Munch’s Oddysee

Developer: Oddworld Inhabitants
Publisher: GT Interactive
Projected Release Date: Late 2000/Early 2001
Platform: Playstation 2

By Erik Reckase

One
of the main reasons I purchased a Playstation a few years ago was to play
the first two Oddworld games, Abe’s Oddysee and Abe’s Exoddus.
Although they were platform games, the graphics, animation, and sound
effects seemed to really stretch the capabilities of the Playstation,
and through these games I developed a real sense of respect for the folks
at Oddworld Inhabitants. Anytime you can get players to feel compassion
for a computer-generated character, you’re doing a great job!

The next game in the Oddworld series, to be released late this year or
early next year, is Munch’s Oddysee. This game will initially be
released for the Playstation 2, but a possible port to the X-Box has been
rumoured. This game will feature a full 3D real-time playing environment
… but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. There are so many great things
to expect from this game that it’s impossible to list them all, so here’s
a short list of expected features.

Munch:
The main character in this game, as the game’s name implies, is Munch.
Munch is the last surviving Gabbit, an amphibious creature with only one
leg. The Gabbits were hunted to near-extinction for two reasons–their
lungs made good replacements for Glukkon lungs (the cigar-smoking baddies
from the Abe games apparently are fairly susceptible to lung cancer) and
Gabbit eggs were used to make Gabbiare, an expensive culinary delicacy.
Munch is a hippy-dippy kind of guy who feels very sorry for the abused
creatures and habitats in the world, and he wants to help. For fans of
Abe, he will also be in the game–Munch and Abe can be played interchangably,
and they share a strange symbiotic/codependent relationship.

World:
The world of Munch’s Oddysee will be fully interactive and
alive. What does this mean? It means that all elements of the landscape,
from trees to crops to objects to other characters, can be manipulated
and inteacted with. Seasons will change before your eyes! There are hundreds
of Mudokons, like Abe, running around, chopping down trees, harvesting
crops, performing mindless tasks for the Glukkons and the Vykkers. The
developers are hoping that people will “visit” Oddworld instead
of “playing” it, as a sort of computer-generated habitat experiment
(anyone remember Activision’s Little Computer People?)

Language:
Interviews with Lorne Lanning have revealed that there will be more
languages available to communicate with the other Oddworld creatures,
including some musical ones. Given the limited number of controls available
on the PS2’s Dual Shock controller, there’s some concern that the controls
will be so complicated that few will be able to master them, but Lorne
assures us that the controls will be even easier to use than those for
the Abe games.

Story: The core story line, if followed as quickly as possible,
promises at least 50 to 60 hours of gameplay. There are, however, plenty
of subplots and tasks to perform that could easily boost the number of
gameplay hours to over 100!

For additional information on Munch’s Oddysee, including movies
and screenshots, visit www.oddworld.com.

Format: One 4.5 GB DVD
Techno-Features: 128 bit graphics, 30 FPS real-time
animation, digital surround sound
Progress: 70% Complete (May 2000)