Lorne Lanning has released a statement on Oddworld: Soulstorm, calling it a game he is "proud of" after successive updates.
"We made a commitment to our community on April 6 that we would continue working on Oddworld: Soulstorm," a statement from Lorne Lanning released earlier today on July 9 reads. "In return, they have been amazing. They have provided us with valuable feedback that helped us find, recreate, and fix issues/squash bugs. We have released seven updates since our initial release."
The creative and game director goes on to write that Oddworld: Soulstorm's gameplay has been "refined on all platforms." Lanning acknowledges that while no game is ever bug free, the version of Oddworld: Soulstorm that players can now download on PC, PS4, and PS5 is "one that we are proud of."
After Lanning's warm message to Oddworld's community, a pretty comprehensive list of improvements and changes for Soulstorm can be seen. First on the list was the ability for players to remove the HUD entirely, as the development team behind Oddworld: Soulstorm found that players didn't necessarily want to be told where to find each and every Mud hiding out in every level of the new game.
There have also been big changes to the way that protagonist Abe handles and plays. The press release says that Abe's movements now "feel more natural," and that the character is generally far more responsive to the player. Additionally, Abe's jumping, climbing, hanging, and clinging actions have all been refined and improved, so the player has now a far easier time controlling the character throughout Soulstorm.
The full list of improvements to Oddworld: Soulstorm via the press release is pretty staggering. There are some major fixes and updates, like improving the DualSense controller's haptic feedback and Abe's jumping aim, all the way down to general key fixes and improved keyboard mapping for the PC version of the new game. It's nice to see that the development team has been so committed to improving on Oddworld: Soulstorm since launch in early April 2021, taking on player feedback and listening to what fans of the long-running series have been saying.
Oddworld: Soulstorm could even be making its way to Xbox Series X thanks to a recent ESRB rating.
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