The towns serve as living, breathing hubs abuzz with activity that fill the game with life in between fights, and broaden the game's appeal. Each Bounty Store offers its own new set of bounties each General Store offers the option to upgrade weapons, buy armor and Live Ammo bait, which vary in degree of usability. Stranger finds the Bounty Store in the first town, and as he completes his tasks he's directed to other, different podunk towns, each with its own General and Bounty Store. Throughout the game, the level design is exceptionally well thought out. It's immensely satisfying, plus you get to steal the money they leave from their plump limp bodies. But hell, you've got to torture these little bastards at least once. In the latter case, they'll shoot from windows and communicate your bad behavior to the next town, which will then greet you negatively. If you decide to shove, beat, or shoot them dead, they'll talk back at you, yell at you, and eventually scatter the streets, hiding from you. If you're friendly, they'll walk the streets and chatter away (and if you listen, the topic of their conversation is usually focused on your next goal). They'll instinctively react to your behavior and they're funny as hell. Some give you hints toward the next goal, some give you directions, some just give you attitude. As part of its exploration elements, you can talk to any Clakker at any time. Odd Design Stranger commences in a small, old-fashioned Western town filled with creatures called Clakkerz, a chicken-like folk that walk upright on two legs and are the perfect example of what Oddworld previously did so well - to infuse weird-looking characters with spunk, attitude and humor. You avoid the whole Turok effect (platforming in first-person), the camera speed matches the pace of exploration, and when Stranger runs fast enough across a flat surface, he'll accelerate into a nifty gallop. Jumping, exploring and moving across the landscape in third-person, however, works perfectly. They're novel for a bit, but no match for the sleek first-person shooting mechanic. The slow moving camera doesn't respond fast enough, and the controls actually offer a head-butt and spin move in place of the shooting mechanics. Fighting while in third-person is far less efficient and way more frustrating than you can imagine. The game offers the ability to play in either perspective 99% of the time (with the exception of some fixed camera angles scattered here and there), but most likely, you'll come to realize it's best to use the first-person view while fighting and the third-person view while platforming and traveling. At first, players might think the game works equally well in both views at any point in the action, be it platforming, shooting, or simply running about. Aside from the new setting and lead character, gamers will instantly notice the ease with which they can change between the first-person and the third-person view. FPS? Yes a first-person shooter with a distinctly fluid camera mechanic. If you've played the previous Oddworld games, Stranger comes as a surprise. I won't spoil it for you here, but you'll want to play it all the way through thanks to a largely interesting, and yes, oddly compelling story. But its significance is huge, and about halfway through the game a huge twist of fate alters the story and even the gameplay to a large degree. Your real goal is initially hidden, but on the surface Stranger's mission is to earn enough money as a bounty hunter to pay for an operation. You start off as Stranger, a tough-as-nails bounty hunter modeled after the Clint Eastwood character born from Sergio Leone's spaghetti Westerns of the 1960s and early 1970s. This one is longer and more varied that the others, relying less on language puzzles and light strategy and more on skill-heavy shooting and light platforming. Story and Perspective Following the company's three previous titles, Stranger offers a story told over the course of about 16- to 18-hours. Lanning's new game shows innovation and experimentation in the first-person shooter genre, it expands Oddworld, and more importantly, it shows Oddworld's got legs - specifically, it conveys Lanning's ability as a designer to adapt, evolve and change with the times. In fact, in most ways it was considered a failure. Munch's Oddysee might have retained some fans' interest, but it didn't grow the Xbox market base at the system's launch, and it certainly didn't sell as well as the previous two PlayStation 2D titles.
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