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Revenge of the Savage Planet: particulars
(Picture credit score: Racoon Logic)
Writer Raccoon Logic Studios
Developer Raccoon Logic Studios
Launch date 15 Might
Format PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox Collection X and Collection S, Xbox One, Microsoft Home windows
Platform Unreal Engine 5
If Journey to the Savage Planet was the quirky sci-fi sleeper hit of 2020, then Revenge of the Savage Planet is its rowdier, extra assured sibling. Louder, funnier and way more visually bold, it is a follow-up that dives headlong into its Douglas Adams-meets–Rick and Morty ambitions and truffles all of it in gooey imaginative visible design.
Developed by Raccoon Logic, the religious successors to Hurricane Studios, this sequel trades its predecessor’s first-person framework for a tighter third-person perspective and locations an emphasis on co-op, although it is completely enjoyable to enterprise solo. (Learn my early hands-on with Revenge of the Savage Planet for extra context.)
The shift, delicate on paper, is transformative in execution. And but, what actually units this sport aside isn’t simply the refined controls or new co-op – it’s the artwork route and animation that retains me taking part in, even when the Metroidvania can stumble my protagonist into cul de sacs – you’ll be able to discover the sandboxes however not in every single place is accessible till you construct the required software, which implies researching and supplies harvesting, and a few persistence.
(Picture credit score: Future / Raccoon Logic)
Revenge of the Savage Planet is a visible deal with
Revenge of the Savage Planet is a sport that lives and dies by its daring aesthetic audacity; even when the world is towards me the tease of one other fluffy goofy-eyed alien to blast or vibrant vista to bump into retains me taking part in. Every part, from the bulbous alien flora to the grotesquely lovely fauna, feels prefer it’s been pulled straight from the sketchbooks of a hyperactive idea artist with a deep love of pulp sci-fi covers and Saturday morning cartoons.
This can be a world that looks like Robert Crumb obtained drunk with Ralph McQuarrie and browse somewhat an excessive amount of Douglas Adams. Revenge of the Savage Planet is lurid, it’s visually loud, and it by some means all works. The palette is unashamedly garish in the very best method. Toxic pinks, electrical greens, and eye-searing oranges dominate the alien landscapes, turning each nook of a brand new world right into a dense, candy-coated pleasure journey.
However the sport’s artwork route maintains simply sufficient visible hierarchy and spatial readability to maintain me oriented whereas being bombarding with fixed thrills. Every planet is visually distinct; starting with a serene seaside and jungles, earlier than shifting to sandy, dune deserts, to crystalline ice caverns and extra. The world feels hand-made, inked and painted onto the display screen and makes good use of Unreal Engine 5 to ship giant, detailed environments, even when it will probably sometimes glitch on PS5 when extra results are being thrown on the display screen or an enormous boss must defeated.
This handcrafted sensibility extends to the animation. Motion in Revenge of the Savage Planet is kinetic and buoyant, aided by responsive controls and a satisfying sense of weight. Leaping, grappling and goo-spraying my method via the terrain feels tactile however above all enjoyable and simply playable.
Creatures wobble, shimmy and erupt in exaggerated dying spirals that counsel a deep appreciation for traditional Warner Bros. animation – I smiled early on when a small furry creature exploded in goo and its giant eyeballs rolled comically down a hill. That smile got here again later when a bug spun on display screen, yelled ‘cooeee’ and shot at me. There’s a studied cartoonishness to how issues transfer, a way of animation as efficiency, not simply perform. Each enemy, even probably the most insignificant blob, feels prefer it has a character baked into its idle animations and assault cues.
(Picture credit score: Future / Raccoon Logic)
Extra goo the higher
There’s clear affect from video games like Ratchet & Clank and Oddworld in character design and a satirical script that pokes enjoyable at company greed and sensationalised influencer media, however Revenge of the Savage Planet by no means feels spinoff and whereas some might get bored with its base humour, I am nonetheless chuckling every week into taking part in. Whereas the influences are there, Revenge of the Savage Planet feels extra like a remix, filtered via the lens of a crew clearly revelling in its artistic freedom.
That is nowhere extra obvious than within the enemy design: fluffy bobble-headed raccoons (apes?) with googly eyes, gelatinous beasts that explode into showers of confetti-like organs, they usually have names like ‘Lurid Striped Puffer’ and ‘Bumblar’. It’s not simply imaginative, it’s playfully grotesque, as if Hieronymus Bosch was employed to design mascots for a youngsters’ breakfast cereal, whereas binging Animaniacs.
The Metroidvania design rears its head and whilst you can encounter many enemies some you will not have the ability to defeat till you’ve got scavenged supplies and constructed the best weapons and instruments to freeze, blast, fill with water, whip and smash every new monster, which in flip drop supplies and all of it begins once more. I really like the Magnetic Fork – for launching metallic objects – and goo-based hose that may suck up liquids and switch them on enemies (which may also be used to unravel surroundings puzzles and uncover new secrets and techniques).
The sport’s Metroidvania design does no less than unfurl at a simple tempo, with new gear unlocked from foremost quests, however the loop of scanning, scavenging and constructing is a core perform that feels constructed round teasing me to play somewhat additional, whereas sometimes placing on the brakes and forcing some grinding. It is a stable design however the design can tease too early with out providing a satisfying reply – you’ll be able to dive into lakes however not discover till you’ve got construct the scuba gear. It is a marmite sport construction, but it surely as a rule works in Revenge of the Savage Planet.
Serving to issues alongside is identical satirical tone that outlined the unique sport. The in-game advertisements that blurp onto the bottom’s laptop, nonetheless delivered via FMV with splendidly unhealthy appearing, really feel eerily near fashionable tech dystopia. To recap: it is taken you 100 years to reach at your colonisation planet and in that point you’ve got been made redundant, a destiny I can think about Arthur Dent tightening his dressing robe over in dismay.
Co-op is now a central function moderately than an afterthought. You possibly can drop out and in with a good friend, both on-line or by way of native split-screen, and it genuinely enhances the expertise. Whereas there are a couple of odd design limitations (resembling each gamers needing to stay on the identical planet and just one save data progress), the sport principally avoids the irritating tethering points that plague different co-op titles.
It’s in co-op the place the sport’s toon-like slapstick sensibility actually shines. Nothing beats two explorers being flung right into a bottomless chasm as a result of certainly one of them by chance gooed a bounce pad. (Want somewhat extra purpose to like the sport? Learn how the Revenge of the Savage Planet poster illustration was made.)
(Picture credit score: Future / Raccoon Logic)
A love / hate sport?
Revenge of the Savage Planet just isn’t with out its flaws. Occasional technical points (I famous the odd animation glitch and body stutter on PS5), some frustrations with the Metroidvania format, which may’t conceal the occasional repetitive mission or two, barely tarnish the expertise.
However these are small blemishes on an in any other case enjoyable and ridiculous canvas. Revenge of the Savage Planet is a uncommon sequel that understands what labored, dials it up, and provides sufficient new concepts to justify its existence. It’s a sport that invitations you to snigger, gawk and perhaps even replicate, between bouts of alien goo-gliding and bug swatting.
Revenge of the Savage Planet can really feel like marmite sport, you will both find it irresistible or the combo of cartoon visuals and humour will not stick; to paraphrase Hitchhiker’s Information to the Galaxy, this sport has a ‘Thursday really feel’ to it and never everybody can ‘get the dangle of Thursdays’.
