Oddworld New ‘n’ Tasty – Alf’s Escape DLC Review

It must be said, I’m a bit of a fan of Oddworld and Abe’s Oddysee. So much so in fact that it was an Oddworld title that first tempted me in to buying the original Xbox way back in 2001. I’d decided I couldn’t live without experiencing the humour of Munch’s Oddysee and so a purchase was made and a life changing moment occurred. I was hooked onto the Xbox side of things.

A decade or so on I’ve been lucky enough to see New ‘n’ Tasty appear on Xbox One. It was quite obviously a must play for me, bringing everything that was great about the original Abe’s Oddysee from 20 years previous, but making sure it was fully up-to-date enough for the modern day gamer to both enjoy and become frustrated with. Thankfully the former near on always ruled over the latter and New ‘n’ Tasty is quite easily one of the best games that you can currently download from the Xbox One Games Store.

But now, six months later, Oddworld and Just Add Water are back with a short downloadable content piece that has Abe ducking and diving his way through numerous levels of platforming and puzzling goodness, all whilst he attempts to seek out Alf, rescue him from the hell of a drinking hole and escort him to safety. Hidden away in the depths of the Industrial processing plant, Alf is seemingly oblivious to the Mudokons fate, but Abe knows better and must save him before it is too late.

The add-on is played out within a couple of unique parts, firstly that of finding your way to Alf’s SoulStorm Brew den, and then retracing many of your steps with Alf in tow in order to save both him and Abe from certain death.

Now, there is a bit of a warning that comes with Alf’s Escape. It’s hard. Rock hard!

If you’re reading this, then I’m guessing you would have already taken in a large chunk of the original New ‘n’ Tasty title, hopefully helping Abe rescue 299 of his fellow Mudokons before they were turned into Mudokon meat. As long as you have, you should be well set up for the dangers that lurk ahead. If you haven’t, then Just Add Water and Oddworld have helpfully included a few quick tutorial screens in order to see you through the day.

However, I’m hazarding a guess that the second those hints and tips stop, unless you are utterly familiar with the way of the Oddworld, then you’re going to find Alf’s Escape a huge struggle…even on the easiest of the three difficulty levels. It requires patience, timing, speed, risk and above all else, a huge deal of luck in order to succeed, but as long as you can gather together all of those and are happy to take a huge failure hit more than a few times, then Alf’s Escape is a stunning piece of work with manic and downright sick level designs like nothing else seen in New ‘n’ Tasty.

I like to think of myself as a bit of a veteran and although not the most skilled, could quite happily spend many hours in Abe’s company. But even then, with me knowing exactly how things worked, how the crushers are relentless, the Stigs are deadly and those bloody mines are super sensitive, I seriously struggled with many components of the new content. If I hadn’t died a hundred times in the three hours 20 minutes it took me to find Alf and get him safe, then it was quite easily 200. Maybe even more. Hell, there’s a section halfway through consisting of fast paced crushers, mines and electric fields all within a few short yards that had me stumped for a good 50 minutes, seeing Abe crushed, blown up and fried too many times to mention.

But I stuck with it and thankfully the relief that is associated with success and those magical ‘woohoo’ moments eventually far outweigh anything negative about Alf’s Escape.

Like I said, Alf’s Escape is hard, perhaps too hard for the casual gamer looking for a seriously cheap bit of content and quite possibly tricky enough to send many others over the edge. Checkpoints are quite obviously on point, and for the most part are well placed, but there are a good few occasions when I was begging for just that extra little something to help me on my way. It never came though and the feeling of euphoria at completing this tough little cookie, was well felt.

If however you do have the urge for a new platforming challenge, and love everything that Oddworld stands for, then getting hands on with Abe and ensuring Alf follows each and every command by the letter could just be one of the best content purchases you will buy. In fact, if you are ready for more Slig, Slog, Scrab and Paramite encounters, then Alf’s Escape is most definitely for you.

Just prepare yourself for a tough, but highly enjoyable romp back through RuptureFarms.

You can find our review of Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty on Xbox One right here.