Abe is back. After the success of "New and Tasty," and many other PlayStation remakes, Oddworld Inhabitants delivering another remake to one of their classic games. This time, however, things are darker, more cerebral, and possibly even odder. "Oddworld: Soulstorm" is aiming to deliver a different experience than the original title- "Abe's Exoddus."

In the newest trailer, creative director Lorne Lanning introduces an old enemy from Abe's past with brand new gameplay footage.

New and Tasty

For the uninitiated, the "Oddworld" series revolves around a fictional planet with stories that touch on environmentalism, consumerism, and spirituality.

Most entries center on spiritual race known as the mudokons and their struggles against the industrial and capitalistic race that enslaved them- the glukkons. Originally intended to be a pentalogy, the series originally spawned four games. Only two of these games: "Abe's Oddysee" and "Munch's Oddysee" were considered part of the pentalogy with "Abe's Exoddus" and "Stranger's Wrath" considered bonus titles.

The first installment, "Abe's Oddysee," centers on a slave mudokon named Abe who works as a janitor for a meat processing plant called Rupture Farms. When Abe burns the midnight oil, he stumbles upon a secret meeting that the owners are conducting. Because of dwindling profits, the CEO announces a brand new treat to boost sales- "New and Tasty." Unfortunately for Abe, it's made from mudokons.

Horrified by this revelation, Abe makes his escape from Rupture Farms, liberating as many workers as he can in the process.

The title was a 2D platforming game where players had to solve puzzles while making sure that the slaves they rescued didn't get killed. Since Abe was a skinny guy in a dangerous world filled with large hungry beasts and heavily armed guards, any attempts at direct combat was suicide.

One hit is all it took to kill Abe or any of the mudokons the player had to rescue. The player could ignore all the mudokons and just focus on saving themselves, but that was a one-way ticket to the game's bad ending where Abe's karma catches up on him.

Following "Oddysee's" rave reviews and stellar sales, the publisher demanded an immediate sequel to be ready by Christmas of that year.

Lorne Lanning didn't think that this was enough time for a proper sequel, so he dubbed "Abe's Exoddus" as a bonus game in the pentalogy. "Exoddus" sees Abe leading an expedition to the Soulstorm Brewery to save their fellow mudokons from slavery and recover their ancestor's bones.

Even though "Exoddus" was given less time to develop than its predecessor, it brought many new additions to the formula and even addressed complaints critics had with the first game. Despite the game's acclaim, Lanning did not feel that the final product met his level of quality to be considered part of the pentalogy. The remake, "Soulstorm," is aiming to remedy this.

The new brew

Molluck, the glukkon CEO, is back and seeking vengeance for the destruction of Rupture Farms.

This deviates from the original game where he was replaced by new antagonists such as the Brewmaster. In what's possibly the largest contrast to the original game, the mudokons that Abe rescues can now defend themselves. Similar to how Abe could recruit warrior mudokons in "Munch's Oddysee," he and his fellow mudokons can now arm themselves with makeshift molotovs crafted from the Soulstorm brew. Despite this, Abe and his fellow revolutionaries are still the skinny guys in a dangerous world filled with large hungry beasts and heavily armed guards.

"Oddworld: Soulstorm" is slated for a 2020 release for PC, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
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