I’ll get you Stranger. Next time… NEXT TIME!!!!!!

It’s been five intense days of gaming, but Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath has eaten the bomb. By the end of it I’ve started looking like Stranger: mangy hair, mangy beard, even my mange has mange.

It’s tough to post screenshots of this because halfway through the game the plot, objectives, gameplay and even Stranger’s appearance change. I don’t want to ruin the surprise for anyone who hasn’t chugalugged the game yet.

This is the best Xbox game I’ve ever played. It’s a masterful combination of adventure, stealth, 1st person shooter and 3rd person action all wrapped up with Oddworld’s trademark aesthetic and humor. The smooth 1st to 3rd person system is going to be copied by many many games to come. It also boasts innovations in health and ammo. The live ammo of course is the best feature. Not only is it fun to hunt the ammo, but the things the ammo do are unlike anything you’ve seen before. The skunk upgrade for example produces an odor so pungent that it creates a vacuum; sucking your enemies to it. This is a handy way to get baddies off of walls and bridges, suck them into hazards like giant fans, or suck multiple enemies to one spot so you can kill them with one boombat.

This is also the first shooter I’ve played that didn’t get repetitive. I never felt like I was plodding through any of the levels just to finish the game. There are so many different ways to capture or kill the enemy. The action ranges from hiding in the brush and stalking a single outlaw to D-Day sized mayhem with explosions and carnage everywhere and you almost always have a choice between being stealthy or aggressive.

Each boss fight is vastly different and capturing them alive can be a real challenge. Some of them are puzzle type fights where you need to disable some shield or contraption in order to get to the boss, others are wide open gunfights that have you running around town evading and chasing down your target.

And then there’s the story. Despite Oddworld’s penchant for new age preachiness (nature is good, industry is bad…blah, blah, blah), the story is rich, engaging and full of surprises. The cutscenes are technically outstanding with amazing graphics, sound, music, and acting. They develop the character of the Stranger from the gruff loner at the beginning of the game into a deep romantic figure you care about.

I think a true hallmark of a great game is when you want to play it again as soon as it ends. Stranger is the perfect length; longer than you expect, but leaving you wanting more. As soon as it ended, I found myself revisiting old saves and fighting bosses again. Lucky for me the ending hints at a sequel and considering the rave reviews it’s been getting, I expect another installment in the future. Can they possibly make a second Stranger game feel this fresh and innovative? Probably not, but who expected they could make this one so good in the first place?