#abe lure

I got an action figure of Abe from Abe's Oddysee. I've loved this game for a long time. It's one game that my whole family played at some point. I ordered it sometime last summer from their Kickstarter. I almost wasn't going to get it but then went for it on the last day.

He has so many articulation points I didn't want to just keep him in the box. I had fun doing a little photo shoot with him under the cut.

Here ya go!

I had a vague dream last night that a teaser was released for the next Oddworld game. I remember absolutely zero details except for maybe water caves? Abe was there at least, so that’s something.

The dream isn’t the important part. The important part is that I actually did used to have dreams just like this... back when I got really big into Oddworld around 2007-2008. I HAD played Exoddus before that and liked the series, but those were the years that I got super big into it.

And I remember at the time I was at an uncomfortable time in my life, and pretty much an emotional tween thing, and that I would have these dreams about Oddworld games and would just... get so disappointed after them. I would be devastated when I woke up.

Because back at that time, Oddworld pretty much didn’t exist. There was the issues with EA, the issues with the releases of Stranger’s Wrath, and our last appearance of Abe was in 2001- unless we count the cameo in 2004′s brief sitcom Game Over. Everything ground to a halt. 

I had just fallen hard into a fandom- or back into a fandom- that was pretty much done for. The idea of an Oddworld game just getting announced was outlandish. It was pretty much over and done with, or it felt like it. There was no looking forward for what was next, it was all looking back at what was.

So, it’s so weird to be waking up from one of those dreams in a post-Soulstorm world (lol) and suddenly realizing how different it is. I mean, it could be that I’m just not as emotionally crippled as I was as a kid, but I don’t think that’s it.

Soulstorm came out just last year. I know it’s going to be a while before we get a namedrop, teaser, release date, ANYTHING on a sequel or another project... but the fact that it could happen, that the company’s not in limbo and that the last game wasn’t six or seven years ago, that there’s a sort of hope into the future... it’s kind of nice. It feels good. 

Because now we’re back to looking forward. I like that. I like knowing that there’s an eventual on the horizon. The game ended on an open note for the next one. Lorne wants to continue the story. Maybe someday I will see Abe in those caves.

Hello! This is Abe. He’s your atypical teenager- an escaped slave turned demigod with incredible powers and an almost equally powerful will to survive. Skin of blue and scar tattoos, Abe’s not one you would easily forget.

Abe was born into slavery in an Industrialist egg farm. It has been said that it was his mother, Mudokon Queen Sam, who stitched his mouth shut to keep him from crying, less he be killed. After this point, Abe worked as a slave for Rupture Farms meat packing plant for years (I believe fifteen years), during which time he was a hard worker and even became the Employee of the Year. 

He thought he had a good job... Until one night when he overheard a board meeting where his boss, the cruel CEO of Rupture Farms, Molluck, revealing his plan to start butchering the slaves to make up for dwindling meat supplies. Horrified by this, Abe escaped Rupture Farms, rescuing whatever Mudokons he could on the way.

Barely managing to escape, Abe found his way to the last of the free, native Mudokons. He went through their trials to earn scar tattoos on his hands, which gave him the power to return to Rupture Farms where he was able to save the other Mudokons and shut the plant down once and for all.

But that was not the end! Labelled as both the Mudokon “Savior” and “Terrorist”, Abe continued his crusade to rescue his brothers. Such as freeing them from an addictive brew meant to keep them in slavery, which was literally made through torturous means, taking down numerous more facilities, saving other species such as Gabbits from near extinction, rescuing dozens of Mudokon eggs, and continuing on as what is nearly the sole hope for his species.

And all the while, Abe is pretty much a hot mess emotionally. A guilt-ridden, anxious guy who both wants nothing more than to save his kind and yet knows they’re probably going to turn on him at a moment’s notice. He is a hero of his kind, but his behavior seems to exhibit that he doesn’t feel like he is. Confidence rises and falls like the tide, and victories tend to be short lasting.

But what makes Abe so amazing is that he still pushes on. He can be afraid, he can be awkward, he can occasionally be unsettlingly apathetic, but he cares enough that he will put all that aside and keep going. He has his doubts, but he never gives up. He just pushes onwards. 

Sure, he’s a klutz and occasionally a goof, but he also has another side. Abe is capable of breaking into a facility, taking it apart from the inside, and getting out undetected. He’s a lot smarter than he appears, and a lot more powerful. Able to possess his foes and turn them against each other, or just cause them to outright explode, and his powers only get stronger with every adventure.

Abe’s coming back very soon in Oddworld: Soulstorm and if what the teasers show is true, we will be seeing him struggle harder than ever before. But I have no doubt he’ll come out of it. Not because “he’s the hero, so he has to” but because he’s Abe. Because we know he’s going to keep fighting against all odds.

So, maybe the next time you’re thinking about game characters who have literally earned their scars, I’ve got someone you can add to your list. 

"They will not be meeting with union representatives, because they will never reach one."