izigame.me

I love the PS1 originals, I watched my dad play them and then later played them myself through so many times throughout the years, but there's some issues here that do not motivate me to continue playing or to replay. The game is not bad and I'm positive newcomers will enjoy it, it just doesn't translate well from my PS1 Oddworld veteran point of view and it comes with the problems of a lot of games done in this style that I do not like.

1) A preface of my common personal problem;

As always, 2.5D games are almost guaranteed to be annoying in sense of spacing on the platforms, the spacing of dangerous objects/enemies, and almost always kills the sense of atmosphere. Just because you can make a game 3D doesn't mean you should. For example; as much as I love Bloodstained, that game has those same issues with spacing, enemy/player frames and hitboxes, and sense of environment size makes the game feel lesser than previous 2D Iga Castlevanias in some aspects (Which is why I would put Blasphemous above Bloodstained in a lot of cases). I guess the way I could pinpoint 2.5D games' issues is that they want to do a camera "close-up+high FOV" when a "further camera+lower FOV" would alleviate most problems
In the PS1 originals the player is seeing the environment and its platforms at a perfect 90 degrees with movement being somewhat grid-like making quick and snappy decisions easy, and making careful placement of yourself easy i.e. a jump from high platform standing to low platform grab or knowing that you're exactly 1 step away from a grinder death. Backgrounds+objects and play area are easily discernible (for almost the entire game. there are only a handful of times when you don't realize that it's a waist-height wall you're about to run into when you should roll, but it's rare). Any screw ups feeling like it was 100% your own fault so you're able to fully understand what needs to be done the next time you attempt it. Player/enemy and object animations feels solid and grounded, everything feels as it should with physics and its the sprites matching up to it. But I won't lie, there are rare moments where something in a certain combination of the player actions will feel stiff and then feel sudden because the sprite does have to finish its frames, otherwise they're very responsive controls.
Here in New n Tasty, I really can't say the same praise for movements. Characters somehow look and feel simultaneously stiff and floaty which is a terrible combination for a game that's 100% about platforming. Nothing really looks or controls quite right, PS1's physics and choreography are just thrown out the window and perform as a parody of its former self. Something as simple as walking off the edge of a platform becomes a task in itself because the character has to feel the need to do the safety "WHOAAA" which can kill your flow when you're trying to perform an action you want to do safely but quickly. I understand the reason for the implementation, but it highlights the other issues; like the camera, "Hey guys we're 3D now, gotta move that camera around all the time to remind you!" and this causes being pixel-perfect a pain as you wonder where your actual hitbox is while dealing with an offset viewing angle and-- oh oops I guess I was 2 pixels too close to the grinder but it was hard to tell from this camera being 3 degrees askew of my current position in this completely analog movement system.

2) the default controller layout...

it sucks, like REALLY sucks and I don't know how they did it when they were much more fluid and intuitive with less buttons and no analog stick in 1997. Another one of those games that just has the inclination to do the cursed menu controls being solely operated by analog stick (WHY? ALMOST EVERY GAME HAS MENUS THAT ARE A DIGITAL OPERATION). I don't know why they had to complicate the character controls as well, the movement is also solely on the analog stick and they made running the default speed (in a game about careful calculations when outside of action. WHY?). They made gamespeak on the D-pad instead of L1(LB)/L2(LT)+face button... why would they do that, it's such a waste of space I could have used that D-pad for walking in a more precise manner. Throwing is right stick+RB, makes a little bit of sense but still... why are you further spreading out controls. This whole game is about dancing your thumbs between the digital and analog controls instead of keeping your action right at your thumbs. Unfortunately even attempting to do custom controls it doesn't fix a lot of the issues, you CANNOT set button combinations so you're stuck using analog sticks for something no matter what, so buh-bye classic gamespeak and throwing bindings, and have fun with your franken-buttons for even trying. (Man this is giving me flashbacks to the terrible binding options in the 1997 PC version)

3) The atmosphere.
I REALLLLLY dislike it, and for the same reason I couldn't get into Munch's Oddysee which unfortunately New n Tasty boosted that problem beyond that game even. The original was a dark and gritty experience with the occasional breaks in dreariness by adding some occasional silly elements or moments. It accomplished sucking you into its world and the storytelling very easily, actually giving you a sense of the world being cruel and dangerous, your people are slowly dying off. Like you sense that you are sneaking around trying to be unnoticed within the guts of the oppressive corporate machine in order to save the souls of your kind, your friends are too afraid to speak unless spoken to or they risk getting bruised and beaten again so they must remain meek in hopes that their guards will leave them less bloody. (Exoddus was a little more silly than Oddysee but it was still conveyed great atmosphere of the world and gave us some much needed QoL changes for gameplay).
So imagine my disappointment when I hear I can come back to the most atmospheric of the Oddworlds in a brand new remake only to play it and just feel like I'm in a bad Netflix re-imagining complete with repetitive, cringe, and/or immersion-breaking one-liners of idle characters because the devs are too afraid that your ears in the past 5 seconds haven't been assaulted by 20 different groans, complaints, or enemies swinging their wangs about how they're the most evil and it certainly doesn't make sense for the Mudokon to be doing it right in front of what is essentially SS guards. Absolutely everything has to be silly anytime anything is happening, "oh no topic is too scary and depressing. Add more silly faces and slapstick" all of which dilutes the seriousness of your mission and the mystique of the world you're in.