Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee Demo

Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee is probably one of the best platformers ever made, and it remain in the public conscience for a long time.

There was a time when developers were taking risks with new games and new storylines that had nothing to do with the real world. In fact, Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee presented a new world so different from ours that it would have been difficult to imagine it. Much of the action and story from the game only makes sense in the context of the game, and that tells a lot about the overall quality.

It’s also slightly incorrect to define Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee as a platformer since it’s much more than that. It’s basically in its genre. As it happens, it’s a 2D game, and you need to control the character with accuracy, but at the same time, you also have to solve puzzles, find secrets, and figure out how to finish each level.

Abe is a Mudokon, and he works at the RuptureFarms as a regular floor-waxer first class. He overhears his boss Molluck that has plans to kill all the Mudokons so that he can save the failing meat-packing empire.

Abe doesn’t want to become someone's dinner, so he tries to save himself and any Mudokons he finds on the way. It’s a perilous journey, and the players are going to fail many times.

Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee was originally made before controllers become widely used, so it uses the keyboard as the default control scheme. It’s not bad, but it’s good enough to get you through the game. Players will have to adapt, but it will be worth it by the end.

Each level has a minimal number of Mudokons that need to be saved, but the idea is that all of them can be saved. It’s a really difficult job, and it’s painstaking work. You don’t have any weapons, and pretty much anything that you can see is going to kill you, in various ways. It’s possible to use the environment to kill some of the guards, but for the most part you will have to be sneaky.

The demo is pretty short, but it shows what you can expect from the game, and underlines why this was such an influential title back in the day.