Common Sense Media Review
By Marc Saltzman
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Entertaining Western-themed action against strange outlaws.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 13+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Play
Videos and Photos
Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD
What's It About?
ODDWORLD: STRANGER'S WRATH HD is a remastered version of a 2005 action-platformer game. You assume the role of The Stranger, a bounty hunter commissioned to track down a host of bizarre outlaws. Consider this scenario a cross between Star Wars and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, as it's an odd mix of science fiction and spaghetti westerns. As The Stranger, you accept missions from the Bounty Store and follow a map to track down fugitives, such as Filthy Hands Floyd or The Looten Duke. If you bag a baddie, you collect a cash reward you can use to buy better weapons, brass knuckles, clip extenders, or stamina boosters. Over time, the Stranger's bounties become more difficult to catch -- as well as more lucrative. This single-player game is played from a third-person perspective when climbing ropes, jumping across chasms or engaging in fistfights, but you'll need to toggle to a first-person view to look through binoculars, target enemies with a double-barrel crossbow or activate a faraway switch with a projectile. As the name of this remixed game suggests, the graphics in Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD are now in high-definition.
Is It Any Good?
This remastered action-platformer western gives you hours of gameplay for an extremely affordable price. There's no other way around it -- Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD is fun, and it's also funny. The game's "live" ammo includes Stunkz, creatures that emit a poisonous gas to choke enemies and Stingbees, insects that can be fired machine-gun style before they swarm the outlaws. Zappflies are your only unlimited ammo, and they're ideal for collecting and retrieving other live ammo, which graze in the game's outdoor environments. Ammo upgrades include Riot Slugs that explode in midair and spray shrapnel and foul-mouthed Howler Punks that lure enemies into traps. Live ammunition is a cute concept that doesn't grow tiresome because you need to strategize about which critters work best in different bounty-hunting situations. Fugitives are worth more alive than dead, but they are harder to capture than kill. To earn your bounty, you must walk up to the stunned (or deceased) outlaw and suck him into a bag with a kind of portable vacuum cleaner.
Oddworld Stranger's Wrath HD includes a lot more action and violence than past Oddworld titles that relied on puzzle-solving (1997's Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee) or cooperative teamwork (2001's Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee). That said, Stranger's Wrath HD is just as humorous and entertaining, and ultimately, it's a more gratifying adventure than its predecessors because of the live ammo gimmick that remains fresh until the game's climactic conclusion. Visually, it's not the best -- yes, even with the "HD" upgrade, textures still look rough and not as graphically sharp as you'd hope they would be -- and the game may not be replayable without it feeling like the same adventure, but it's still a fun and quirky action game with platforming elements.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about violence in video games. Is the impact of the violence in Outworld: Strangers Wrath HD affected by the lack of significant blood or gore in gameplay? Would the impact be intensified if the weapons were more realistic instead of being living creatures?
Is it better to perform dangerous acts or potential harm if you're preventing worse people from hurting others? Is there an obvious way to resolve issues in a non-violent way that doesn't derail the plot?
Game Details
- Platforms : Nintendo Switch , PlayStation 4 , PlayStation 5 , Windows , Xbox One , Xbox Series X/S
- Pricing structure : Paid
- Available online? : Available online
- Publisher : Oddworld Inhabitants
- Release date : February 11, 2022
- Genre : Action/Adventure
- Topics : Fantasy ( Magic ) , Adventures
- ESRB rating :
- Last updated : September 30, 2025
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