Oddworld Inhabitants officially revealed Oddworld: Soulstorm last year, and we haven’t really seen much for the follow-up to Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty since then – until now.
The developer has been engaging the fanbase by slowly letting out new images for the game, via an ongoing community ARG. Featured above, you can view the first image from the game, which got revealed quite recently.
“After an extensive effort by the Oddworld community, most of those messages were deciphered and we were led to a web page that contained eight torn up and burned fragments of a photograph that appeared to depict something as terrible and terrifying as the audio clip suggested,” reads a post on the Oddworld site. “After a few days of tireless work from our community and our team at Oddworld Inhabitants, we managed to get a clean version of this image. The clearer the image became, the harder it became to look at until we were eventually left with the image above.
“Whatever might be happening to the Mudokons, a few things are clear. They are not happy. They are not safe. They are oppressed. Now, Spirit of 1029 has made contact again and they’re saying that there’s more evidence of these atrocities yet to see. We need your help to find the truth. We can’t do it alone. We will encourage people to take a stand, we will spread the message and refuse to sit in silence. We will save the Mudokons.”
These tidbits have been slowly teased out by the Spirit of 1029 Twitter account, so make sure to follow that account if you want to get in on the ARG.
It’s not entirely clear how much of Soulstorm will mirror the game it’s re-imagining: Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus. We do know, however, that it won’t be a total one-to-one remake like New ‘n’ Tasty was to Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee.
In a previous interview with Game Informer, series creator Lorne Lanning explained that Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus was under time constraints and had to be made in only nine months. Coming from this, the team had almost no time to revise the script to how they liked.
“There was a deeper, darker, and more sinister story that we never got to tell,” Lanning explained. “Soulstorm gives us the opportunity to flesh out more meat on the bones of an original spine, but re-tell the fable from a very different angle.”
It’s worth mentioning development platforms for Oddworld: Soulstorm aren’t confirmed yet, but we do know the bulk of development is being handled by Oddworld Inhabitants, with some help via Canadian developer Frima Studios.
In case you missed it, you can find our review for Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty here (we recommend it).
