Reception
| Reception | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Aggregator | Score |
| GameRankings | 89/100 (19 reviews) |
| Metacritic | 85/100 (10 reviews) |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| Edge | 8/10 |
| GamePro | 9/10 |
| GameSpot | 8.4/10 |
| IGN | 7.5/10 |
| PC Zone | 8.1/10 |
Upon its release in 1997, Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee received mostly positive reviews. Edge described the game as "a tight 2D platformer that's packed with great innovative touches and some great character design". GameSpot gave the PlayStation version 8.4 out of 10 and praised the game as "the ideal platformer, balancing its action and puzzle elements perfectly to make the game intelligent, engaging, and, best yet, fun". Animation World Magazine applauded multiple aspects of the game, saying it "features some of the best graphics and animation we've ever seen" and commenting on the "sophisticated gameplay". The graphics struck many reviewers as being excellent, as while the game is two-dimensional, all elements were rendered in 3D programs. PC Zone remarked that "the developers have created an outstanding visual environment for Abe to leap around in," while GamePro described the graphics as "eye-popping". The game's audio was often singled out for praise. GameSpot gave the music a score of nine out of ten.
Most criticism toward the game was directed at the save system. Edge said that "Oddworld demands a certain level of commitment to progress", while Science Fiction Weekly claimed the game's "innovative game play makes for a steep learning curve. This initial difficulty in figuring out how to play is aggravated by a save feature that often forces players to redo difficult sections." PC Zone stated that "progress does seem to rely on trial and error, which involves much replaying of levels and gnashing of teeth. All this can be frustrating at times, especially when Abe is plonked right back at the start of a level when he dies". The game's follow-up, Abe's Exoddus, notably implemented a suspend save feature that did not require the reaching of checkpoints.
The game won many awards, including the Nobel Prize from PC Computing Magazine in December 1997, E3 Showstopper 1997 from GamePro in August 1997 and the "Best Director" award from the World Animation Festival in 1997. In the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' first annual Interactive Achievement Awards it was nominated in the categories "Console Adventure Game of the Year" and "Outstanding Achievement in Sound and Music".
Read more about this topic: Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“But in the reception of metaphysical formula, all depends, as regards their actual and ulterior result, on the pre-existent qualities of that soil of human nature into which they fall—the company they find already present there, on their admission into the house of thought.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)
“To the United States the Third World often takes the form of a black woman who has been made pregnant in a moment of passion and who shows up one day in the reception room on the forty-ninth floor threatening to make a scene. The lawyers pay the woman off; sometimes uniformed guards accompany her to the elevators.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)