I think it was a mistake to follow up the sublime AO with all the cartoony bits in AE. I liked the flying Sligs, and the Fleeches and Slurgs were just acceptable, but I really didn't like the Greeters. They were rather good from a gameplay point of view, but I didn't like their design or their silly voices. There were too many things in AE that were too Earth-like. I know that Oddworld is meant to be a parody of Earth, but AO had its own mad internal logic and was believable as a world of its own, but AE felt too much like a 'copy-and-paste' fantasy world. I didn't like the characters saying 'we're screwed' or 'this bites', or the Brewmaster's silly accent (I've heard that was due to problems with compressing the sound files, but still). Nor did I approve of the cartoony SFX when Abe falls off the ledge at the start of the game, the 'ker-ching!' noise when the flying Slig in the FMV contemplates promotion, or the comedy xylophone noise when the Glukkons walk.
AO was far more wonderfully dark and twisted, in contrast with the more colourful AE. The AE Glukkons, although funnier, were too humany and lost much of their mysteriousness. In particular, their clothing - the AO ones wore clothes rather like the aliens in Mars Attacks, but their clothes in AE look too much like ordinary business suits. And the GlockStar outfit is just stupid as well. In fact so is the word 'GlockStar'... and 'Chump', 'Big cheese' and 'Wannabe'. They're not even funny. 'Zulag' was a good word. And so was 'Magog Cartel' - not original words, but appropriately chosen. I'd like to have seen more of this nomenclature.
I haven't played MO, but what I've heard of its GameSpeak sounds just painful.
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oddworld stupied
