Savage Reviewed by....ME! :)

[Chardok]

So Payday came. I got my subaru fixified, and the same day drove it to Best Buy to pick up a game for which I played the demo and became enthralled. Savage cannot be classified, as it combines elements of three distinctly different game types: You have a RTS, FPS, and RPG (Light RPG elements, anyway) crammed into one all out frag fest that can chage 4 PM into 2 AM in the blink of an eye.

I popped the game in and after a quick patch I was off. you start off as one of two races, the Beasts or humans. Before the match starts a commander is chosen either someone volunteers or, in the case of multiple commander wannabes, a team vote is taken. A good commander can end the game quickly. A bad one can end the game even quicker. The commander takes the same role you take in starcraft. top down view, building structures, organizing workers, harvesting resources, researching tech trees. but that is where the silmilarities end. How often have you been stuck with stupid AI getting stuck or dumb fucking pathing making your units stick to the side of a mountain? How about the moronic way that the AI makes your group of terran soldiers walk in a neat, single file line to be mowed down by protoss proton (Photon, whatever) spires? No more. the commander, can issue orders to you, or a group of you and several others to go fuck up a structure, repair a building, build a defense tower, or just cause general mayhem. you and the group of guys commence with the dispensing of the kicking of ass. Or not. Perhaps you gate completely raped. all depends on your skill. the point is this: The most dangerous AI is not Artificial at all, but sneaky, devious, explointing intelligence. Many are the times I snuck around to the back of a base to raze a structure to the ground by madly assaulting it with my hand axes.

One on one hand-to-hand combat is a scream. Gone are the days of launching from afar rockets with massive splash damage, killing groups of enemies with a single shot. now you must get down and dirty, hacking and slashing until either you, or your opponent is dead. this is not to say ranged weaponry doesn't exist, it does, in the form of magical staves of differing types (In the case of beasties) or hunting, opr crossbows, and later on, primitive shotgun-type weaponry, and even mortar launchers which launch Tribes-like snotglobs at groups of enemies or structures.

But not until your commander builds up the tech tree to get those things. And either you or he protects the buildings responsible for the production of said weapons. Oh, and don't think you just get to pick and choose what equipment you spawn with. that costs gold. which is obtained by killing Players (Who drop amounts directly correlating to the amount of time they've been alive, and how many people they've killed,) Or NPCs. Yes, there are NPCs, and that is where the RPG element comes into play.

At the end of each game, awards are given to players who accomplish significant feats. Titles like "Reapers best buddy" and Newbie award. are given at the end of each fight. My personal Favorite, "Biggest MMORPG fan" chronicling how many NPCs you've killed throughout that round. there are NPCs ranging from a docile ostrich-like bird to the ferocious Bearloth. Each kill, whether NPC or PC yields experience points. The accumulation of experience, affords you promotions which give you more stamina (For longer sprint times and more jumping while in melee combat), to better hand weapons, and eventually a full set of armor.

There are several classes of warrior you can choose from. In the case of humans, this mean you can be a Nomad, a hand-axe wielding wanderer of the wastes, the Savage, a Conan-type warrior replete with loincloth and big ol' asskickin sword, or a Leigionairre (sp?), with his HUGE enemy hewing, base-raping battleaxe. For the beasties, this includes the small scavenger, with duel shortswords, the stalker, a feline creature with short ranged, big damage claws, and the predator, the legos counterpart with two massive claws, one in each arm. Impressive. Most impressive.

All in all, Savage is an excellent game, both graphically and play-wise. with only a few problems.

#1. If your commander is bad, or a newbie (As most commanders are, seeing as how the game is so new) you're screwed. he must know the best places to build for each map, so that his all-important structures are not so vulnerable, and if he researches dumb shit in the tech-tree, you're fucked as well. the other team is going to be on you like stink on shit.

#2. Balance issues. The beasties have a decided advantage here, with their leaping ability. they nearly effortlessly extricate themselves from nearly hopeless situations with a good leap, and into battle slashing the whole time can cleave your guy in twain before you can blink.

#3. Proliferation of Shitheads and Dumbasses. Until the ranks of the game are thinned to those hardcore players who actually want to play the game, this will be a problem. Many, many 13 and 14 year-old mentalitied players seem to congregate on some servers initiating unfounded plqayer kick votes because one player on their team has 2 kills and 15 deaths (According to dumbass mentality, this indicates a terrible player, though they know nothing of what the player was doing.) (Before you ask, yes I was the victim of this. I was told I "Suck Hardcore" and was "Ghey" What was I doing? I was running suicide missions into a tactically superior base and dropping demolition charges on key structures while being raped by defense towers I had no hope against taking down. Eventually, this tactic worked, as the beasties lost their entropy magic, allowing us to make significant headway towards their sub-lair and eventually, their main Garrison, clinching the game for the humans. If you buy this game remember this: Entropy magic=death.) This is but one example of how Dipshits are prevalent in this game. You also have the guys who do nothing but mine resources (That is what workers are for...and they're faster, too.) when you should be out defending your outposts, securing them from attack so you can advance up the tech tree.

#4. Lack of depth. Many times, the game has a distinct "Zergling Rush" Feel to it. Whomever gets to the enemy base to rape it withing five minutes wins. if the game goes on longer, it becomes a series of sieges, and pitched battles at key choke-points, resources locations and tactically advantageous positions on the map, which is when the game becomes super, super, super fun. Unfortunately, this is about a one in five occurrance. I'm sure this will end when more people become more experienced at being commanders and repelleing attacks and whatnot, but until it does, this is one of the sticking points.


Overall:
A game I play and play and play, and will probably pass along to my kids. It is awesome on so many levels that the nitipicks above don't matter to me. This game appeals to many audiences, and should be around for a long time. I can even see it perhaps replacing BF1942 and SC in popularity. Do not let the lack of press and promotion fool you, people, this is a game you do NOT want to miss. you can download the Demo if you don't believe me at www.gamespy.com, or just take my word for it, drop what you are doing, and go buy it now. Hear the war drums, nock your arrows, and enter the world, of the Savage

[Sriad]

I remember reading a preview for this game and I thought it sounded super bad ass. I'm glad to hear that it's delivered. (Approximately. I'll probably wait a little while before buying it, if I do. So that the DAQ will drop a bit.)

[Hotfoot]

I remember reading a preview for this game and I thought it sounded super bad ass. I'm glad to hear that it's delivered. (Approximately. I'll probably wait a little while before buying it, if I do. So that the DAQ will drop a bit.)

Download the demo to check it out. It lets you play as humans on two maps, and people who own the regular game can join in.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Looks cool... Natural Selection in retail form with a fantasy setting... hopefully it improves on areas that were lacking in NS. I'll have to check out that demo when I get more time.

[Chardok]

My review is on a website www.zipperfish.com

(Admittedly, the Egaming section was dead, and the site administrator asked forum members to post reviews if'n we got em. So I submitted this and now it's immortalized (Somewhat) on a website. It's just kinda cool to see it up there....with my nickname )



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