Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee

Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee is a platformer whose hero can't fight, can barely carry anything, and dies after a single hit. Abe is a slave at the giant meat-processing plant Rupture Farms, where he stumbles onto the fact that the company's next product is meant to be his own kind, and decides to escape while freeing as many of his fellow workers as possible along the way. The game combines platforming acrobatics with patient sneaking past guards, since the only weapon Abe has is his own voice and the ability to make an enemy make a mistake.

The core mechanic is a speech system that lets Abe greet another Mudokon, tell him to follow or wait, and lead him to a rescue gate. Freeing them is optional but crucial, since the number of fellow workers saved determines which ending the player sees. On top of that, Abe can temporarily possess the body of an enemy Slig, walk it through a guarded area, and clear out sentries he could never have gotten past on his own. The levels are built as a sequence of carefully arranged situations solved through precise jump timing, sneaking, dodging mines, and finding hidden secret areas. Visually the game relies on pre-rendered backgrounds and remarkably rich character animation, so it looks more like an animated film than a game from 1997, accompanied by a dark, industrial soundscape of drums and whispers.

At the time, the game was praised above all for its original world, dark humor, and the boldness of building a platformer around a defenseless hero, while criticism targeted its high difficulty and the need to repeat screens over and over. Its influence on the genre is undeniable, since it fused logical platforming with a story that has something to say about exploitation and industry. Today it will mostly delight players who don't mind trial and error, and its art style remains as distinctive as ever, along with the feeling that this time the hero is someone with no power at all.