Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee free on GOG.com

There’s a free game currently available in GOG’s big sale. There have been a few games for free lately and you should probably go have a look. But today’s free game, available until the end of the 21st, is an odd one. Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee is the free game, and it brings back weird memories. It’s also available on Steam and as a Steam key on Humble Bundle but not DRM free.

The story involves an unlikely and rather hideous being who overhears his boss talking about grinding up the Mudoken, his entire species and turning them into the next big thing when it comes to food. You’ve got to save as many of your fellow Mudoken as well and get everyone to safety. Oh and you’ve got to stop the big bad corporate evil guy from turning everything else into a part of his meat-packing empire too.

Abe’s Oddysee is a very unusual game. There’s nothing pretty about it, but it all comes together and just somehow works. It’s full of challenges, platforming and puzzles and is genuinely a hard, challenging game that will take you forever because it’s all so twisty and weird. Luckily, you have infinite lives and the respawn/checkpoint system is very friendly. The same can’t be said for your co-workers. It’s almost certain that some of them will die.

The graphics are very odd as well. You’ve got both a very hard, gritty, mechanical area where the escape-the-factory parts are set, mixed with beautiful wilderness areas. Abe’s Oddysee is a really old game, but it’s weird how nice the game looks. It’s definitely dated, but still. I don’t remember there being much of a soundtrack, but other reviews say it’s good, so there’s that.

Oh and it’s not really a kids game. That’s why this game is so nostalgic to me. I remember playing this on the Playstation when I was little – Abe’s Oddysee was one of the first games I played, rented from the local Blockbusters. It was fucking impossible felt very hard to control. Luckily the PC version has far superior controls. Mostly because there are more buttons to use. But really that was because I was a youngling who didn’t really get games. Mum in the meantime had little trouble navigating the early levels, but the later areas are very tricky. In the Playstation One version, I definitely remember there being cheats, especially one that makes you immortal. I don’t know if they carry over into the PC version.

Admittedly, I never actually completed the game. Mum helped me complete it when I was little, but I never managed to do so myself. Abe’s Oddysee is part of the reason why I consider 2d platforming games to be my arch nemesis, because I screwed up and had to redo so many parts of that game. Even now, I still haven’t completed it. Because I suck.

Hasn’t stopped me from getting Abe’s Oddysee on Steam when it was on sale, then sending it to all my friends when they released it for free as part of an announcement of a new game. It’s a really odd game. It’s worth at least trying.

A random tip – once you’ve completed the game, do a playthrough were you kill all your fellow Mudoken. You get a pretty… awful and unusual reward at the end.

Either way, it’s a free game. Go get it.