Revenge of the Savage Planet Review

Revenge of the Savage Planet, video-games

For a brief moment when I was in high school I wanted to become an astronaut. I was 16, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and my Physics teacher handed me an application form for Space Camp over at NASA.

Obviously, I didn’t become an astronaut. But with the commodification of space exploration quickly ramping up there’s still a chance I could get fired off to work in the mines somewhere on Mars. If that happens I really hope space is nearly half is much fun as it is in Revenge of the Savage Planet. And that I’m just as resistant to fall damage.

The Final Frontier

If you’ve played Journey to the Savage Planet, Revenge has some new things in store for you. First off it’s all in third person this time around. Secondly you’re no longer confined to just your little ship, you’ve got a whole base to play around in. Third, and most importantly, there’s more than one planet to play on.

Starting off on the planet of Stellaris Prime, there’s been an issue with your base delivery during Cryo Sleep and landing, and you’ve got to venture off in the wilderness to find somewhere to live! After 3D printing a pistol, kicking some little mushroom boys into the scenery and feeding a large tree some slugs, you’ll find your Habitat.

The Habitat is a major change from the first game. You can decorate the inside as you find currency around the galaxy and as you progress the outside will expand for each new planet you visit. It’s a fun addition and even though I didn’t spend too much time there if you’re into customisation you can have some fun changing you’re characters outfit and petting you’re little critters.

You’re Fired!

Once you arrive at the Habitat, Revenge throws you into the game proper. Alta – the company that bought over Kindred from the first game – has a message for you. After some streamlining and corporate restructuring you have, unfortunately, been fired. So now it’s just you and your little bot friend EKO trying to carve out a life in Nu Florida.

Much like the first game, Revenge of the Savage Planet is first and foremost a comedy title. And it is very funny. The creatures you find are wacky, and the animations for killing them or injuring yourself are all silly fun. I chose the anime girl as my avatar, and luckily I live alone because every time my character jumped or got injured she made some questionable noises. They’ve also kept all the amazingly weird live action commercials and messages for you to watch in the habitat, and the performances are fantastically bizarre.

EKO will fill you in on all the weird and wonderful creatures you find as you explore, and you’ve got plenty of fun ways to deal with everything space throws at you.

Over the course of the game I: fly kicked a giant mosquito in the face; covered a monkey with a bum for a face with green goo until it exploded; electrocuted 7 small fox creatures to death with a mushroom and, yeeted myself off so many cliffs that my spine must be dust (I’d highly recommend investing in the no fall damage upgrade asap).

Gotta Catch ’em All

You don’t need to kill all the critters you find though. Your whip, isn’t just used for grappling and smashing resources, you can use it to fill your habitat with all those weird little guys you find out in space. You can then research them at your base to find more upgrades for your gear.

Look at this little idiot. The raccoon is cute too.

Each critter is it’s own little puzzle to capture. Some have weak spots that you reveal by scanning them and then clicking your survey button during combat. If you hit the weak spot enough times then you’ll stagger them and you can reel them in with your whip. Others are a little bit more involved; for instance you’ll encounter some slimes that split if you shoot them. You can kill them by spraying them with water, but there’s no way to stun them. If you scan them though, the detail says to ‘watch the eyes’. So if you shoot them enough that they only have one eye left (and don’t accidentally blow them all, and yourself up) you can wrangle the one eyed one back to your ranch.

I just electrocuted 7 foxes. I do feel a little bad.

Another way to find more upgrades is through the combat challenges, which are equally as weird and fun. Some are relatively normal – kill 3 enemies in quick succession with acid, a bomb and a charged slot respectively – and others are bizarre; kick 5 of these guys in the face because they’re stupid and I hate them.

Eww, Slimey

You’ll notice quite quickly that there’s a lot more options for combat in Revenge of the Savage Planet. You get a selection of goo to cover enemies in, and they in turn can cover you in it too. It’s a pretty fun system, although I’ve got to say sometimes things felt a little too gooey. Things are constantly exploding and covering the area with green goo, making you slip around, or grey goo slowing you down, or red goo setting you on fire. You can clean it up with water, but towards the end of the game there’s so many enemies that respawn incredibly quickly that just exploring can become a little tedious.

The goo is also used for environmental puzzles. You’ll need to make sure you fine goo plants to harvest it from in order to overcome these puzzles (until you get the late game upgrade that refills them for you) and while most areas have them in close proximity, others don’t so there can be a bit of frustration in back tracking. This is especially evident with the other consumables (bombs and acids) as there’s no way to get them to refill automatically and sometimes you’ll find an obstacle that needs them to be removed and have to trek around to try and find some. It’s a small gripe, but it did make mopping up some of the collectables a bit of a grind. You don’t need all of the collectables though, and to be honest some of them do seem to be there just to eek out a little extra playtime.

Short but Sweet

Despite there being more planets to explore in Revenge of the Savage Planet, it’s definitely a shorter experience than the first game. Getting the upgrades to progress felt a little more linear (there’s no speed run achievement this time around) so you’ll need to follow the path to each objective and then back track to other areas for more printing slurry or orange goo when you can reach them.

The map is very good with this – it will tell you if a current item is available with your current set of upgrades – but as you hurtle towards the ending you might not be bothered to go back to the desert to pick up a few more health upgrades. In my experience with the game you shouldn’t necessarily need to either. I went out of my way to find as much orange goo as I explored, and I had no issues with survivability at any time. Revenge of the Savage Planet has the same die, get 3D printed back to life and go pick up your resources as the first game but I found it much easier. In fact I didn’t die a single time in my 16 hour playthrough.

Not that, that is necessarily a bad thing, games don’t need to be difficult and I had a great time swinging into combat and just blowing everything in a 5m radius (including myself) up, while hunting down shrines for both endings. It’s a short game, with maybe a little less replayability than the first, but it’s the perfect length for jumping in either solo or with a buddy and having a good laugh.

Final Thoughts

Journey to the Savage Planet was one of my favourite games the year it came out. I spent an inordinate amount of time learning the speedrun route and convincing my friend to playthrough it in Old Game Minus for the achievements. Revenge of the Savage Planet carries on the trend of just being a damn fun time, with all it’s absurd creatures, insane TV ads and ridiculous traversal. They’ve added so many more ways to jump, grind, slide and slam your way through the planets, and I had a great time looking for secrets and capturing all the critters along the way.

The multi planet design means things are a little more linear main quest wise, but if you’re jumping in with a friend or hunting out all the crates and goo you’ll have a plenty of do even after you’ve hit credits. If you’re a fan of the first game, or if you just want something silly and entertaining to blast about in after a hard day not getting fired, then I can wholeheartedly recommend Revenge of the Savage Planet. Although I wouldn’t recommend pissing on your boss and calling it self defense in real life.