I wasn't wholly interested in the return of Oddworld because of quite a few memories of frustration and anger as a teen, but decided to give it a chance, and was happily rejoiced by its return. I started off with New and Tasty, and immediately moved on the Soulstorm, the former being a faithful recreation of Oddyssee, while Soulstorm being a whole new kind of beast. The visual design and graphics are stunning, and meticulously made, everything setup to inspire awe and anticipation. Same goes for the cinematics that play like an actual movie, telling an incredibly compelling story that expands the Oddworld more than I could ever wish for, along with jawdropping animations. Sound design and music is on point, and feels even more alive in this revival of the series, and the voice acting is both familiar yet fresh, and well acted. Controls are upgraded with better speed and manueverability, along with added gameplay like crafting, and using a barrage of items. The only gripe I have with the game is its difficulty and somewhat repetative nature, which can get frustrating if your aiming for the most passive way to get the best ending. The controls can get tedious when you're in a tight spot, while some level design is innovative and interesting at best, but annoyingly questionable at worst. I bugged out at some areas, which luckily didn't vitaly break anything but the flow. Some design decisions, however, around certain parts of a few levels made it incredible rage inducing, especially with some of the checkpoints being placed so that if you had fellow mudokons following, they would unavoidable be killed when you returned to the checkpoint. Other areas are simply much harder than others and need a lot of repeat action, which can get really frustrating having to do it over and over again with long pauses in between. For the most part, I was hooked, and despite the difficulty, it felt like getting back into an old-school kind of game that simply isn't being made anymore, and even better since it's Oddworld. Summary: + Graphics 10/10 + Sound and Music 10/10 + Cinematics and Story 10/10 + Controls 8/10 -/+ Level Design 8/10 -/+ Gameplay 7/10 - Checkpoint System 6/10 I can't wait for the next installment, and hope dearly that Oddworld will continue as a franchise. It feels great to see all of it back in the spotlight, bigger and better. Waiting in anticipation for the story follow-up, but also, just perhaps, a remake and reimagining of Stranger's Wrath?