Revenge of the Savage Planet review

Following an acquisition by Google, Typhoon Studios released Journey to the Savage Planet in 2020. One year later, the behemoth media corporation shelved their plans for their cloud-based gaming platform, resulting in Typhoon being shuttered. Determinedly, the studio reunited as Raccoon Logic Studios, bought back the rights to their property and crafted a sequel. Knowing this backstory makes playing the sequel substantially more enjoyable.

Revenge of the Savage Planet opens with a live-action cinematic that parodies the kind of buzzword-loaded bullshit generated by contemporary marketing teams. Within minutes, you’re told that the company that you trusted to send you across the galaxy has been absorbed and subsequently, you’ve been fired. With little more than survival essential like a 3D printer you’ll need to fend for yourself on Savage Planet.

A Spirited Setup but Middling Conclusion

Your AI companion, Eko, delivers the same kind of one-liners as Borderland’s Clap Trap. But here the jokes have a real-world focus and don’t miss nearly as often. Pleasingly, you can adjust the frequency of the quips that range from lampooning the uselessness of NFTs to the joys of restroom breaks on company time. But like Gearbox’s franchise, Revenge would feel a bit desolate without your flying acquaintance. I do wish that Raccoon Logic stuck with the premise. Near the end of the game the writing veers in another direction.

This time out, Revenge of the Savage Planet shifts from a first-person to third-person perspective. Undoubtedly, this is a shrewd decision. Not only is platforming through the game’s core quartet of planets (there’s a rather linear fifth world that can be unlocked) more precise, but the change contributes to the game’s light-hearted vibe. Seeing your colonist walk and run cartoonishly, knee slide, slip, or even boot-kick enemies like soccer balls is an unrelenting enjoyment.

Of Goop, Greed, and Grappling Hooks

What follows across the next fifteen hours is a mostly engaging blend of traditional shooting, exploration, and crafting. Sure, taking down adversaries with your pathetic pistol will grow monotonous. Perhaps the action when played in the game’s optional (and allegedly, cross-platform) co-op mode.

But at least the task isn’t frustrating thanks to a helpful lock-on system. Instead, experimenting with Savage Planet’s environments is the game’s greatest attribute. From exotic flora that erupts like a fire show shot to an ice-plant that emits a ring of ice that can freeze the player and enemies alike, you’ll have to learn how to exploit the treacherous landscapes. Pleasingly, the game offers some of the gratification of a puzzler without the frustration of getting stuck while searching for a solution. With different elemental types of goo, water hoses, and enemies with elemental weakness, there’s almost always multiple ways of getting things done.

Vibrancy and Some Verticality

Although you’ll discover nodes that can fast track you around each planet, there’s no getting around some  irksome backtracking early on. Undoubtedly, Raccoon Logic’s art team spent quite a few hours constructing their vibrant, verdant worlds and wants you to appreciate their efforts. From Alien-looking egg nests (that provide a health boost) to a mammoth, voracious, tree Savage Planet certainly lives up to its moniker.

Revenge of the Savage Planet was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.