be activated by the player character, or through scrolling messages in the background. Characters do not have hit points; instead, being attacked (such as being shot or mauled) generally causes instant death. However, the player has unlimited lives, and upon death will re-spawn at the last checkpoint they reached. Abe's Exoddus includes an option to quick save which allows the player to designate their own checkpoints, a feature which was not present in Abe's Oddysee due to programming conflicts and which attracted criticism of that title. While the focus of the gameplay is surmounting screens, there is a secondary focus on rescuing enslaved Mudokons. GameSpeak is a pivotal ability in this respect; by pressing combinations of buttons, the player character will utter short phrases that can be used to control allied non-player characters—to pull extra levers, to follow the player character, or simply to wait. Unlike the first game, Mudokons have emotional states and status ailments that affect how they respond to Abe. Mudokons may be angry, wired, depressed, sick, or blind, and each state must be dealt with differently by the player. Angry, wired or depressed characters can be consoled through specific GameSpeak commands. An "angry" Mudokon (who flash red whenever they speak) will either repeatedly slap nearby Mudokons or work dangerous traps and can be told to "stop it", though Abe must tell them he is "sorry" to calm them down. If a "depressed" Mudokon (blue) witnesses too many deaths of other Mudokons or if he is slapped, he will start to hit himself in the head and eventually commit suicide. Abe again can prevent this by saying "stop it" and remove the ailment by telling them he's "sorry". Both angry and depressed Mudokons will not follow Abe if he tells them to. Clouds of laughing gas will turn Mudokons "wired" (lime), causing them to hyperactively run in Abe's direction and in some cases make it more difficult to get past enemies and obstacles. They will only calm down when slapped but the slap will have no effect if done within the gas cloud. "Sick" Mudokons will not respond to any GameSpeak command whatsoever (aside from being slapped) and can only be cured with a special chant, obtained when Abe finds a helper character. Blind Mudokons (distinguished by pale skin and, story-wise, with their eyes sewn shut to keep them from knowing what they were digging up in