New ‘N’ Tasty blamed me on my first 100% conclusion

I started playing Oddworld: New ‘N Tasty and, my God, I’m going to have to save all 299 Mudokons, am I not?

In 2014 Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty, you play as Mudokon Abe, an overworked and underpaid alien who works for a company that destroys the ecosystem and leads to the extinction of indigenous creatures – therefore, your typical Amazon employee. New tasty ‘n’ follows Abe as he escapes from RuptureFarms, an evil meat-processing factory whose board decided to turn its Mudokon workforce into its latest product. There are 299 Mudokon slaves that you can choose to save from the clutches of Evil Alien Jeff Bezos, but you only need to rescue about half of them to get the good end of the game. I don’t make 100% complete games, even though sometimes I want to, because I think it’s a waste of time, but 150 I can do.

During most of the game, you navigate horrible platform puzzles, such as dodging falling pieces of meat or sneaking through guards armed with triggers. You save your co-workers by calling them with a series of commands. To get their attention, you can make Abe say “Hello”. To get them to follow you wherever the portal closest to freedom is, just say “Follow me”.

The reason why I planned to save the minimum amount of Mudokons needed to get a good finish is because Mudokons are dumb as bricks. Without meticulous guidance, they will walk carefree through the various pitfalls and dangers that make RuptureFarms an OSHA nightmare. Did you forget to disarm a meat grinder before waving to your friends with the “follow me” command? Well, now there are pieces of Mudokon exploding on the screen while a harrowing audio hint sounds to mark your fault. I don’t need that kind of stress, folks.

While exploring, I found a large sign that said “If you leave, everyone will die”. It’s a big heart-wrenching sign that has a lot of sad and dead Mudokons silently asking “you are not going to leave us here to die, right, Abe?”

Yes, I would. After all, what flight attendants tell you before you take off: “You need to protect your mask before you can help others.” Abe has to save himself first, right?

Strange world it’s good because it keeps track of how many Mudokons there are and how many you’ve saved through large billboards placed sporadically throughout the game. Before escaping RuptureFarms, I checked my progress on the billboard. I had 20 Mudokons saved, with no victims and 279 Mudokons left. The game is sneaky, as it shows how many Mudkons in total there are (299), but never how many just at your level. So, when I reached the next level, I was not prepared for the horror I felt when I heard that I had abandoned 50 Mudokons to his condemnation. I knew about the secrets – the well-hidden hatches and portals that reveal hidden areas where there are more workers to free. But I wasn’t trying 100% in this game, I had an idea that people would die, I just didn’t expect that more than 2/3 of the Mudokons at that level would be in hidden areas.

I felt same bad, in a way I didn’t expect. That 50 at the “casualties” spot on the billboard was a condemnation not of my meticulousness as a player, but as a person. What kind of monster consciously leaves 50 Mudokons behind to die your crimes? If it was one or two, maybe I could have continued on my “minimal” run. But 50? That was too much. These lives were in my head and I had to fix this. I’m Jack Shepard and me have to go back.

I thought it would be a simple matter to reload my last quick save, except that quick save doesn’t work between levels. To return, I would have to start the game over. So I did. There is a point on the first level where you can sneak through a sleeping guard or kill him. I sneaked by, but I should have chosen violence: when I returned to that area after realizing that I lost a secret, the way the guard is positioned prevented me from killing or sneaking again. Another restart. In all, I spent more than three hours searching a place that normally takes just 40 minutes, before finally completing it with all 70 saved Mudokons.

As I had not planned to complete the game 100%, I thought I was prepared to accept some casualties. I don’t need 299 Mudokons to get a good finish, but these are lives in Game. When Mario loses the glow of a hidden cat, no one shoots a cat. If I can’t find my co-worker hiding in a hidden area, he dies. The guilt is overwhelming.

So this is my life now, I am on my way to save 299 co-workers because I cannot live knowing that I am going to leave them behind. I have to play with my laptop nearby, step by step in line, because I’m paranoid, I’m going to miss a secret area.

It is difficult to be overwhelmed with this new responsibility. All that stress that I tried to avoid became my constant companion. I get devastated whenever I screw up and a coworker dies, forcing me to reload a difficult puzzle. It is worse because Abe knows that his deaths are his fault, but he just shrugs and offers a pitiful “oh no” in response. Why am I cursed to care so much?