs. Stranger goes to the city and more or less single-handedly repels the entire invasion force. The Grubbs then tell him to go ahead and attack the dam, and they will meet him up there with the city's catapults to destroy it while he hunts down Sekto. Stranger bursts into the dam, and fights his way up to Mr. Sekto. After an intense battle against Sekto's twin Glocktigi and Sekto himself in a massive machine, Sekto is crushed by debris and the dam is destroyed. Stranger drags the body of Sekto to shore and sees two hoofs when one of his shoes comes off. Stranger flips over the body revealing that "Sekto" was actually the Olden Steef. The weakened Steef asks if the water is free before he dies peacefully. The real Oktigi Sekto swims down the Mongo River, his plans for the future of it unknown.

Gameplay
Stranger's Wrath is both a first person shooter and a third person 3D beat 'em up. The player can switch between both viewpoints at will, depending on which view is the best. At all times Stranger can double jump, access the pause, inventory and ammo menus and switch viewpoints. He can also restore health at the cost of his stamina meter. Stranger can comment on things or talking to NPCs using the gamespeak button.

The third person view allows Stranger to achieve maximum speed by running on all his limbs as well as offering two melee attacks. The first attack is done by pulling the left trigger, and it causes Stranger to rotate rapidly to attack enemies at all angles at a short range. The other attack varies depending on how far the player is through the game. Before Stranger is captured, the right trigger causes Stranger to headbutt, a somewhat useless move as it does little damage, takes a long time to do, only attacks at a certain angle and has low range. During and after the D Castle Raider fight, the right trigger causes a charge, which immediately gives Stranger maximum speed, and does high knockback upon contact with enemies. Stranger can capture dead or knocked out enemies using the gamespeak button.

In first person Stranger can use his crossbow attached to his right hand. This crossbow is double barreled and can hold two different types of ammo in each barrel. Each barrel is controlled by the respective trigger. Stranger uses critters as ammo with varying effects. There is also a left hook Stranger can do in first person that is devastating when upgraded.

Soundtrack
The game's soundtrack was produced by Michael Bross. Part of the game's soundtrack was released on CD, vinyl and digital platforms as 'Volume 1'.

Reception
Stranger's Wrath was highly acclaimed among many game critics, including GameSpot and Metacritic. The game scored an 87% from Game Rankings, and 4 1/2 stars from IGN.

Awards
The game was nominated for several awards including Best Artistic Graphics and Best Cinematics. It was also included in Game Informer's Top 50 Games of 2005, and Stranger was listed in their Top 10 Heroes Of 2005.

Remaster


On September 3rd, 2010, Just Add Water Ltd. confirmed that an HD remake of Stranger's Wrath was in development for the PlayStation 3. The game was originally planned to release around Easter 2011, but has since been delayed to late summer of the same year. The improvements on the PS3 edition include remastered dialogue, improved character textures, support for PlayStation Move and bonus material. A patch with the PS3 content will come to the PC version at an unannounced date.

On September 16, 2011, the trailer for Stranger's Wrath HD was released. The game was released on December 21, 2011.