Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee

Oddworld is a game I remember from all the way back as a kid, I think I rented it as a kid at our local video store and don't remember much. Then when I got older I eventually bought this since I heard so many good things. Well the game is a creative enough puzzle game of navigating through obstacles and saving your friends through planning and reacting to the environment. The game actually starts off strong and gives you time to react and plan things out, but then the game enters bullshit territory and becomes trial and error the game. You will find yourself in many situations where you simply die because you are expected to know where enemies are or traps on a new screen and then die if you don't instantly react or know where to go. Now this wouldn't be a problem but the checkpoints in this game are horrible, sometimes you will go back several screens just for dying on a trial and error segment. Now I understand games punishing you for making mistakes or lacking skill but this just seems unfair when the game expects you to react on the fly to obstacles you don't even know are coming and there is input lag when you jump that makes things worse, the platforming in this game is stiff as hell. Now if you can put up with this bullshit there is a solid story with different endings you can get, plus hidden secrets, but I feel the journey isn't worth it, sure the graphics, art, design, and World setup are all unique and creative, but when you have frustrating design and awful checkpoints it puts a little damper on these things.

One of the best cinematic platformers of the '90s held back by some frustrating design decisions and a poor finale. The cheap deaths and input lag on movement is frustrating to no end. I kind of love it but at the same time its flaws left a bad taste in my mouth.