Oddworld: Soulstorm teases an "all-new Abe" in a more sinister story

Oddworld Inhabitants is teasing a new game called Oddworld: Soulstorm , expected to be ready for release in the second half of 2017.

, expected to be ready for release in the second half of 2017. Soulstorm will be a direct sequel to the 2014 game Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty, a remake of the '97 original Abe's Oddysee, that saw the overthrow of RuptureFarms and the liberation of the Mudokon workers.

Despite that apparent victory, it sounds like all is not entirely well in Abe's odd world: He and 300 fellow Mudokons are now stuck without food, water, or a home, and the “delicious drink” they eventually turn to for comfort proves to have “insidious ramifications for their newfound freedom.”

“There was a deeper, darker, and more sinister story that we never got to tell. Soulstorm gives us the opportunity to flesh out more meat on the bones of an original spine, but re-tell the fable from a very different angle,” Oddworld creator Lorne Lanning said. "Abe has a long way to go and plenty more adversity ahead. Soulstorm is going to be a much heavier trip for him."

The announcement says Soulstorm will “continue to chew up the themes of environmentalism, capitalism, consumerism and addiction” that were present in New 'n' Tasty. It also sounds like it will bear a powerful resemblance to Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus, the sequel to Abe's Oddysee that was released in 1998. That game isn't actually mentioned by name in the tease but, Oddworld Inhabitants said last Aprilthat an HD remake of Exoddus was in the works.

There are no screens or trailers at this point, but there is a tease of Abe's hands, chest, and face, each of which will be revealed when the Oddworld Inc. Twitter accountachieves a target number of followers. It's kind of an odd thing to tease, since what he looks like is hardly a secret, but the announcement says, somewhat ominously, that we'll be getting “an all new Abe for Soulstorm.” His lips will remain stitched, however. Find out more at oddworld.com.