played the switch version of this and it is so fucking bad. a couple nice qol improvements and better performance over the pc version can't fix a port with a bug that renders one ammo type totally useless (at least on hard difficulty), and most damning of all is that the 1st person aiming feels TERRIBLE. played with the options as much as i could and it never stopped feeling way too jumpy for shooting accurately. and the gyroscope feels like dogshit and doesnt help!!! i have a lot of problems with the pc hd release, but at least i was able to play it acceptably enough. i kept my expectations low and was still disappointed
then went back to the xbox version for an hr or two to make sure the camera was not actually always that bad (whatever complaints you may have it was never THAT bad at least), and its still the best version thats hardly aged, yet is unfortunately inaccessible. its treatment of "run n gun" each as two ontologically distinct yet inseparable modes of gameplay is so inspired, constantly having the player move from the third person perspective's emphasis on movement speed and gathering inertia to its more sluggish but far more combat-flexible first person mode, and back and forth as needed. they work not just to support each other's weaknesses, but they also create a cool visual and mechanical friction in the transition between them that's unique to itself, without sacrificing how naturally you internalize the switching between. kind of like how the sprint button in fpses disallows shooting to give a tactical specificity to sprints, but here its assigned to an entire perspective with its own allowances outside of first person, delineating more sharply and obviously between "the movement mode" vs "the aim and shoot mode" in ways i really really like. neither mode is necessarily masterful when taken individually--though running at full speed itself feels so good to me, especially to ram an outlaw with an AH HOO HOOIE like a freight train or dart through gunfire to find cover and shake off wounds--but its how they work in tandem, how you tactically juggle them, that works to make you feel unstoppable in its best moments.
i also love its general escalation leading up to its sudden shift in game design which, imo, is linked into the narrative very well. theres light stealth elements throughout the game but especially for the front majority of it, as its preferred to bounty enemies alive than dead for greater payout, and its easier to pick them off one by one for that purpose. but there are a lot of big open firefights where youll be greatly overnumbered, and all stealth can do in many of those cases is shift things a little more in your favor until shit inevitably goes down. some would criticize this inevitability of conflict as watering down the stealth, but for me stranger's wrath is at its most memorable when you are taken out of the comfort zone and forced to fight. battles just get more and more explosive building up to a drastic turn for the last 1/3rd of the game which, while admittedly taking a hit in level design, largely makes up for it by essentially giving you a ringing endorsement to overcome its even more ballistic encounters with an even greater upfront viciousness than you mightve had in you before. its not just that your arsenal and moveset gets improved for greater violence, but the incentives change to accommodate too, essentially allowing you to (mostly) lose the restraints of needing to maximize bounties and go guerilla.
this unshackling also relates to stranger's critique of the western myth, which is the best handling of that in games for being so shockingly direct and no fuckin nonsense about it. no condescending faux-humanist air of "someday we in america can learn from and understand those people". its destruction of the lonesome cowboy archetype is not simply some tragic affair of the heart ground down by society, but a realization that "independence" itself, as we commonly hear of it, is an insidious misdirection to be washed away with the empire that loves its so-called independence so much. its actually hilarious to me that stranger's wrath could be considered part of the mid 2000s trend for platformer mascots going all badass, yet it somehow both cleverly subverts that trend and becomes the rare case of truly earning that tonal shift, with a dead set ferocity in its conflict and conclusions that even games today feel too cowardly to step to. you could argue the game contradicts itself in its usual superficial video gamey elements, or certain contrivances of its "western-ness", but whatever, that doesnt matter to me. what matters is how stranger's wrath unflinchingly goes there, and its absolutely spiritually correct to do so.
one of the most underappeciated action games of the 6th gen for my money, and way more different than the other oddworld games that it's worth it even if you aren't into those. it will surprise you, in one way or another. if you dont have an original xbox the pc version will have to do (or the similar ps3 or vita versions, while the latter lasts, if you have those but i havent played those ports). prob best with a gamepad, unless you insist on keyboard and mouse for the fps half but good luck with the other half.
then went back to the xbox version for an hr or two to make sure the camera was not actually always that bad (whatever complaints you may have it was never THAT bad at least), and its still the best version thats hardly aged, yet is unfortunately inaccessible. its treatment of "run n gun" each as two ontologically distinct yet inseparable modes of gameplay is so inspired, constantly having the player move from the third person perspective's emphasis on movement speed and gathering inertia to its more sluggish but far more combat-flexible first person mode, and back and forth as needed. they work not just to support each other's weaknesses, but they also create a cool visual and mechanical friction in the transition between them that's unique to itself, without sacrificing how naturally you internalize the switching between. kind of like how the sprint button in fpses disallows shooting to give a tactical specificity to sprints, but here its assigned to an entire perspective with its own allowances outside of first person, delineating more sharply and obviously between "the movement mode" vs "the aim and shoot mode" in ways i really really like. neither mode is necessarily masterful when taken individually--though running at full speed itself feels so good to me, especially to ram an outlaw with an AH HOO HOOIE like a freight train or dart through gunfire to find cover and shake off wounds--but its how they work in tandem, how you tactically juggle them, that works to make you feel unstoppable in its best moments.
i also love its general escalation leading up to its sudden shift in game design which, imo, is linked into the narrative very well. theres light stealth elements throughout the game but especially for the front majority of it, as its preferred to bounty enemies alive than dead for greater payout, and its easier to pick them off one by one for that purpose. but there are a lot of big open firefights where youll be greatly overnumbered, and all stealth can do in many of those cases is shift things a little more in your favor until shit inevitably goes down. some would criticize this inevitability of conflict as watering down the stealth, but for me stranger's wrath is at its most memorable when you are taken out of the comfort zone and forced to fight. battles just get more and more explosive building up to a drastic turn for the last 1/3rd of the game which, while admittedly taking a hit in level design, largely makes up for it by essentially giving you a ringing endorsement to overcome its even more ballistic encounters with an even greater upfront viciousness than you mightve had in you before. its not just that your arsenal and moveset gets improved for greater violence, but the incentives change to accommodate too, essentially allowing you to (mostly) lose the restraints of needing to maximize bounties and go guerilla.
this unshackling also relates to stranger's critique of the western myth, which is the best handling of that in games for being so shockingly direct and no fuckin nonsense about it. no condescending faux-humanist air of "someday we in america can learn from and understand those people". its destruction of the lonesome cowboy archetype is not simply some tragic affair of the heart ground down by society, but a realization that "independence" itself, as we commonly hear of it, is an insidious misdirection to be washed away with the empire that loves its so-called independence so much. its actually hilarious to me that stranger's wrath could be considered part of the mid 2000s trend for platformer mascots going all badass, yet it somehow both cleverly subverts that trend and becomes the rare case of truly earning that tonal shift, with a dead set ferocity in its conflict and conclusions that even games today feel too cowardly to step to. you could argue the game contradicts itself in its usual superficial video gamey elements, or certain contrivances of its "western-ness", but whatever, that doesnt matter to me. what matters is how stranger's wrath unflinchingly goes there, and its absolutely spiritually correct to do so.
one of the most underappeciated action games of the 6th gen for my money, and way more different than the other oddworld games that it's worth it even if you aren't into those. it will surprise you, in one way or another. if you dont have an original xbox the pc version will have to do (or the similar ps3 or vita versions, while the latter lasts, if you have those but i havent played those ports). prob best with a gamepad, unless you insist on keyboard and mouse for the fps half but good luck with the other half.