Oddworld: Soulstorm Enhanced Edition

I have a soft spot for games that feel like they were made by people who genuinely believe in their fictional universe, even when the execution wobbles. Soulstorm Enhanced Edition sits right in that complicated space. It picks up directly after New 'n' Tasty, dropping you back into Abe's dirt-caked shoes as he leads a growing crowd of Mudokons through industrial hellscapes patrolled by trigger-happy Sligs, all while a corporate conspiracy slowly unravels around him. The world has a grimy, almost spiritual weight to it, and the in-engine cinematics are genuinely stunning, the kind of thing that makes you forget you are playing a side-scrolling platformer and not watching a dark animated film. The core loop is a 2.5D puzzle-platformer, or 2.9D as Oddworld Inhabitants cheekily frames it, where levels wrap around fully 3D environments that occasionally open into sweeping alien vistas. Abe can run, sneak, double-jump, chant to possess Sligs, and issue orders to rescued Mudokon followers. The Enhanced Edition layers a crafting system on top of all that, letting you loot lockers and bins to build items like stun mines and brew bombs, with the flammable SoulStorm Brew functioning as both weapon and environmental hazard depending on what you set alight nearby. It is an interesting addition in theory. In practice, some players find it disrupts the puzzle-first pacing the older games were known for, nudging things closer to action-platformer territory than logic-puzzle territory. That tension is real and worth knowing about going in. The Quarma system is where the game earns its emotional stakes. How many Mudokons you save in each level determines which of four endings you unlock, meaning every follower lost to a badly timed Slig patrol or a misfired mine genuinely costs you something. The pressure is good, even when the companion AI makes it harder than it should be, sending followers wandering into danger with an enthusiasm that borders on comedic. The forgiving checkpoint system softens this, letting you reset sections without losing too much ground. The Vykkers Labs mode, exclusive to this Enhanced Edition, is a separate challenge layer that strips things back to deliberate, room-by-room puzzle design with a scaled-down art style that feels closer to the classic games. It is punishingly difficult from the first room and will not be for everyone. On the negative side, the Steam community has documented persistent bugs even post-launch: follower pathfinding that goes completely sideways, occasional geometry traps, and checkpoint saves that can lock you into a bad state. The Enhanced Edition fixed a lot of what plagued the original 2021 release, including controller responsiveness and Mudokon AI, but the game has never been fully ironed out. The crafting system draws consistent criticism for feeling tacked-on rather than integral. And the tone, which leans heavier and more serious than the fart-joke-laden originals, polarises long-time fans who wanted Exoddus nostalgia and got something darker and more earnest instead. For those who can meet Soulstorm on its own terms, there is a genuinely handcrafted world here, rich with lore, spectacular cutscenes, and the strange satisfaction of guiding a crowd of frightened, barely-intelligent Mudokons to safety. It is a slow, deliberate, sometimes maddening experience that cares far more about atmosphere than accessibility. That is exactly the kind of game I will go to bat for, imperfections included.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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