Epic Games Stream Trailer

Another two months have passed since the game awards and we received a new trailer, this time hosted by Epic Games, whose store will feature Soulstorm if and when it decides to finally come out.

If you haven’t yet seen the video, you can do so here:

The trailer is only a minute long, so this won’t be the longest post ever, but let’s dive into what’s worth seeing:

Placeholder Dripik

Yes, he still exists and he can be observed in several locations in the video. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if he actually ends up in the final game.

Abe’s deaths

For the first time we see how it looks like when Abe dies. The birds that represent his soul simply appear and hover around, before presumably flying away. They seem to be completely unaffected by anything that happens. Also their design is less pigeon-like as in the old games.

Barracks Topside

Next we see what appears to be the top-side of Slig Barracks. Abe is bolting it from right to left while Sligs shoot at him from the background. Interestingly the towers in the background seem to have some sort of energy beam shooting through them in the middle.

“Bell”

In this next scene we see a familiar looking ornament, which I personally believe to be a bell, but could frankly be something completely different. My guess is that the player has to interact with these in some way. I base this on the fact that there is something at the foot of the Slig below that is similarly colored as the middle of the triangle on this “bell.”

Baron’s bust

We can see that the owner of Necrum Mines, Baron, might just be a tiny bit vain. However, this isn’t the only bust we can see, albeit the other one is mostly concealed by the chair. I can’t personally recognize who this character is, but I’m sort of reminded of Oktigis (i.e. the species Sekto is.) However someone else claims that they look like a Vykker’s head and frankly I can see it.

Dousing flames

After years of bottles of water being confirmed, we’re seeing them in action. They can be used to put out fires. Shocking!

Helmet Slig

I’ve spotted this in the Game Awards trailer, but here we finally get a much better look at these weird, helmeted Sligs. There is an antenna sticking out of the helmet, so I’m wondering what the purpose of that could be. Perhaps it keeps Abe from possessing them? Or maybe they have better reflexes? Less regard for their life? I guess time will tell.

The inventory screen

We get a glimpse at the new inventory screen. There are multiple things of note here:

Quest marker

Interestingly there now seem to be tasks the player can work towards, as indicated on the top left of the screen.

Item wheel

On the right we can see the redesigned item wheel. It contains many of the items we’ve seen before, but with new icons. There seem to be multiple types of the same item, like a slightly shaken up PoP soda and a very shaken up one, also two types of brew, probably one is lethal and the other isn’t.

“Other items”

It seems like our crafting materials and such get placed to an entirely different section. “Phatoline” is likely a pun on gasoline and also where Phat Station gets its name from (or vice-versa). What caught my attention was the antidote item, seems like Abe can get poisoned, perhaps with the Meetlebat venom we can see right next to it. More on them later. A thing to note is that there is no space for rubber bands. Either the player hasn’t unlocked them yet - which I’d consider very unlikely - or perhaps they’re placed in a different section altogether. We know they are still in the game due to a vending machine which will come up soon.

Also we can see that Abe can amass quite a few keys, which as we’ve learned before can be used to open lockers and similar.

“The Old Trellis”

Seems like this area can’t be found on the official map. Perhaps it’s a sub-area or things have been renamed since.

Warning sign

We see a sign warning us that “[someone] will be shot”, I assume it says “escapees,” but the resolution is too low to really tell.

Spidermudokon

With the flick of some sticky tape, Abe incapacitates a Slig who falls to the ground as a harmless mess.

Sparks on the floor

No idea what this might be, but something is sparking on the floor. Perhaps it can be used as a lethal trap?

BANDS

We see a curious looking vending machine that looks like a Soulstorm Brew vending machine, yet has “BANDS” written on it in bold letters. I assume this is a placeholder for a vending machine that sells rubber bands. Still, quite peculiar.

Greeters

The Greeters are back for Soulstorm and they seem to have undergone some graphical improvements. Now they can open their mouths to zap Abe and the old laser projected motion detector was brought back.

Meetles?

We see the shadow creatures again. A user by the name K160 theorizes that these are in fact the “Meetlebats” whose venom Abe can collect. I can neither deny nor confirm this, but it is certainly plausible, knowing how volatile the design of Meetles were over the years.

Birdportal

Seems like in Soulstorm you have to directly possess bird portals to rescue Mudokons as we can see a ball of energy enter it while the camera follows.

Sniper Slig

We see a new type of enemy, a Slig that aims at Abe from afar using a laser guided weapon. I assume the shot is either fatal or near-fatal.

The All-in-all

Not a bad trailer, still no release date, albeit we’re promised to be told this month.

What I’ve liked

• The backgrounds mostly look great. Some look a bit rough, but nothing that grating.
• The UI changes are very welcome. Obviously Oddworld games are best without UI, but one has to make compromises, I guess.
• The Greeters look fancy.
• The animations look a bit slower. Still not to my fullest liking, but it’s a definite step in the right direction.

What I didn’t:

• The shadow creatures still look extremely out of place and un-Oddworldy.
• The visual effects seem to be a bit overtuned. Seeing large flashes of light when Abe puts out fires is very weird.
• Still no release date. Come on, it’s been five years almost…
• Mudokon chatter. It’ll always be annoying.
• I find the Greeter death animation to be a bit too silly. It’s a bit too cartoony even for the series.