Oddworld: Soulstorm

	This page is about the upcoming game by Oddworld Inhabitants. For the beverage, see SoulStorm Brew.

	Upcoming content The content of this article refers to upcoming content. When the content is released, the accuracy of the article needs to be checked and it may be necessary to complete the article's infobox and/or upload a required image.

Oddworld: Soulstorm is an upcoming game in the Oddworld series. It is a re-imagining of the 1998 title Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus, but with a newly written story. Soulstorm will serve as a direct sequel to Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty and is currently expected to release in 2019.^[1]

Plot

Backstory and setting

Soulstorm is set on the fictional planet Oddworld and a continent called Mudos. Mudos is inhabited by various sentient races all living together. The Glukkons run the majority of the continent's industry and use the Mudokons as expendable slave labor. Soulstorm picks up directly after the events of New 'n' Tasty. Abe has just saved 300 fellow Mudokons from the RuptureFarms meat grinders, but is then faced with the reality of starting an uprising against the ruthless corporations that keep his race enslaved.

Meanwhile the Glukkons have developed a highly addictive (and highly flammable) drink called Soulstorm Brew, designed to keep the Mudokon slaves docile and dependent on their masters.

Characters

Abe - Once a lowly floor waxer at RuptureFarms, he witnessed his boss' plan to turn the Mudokon species into the next tasty treat. During his escape he learns he is destined to be the leader of his people and spark an uprising.
Molluck - The former CEO of RuptureFarms, before Abe managed to liberate all the slaves and destroy the factory. Now Molluck will have to explain himself to his superiors.
Alf - A simple Mudokon scrub who once ran a small Soulstorm Brew bar deep in the depths of RuptureFarms before Abe rescued him.

Plot summary

	Upcoming content The content of this article refers to upcoming content. When the content is released, the accuracy of the article needs to be checked and it may be necessary to complete the article's infobox and/or upload a required image.

Gameplay

Soulstorm Feeco01 — First screenshot for *Oddworld: Soulstorm*.

During EGX 2017 a very early mockup of the game's UI was shown to the public. Crafting and managing followers will be some of the main gameplay mechanics in Soulstorm. Abe will be able to pick up objects he finds and craft them into useful items. Bottles of flammable Soulstorm Brew combined with a lighter may be turned into an improvised Molotov cocktail, for example. Follower management can take on extreme forms, up to "all 300 followers on screen at once" according to Lorne Lanning.^[2]

Differences compared to Abe's Exoddus

Story

While many core story elements from Abe's Exoddus return in Soulstorm the story as a whole is different in almost every way. In Soulstorm's announcement press release Lorne Lanning explains that the story in Soulstorm, while inspired by Abe's Exoddus, would not be a one on one copy like New 'n' Tasty was. "There was a deeper, darker, and more sinister story that we never got to tell," explains series creator, Lorne Lanning. "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." In an interview with GI Show Lorne explaines that Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus at the time had to be produced in only nine months. This resulted in little to no time to revise the script in any meaningful way. Soulstorm aims to tell the story as it was originally meant to be.^[3]

New character designs

Every character and species in the Oddworld universe received a complete makeover. Mudokons are no longer clones of each other and have a more defined personality and unique appearance. Glukkons have more unique appearances as well, their eyes no longer glow and their skin tones are now a very distinct grey.

New location designs

Necrum Mines, FeeCo Depot and SoulStorm Brewery all return in Soulstorm, but with newer and grander designs. RuptureFarms will also make a brief appearance.^[2]

Development

A possible remake of Abe's Exoddus was first mentioned in an interview with Lorne Lanning on July 8th, 2014, where he discussed the then upcoming release of Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty.^[4] On April 13th, 2015 Lorne Lanning was a guest on the Kinda Funny Games podcast and officially announced the Abe's Exoddus HD project to be in the planning stages.^[5]

By the end of 2015 Just Add Water announced that they would no longer be working with Oddworld Inhabitants on full-scale projects.^[6] According to Lorne Lanning the distance between the two studios (OWI in the United States and JAW in the United Kingdom) would occasionally hinder the development process. A small number of team members who originally worked on New 'n' Tasty founded Fat Kraken Studios in November 2016. They have confirmed to be working on Soulstorm.^[7]

On September 7, 2016, Oddworld Inhabitants announced that it was in possession of development hardware for the PlayStation 4 Pro, which was announced by Sony on the same day. The more powerful hardware compliments the design goals for Soulstorm by allowing higher visual fidelity, lighting and physically based rendering.^[8]

On April 27, 2017, Lorne Lanning said the release of Soulstorm was pushed back to 2018.^[9]

Over the course of May, 2018, the Oddworld: Soulstorm page on Oddworld.com was updated to say they are now aiming for a 2019 release.

Marketing

Announcement

Soulstorm was officially announced on March 14, 2016 during the GDC 2016, including a teaser page and a press release.^[10] Oddworld Inhabitants reopened their own studio for the development of Soulstorm, aiming to develop most of the game in-house in conjunction with Canada based Frima Studio. The latter has an in-house animation and VFX department and is believed to be responsible for the game's cutscenes and high-res character modeling.

Pre-release promotion

Oddworld Inhabitants was present on the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2017 in Los Angeles to privately show Soulstorm to a select group of people. Oddworld Forums member Xavier was among the invitees and, while not able to share much of what he saw due to a non disclosure agreement, described Soulstorm as "more fluid, more alive and more dynamic than any other Oddworld game."^[11]

At EGX 2017 Lorne Lanning gave a 45 minute presentation, sharing some of the history of Oddworld as a franchise and the future vision. Several pieces of concept art were shown, as well as an early mock up of the game's UI. No gameplay was shown on account of physical publishing deals that were still ongoing.

Alternate reality game

Main article: Soulstorm ARG

Almost directly after the announcement of Soulstorm, Oddworld Inhabitants started an ARG that required the fan community to find clues and solve puzzles in return for small pieces of Soulstorm's backstory. During the presentation at EGX Lorne Lanning showed the summary of the community's efforts in the form of a short teaser trailer, depicting the trial and testing process of Soulstorm Brew on Mudokon slaves.

Notes

Soulstorm was the original working title for Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee and was later used to name the Glukkon-made beverage in Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus.
Story elements that were cut from the original will be implemented in Soulstorm.