You are Abe, an ignorant, happy floor-waxer in RuptureFarms, the most dangerous slaughterhouse on Oddworld. You and the rest of the blue guys are Mudokons. You've been a slave all your life for you boss, Molluck the Glukkon. Molluck represents the Magog Cartel, the meanest bunch of corporate weasels you'll ever meet.

     You start the game chained up in a cell awaiting interrogation by Molluck the Glukkon. You've done something Bad... something very, very, Bad. What have you done? You'll have to play the game to find out, because Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee is a flashback. That means it happened in the past even though you'll be playing it in the present. Or something like that. Look, just play the lousy game, all right?!?

     Because RuptureFarms has driven Meeches, Scrabs, and Paramites to the edge of extinction, the only way to boost profits is to turn Abe and his pals into lunch. That's right - Abe's on the menu! You've got to escape from RuptureFarms. The guards (thos squid-headed guys, called Sligs) are on the lookout for you, so you'll have to be on your toes if you want to sneak past them.

     Once you're safely away from RuptureFarms, you'll learn more about your true destiny. We'd write it down here, but that would be telling. Suffice to say that your mission is a lot more than running away from RuptureFarms. You'll have to brave haunted temples, rescue your buddies, survive weird mutilations at the hands of Bigface, learn secret moves, outwit monsters, and turn into a monster yourself before your oddysee is complete... and even then, you'll probably get the bad ending because you missed so much stuff the first time through. You see, there are these secrets scattered all over the place, and everything you do influences your reputation, which has a direct effect on whether your buddies will come to your rescue when you need them the most.