A zany, knockabout co-op action adventure that’s kaleidoscopically colourful but wears you out before you get to the good stuff.
There’s a loop I sometimes struggle with in Metroidvanias. Their idea is simple: gradually give people more powerful tools and abilities to explore worlds with, so that once insurmountable obstacles become, gradually, surmountable. Now you can reach an area you couldn’t before because you can fly, for example. But the problem is fun. By delaying access to things you need to get the most out of a game, you also risk delaying – and perhaps denying – the feeling of fun in it.
Revenge of the Savage Planet reviewDeveloper: Raccoon LogicDeveloper: Raccoon LogicPlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Releases 8th May on PC (GOG, Epic, Steam), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Game Pass. Early access available from 5th May with the Cosmic Hoarder Edition of the game.
Revenge of the Savage Planet follows on from Journey to the Savage Planet from 2020, and it’s very much the same thing again – a garishly bright and colourful, tongue-in-cheek action adventure. In it, you are the outcast employee of a horrid space corporation now stranded on an alien planet, and you must work out how to prosper there. This involves a lot of running and jumping around and splatting goo-filled alien creatures, and using high-tech company gadgetary to scan things and gradually upgrade your stuff.
The biggest difference between the two games is perspective. Revenge of the Savage Planet is third-person whereas Journey to the Savage Planet was first-person, for some reason, and there doesn’t appear to be a way to change it. There’s also a greater emphasis on co-op now, with the advent of split-screen play, as well as online play and cross-platform play. Though I should point out you can perfectly happily play it alone.
You begin Revenge of the Savage Planet not being able to do much. You crash-land on an unfamiliar beach and then, with the help and guidance of your ever-present chatty drone EKO (whose chattiness levels you can decrease, mercifully), learn the basics and equip a starter set of gear. Note: this is not a survival game. You will not chop trees and progress slowly through tiers of equipment, or eat food. But it’s not entirely different. You will mine rocks, although they break apart instantly at the touch of a button, then use the resources to upgrade the capabilities of the equipment you have. For what it’s worth: I almost always seemed to have the resources I needed and rarely had to grind for them.