Let's Play: Oddmar - A Game Review

in #gaming5 years ago

Hello everyone and welcome back to Kralizec Gaming.Today we are going to take a look at Oddmar. This mobile platformer promises fun gameplay in great looking graphics and a fun story. Whether it can deliver on these promises is the question we will try to answer today. Oddmar is available as a free demo version on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. If you then like it, you can buy it for 4 Euros and 99 cents.

With this review you have a choice of either reading it here in text form or listening to the video review. They both contain the same content.

Buy the game on Android

Buy the game on iOS

Video Review

Text Review

So first, I’d like to start with an apology. I have been slacking off a little bit with my reviews, but I just had real life stuff going on and couldn’t really focus on gaming. But nonetheless, let us now take a look at Oddmar.

Gameplay

At its core, Oddmar is a pretty standard platformer with a little bit of combat incorporated in. If you played any – and I seriously mean any – platformer in your life you know what to expect from Oddmar. You jump and you do a bit of fighting. That’s all. Sometimes you will just jump on the ground, sometimes on platforms that fall away once you stand on them and other times from vine to vine. All of that is something you’ve likely experienced a hundred times before. And the same can be said about the combat. You can either kill your enemies by either jumping on their heads or by using your weapon to smash them.

But then, why should you choose Oddmar. What makes it stand out in the plethora of similar games? It’s the implementation. Oddmar takes all of these traditional mechanics and puts them in one neat package that is fun.

And it does add a little bit on top to be truthful. Sometimes you get to ride “a mount” and that significantly alters the platforming experience. For example, you get to ride this squirrel that provides you the option of a quadruple jump. Yes, a quadruple jump. Double jump is something that can be seen quite often in games but a quadruple jump? Man, I don’t think I’ve seen that very often.

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On the combat side of things, the creators of Oddmar decided to go with the routes of upgrades to spice things up. The upgrades actually provide you with quite significant changes to how you are able to tackle the challenges up ahead. For example, you get this hammer that gives you the power of wind, so if you ever find yourself overwhelmed you can attack multiple times to create this gust of wind all around you giving you that bit of space you might need. Or on the more defensive side of things, you get for example a shield that allows you to freeze your enemies in a block of ice for a little while.

So, that’s pretty much all I have to say about the mechanics of Oddmar. The rest is up to you to discover during your gameplay. But I haven’t talked about the most important thing. How does it feel when you play.

Pretty good actually, the platforming is quick and fun but challenges you at times, the combat while simplistic forces you to stop and change the pace of the game for a while. All of that is good. I do have one complaint though. Sometimes, the movement feels a bit … floaty… I really don’t have a better word to describe it but what I mean by it is the fact that the character sometimes feels like he is moving a bit longer than you’d expect him to. I guess it makes sense, that he has a bit of inertia, but nowadays platformers are usually built with very precise controls in mind and if you are an avid platformer player, this might come as a bit of a surprise to you and take a bit of time to get used to it.

But apart from this one thing, Oddmar is very fun to play. Especially for a game that is on your phone. Seriously, mobile gaming is evolving in such a brisk pace that it is just incredible and Oddmar is a prime example that mobile games aren’t just silly little things for you to play on the toilet anymore.

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Story

A big part of what makes Oddmar more than just a toilet game is the fact that the developers decided to implement a story – and a good story instead of sticking with having no story at all or just using some generic story we have heard a thousand times. But sadly, I can’t really present the story in a way that would showcase it in a way that shows how it is different without spoiling it for you guys.

What I can do is point out the strengths and weaknesses of the story and how it is presented to you. So.. the way it is presented is through little cutscenes that play at the end of many levels and partially the story is actually presented through the gameplay itself. Which I find to be a very good way of doing it.

And in terms of the strengths and weaknesses, I actually found mostly only strengths. The story’s artwork as just amazing, it was funny yet presented the characters in a positive way and showed that heroism is the way to be. And I find that to be a very positive message. If there was something I would improve in terms of the storytelling it’s the voice-acting. Not that it was bad but I did feel that a better voice actor for the narrator would immensely improve immersion.

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Graphics

Moving up to the graphics... man... lately, I’ve been seeing more and more mobile games with really great graphics. And Oddmar is just a prime example of exactly that. Both the cutscenes and the gameplay itself is just awesome. Not only just more than professional looking but just filled with the love of the artists.

I especially loved the way they animated the main character, giving him tons of tiny little movements, like this one time when he’s on this platform with balloons and if you stand with him on the front edge, he stands there like a naval captain. And there are just so many more examples of how they decided to make him into a fun and lovable character. Just… great job!

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Music

Then we have the music. And while the music is actually great, I think that music in mobile games will actually come to a pretty big problem and Oddmar made that very clear for me.

I haven’t really cared about the music. Either I was playing the game while commuting, listening to my own music in the headphones or I was playing in environments where having sound on wasn’t really an option because it would be impolite.

So, good music, but honestly kind of a waste.

Performance

And in terms of performance – I’ve played Oddmar on an Asus Zenphone Max Pro – a 250 dollar low-midrange phone and the game ran flawlessly and never crashed for me. So I don’t see any issues here at all.

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Conclusion

So… in conclusion: Oddmar is a great platformer that would get my praise if it got released for PC or consoles. And the fact that it is a mobile game doesn’t change that at all. If anything, it actually makes it a bit more amazing. I would like if the movement felt a bit more precise and the voice-acting was a bit better. But for 5 dollars you are still getting one heck of a mobile game. If you are looking for something to play on your phone, Oddmar is a great choice.

So, that’s it for today guys. Hope you like the review and if you did, please consider upvoting the review and following my blog. And comment, if you have something you would like to add. See you guys later with more gaming content.

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