Savage

Savage is a new take on the online first person and strategy genres. Players take on the role of grunts or commanders in this interesting blend of different styles. But can the game live up to its ambitious goals?

A few months ago at E3, I came across this game from a new developer called S2 Games in the back of one of the halls. The developers warmly welcomed me (and dozens of others) to sit down and play this quirky game that offered a fusion of first person shooter and real-time strategy gameplay.

From the very moment, that I sat down and tried the game I knew this game was going to be something special, and I was not disappointed with the final product.

For those unfamiliar with Savage, despite the massive banner ad campaign, it is the first in a new genre that S2 Games is pioneering, called First Person Strategy Shooter. In a nutshell, imagine playing a classic RTS game like Warcraft, but where your units are other players, not computer AI.

The game is set in a fantasy, very post apocalyptic world where the human race has fragmented and become primitive again, while the beast hordes have evolved and acquired sentience. This creates a unique backdrop for the game because the two sides are radically different in both their units and weapons, humans have science and technology based advancement, where as the beasts have magic and nature.

I was a little nervous when I first opened the box, because I wasn't sure if the game could live up to the fond memories that I had of playing the game at E3. However, these concerns were soon alleviated as the game installed flawlessly and I was able to jump right in and start playing. If you are comfortable with the basics of RTS and FPS games you will have almost zero learning curve. The game functions almost exactly as you would expect it to in each of those two modes.

One of the unique aspects of Savage is that games are played in one of three modes based on the two different races, Beast and Human. Each race has unique strengths and weaknesses and each plays pretty much as you might imagine.

Humans advance by researching new technologies: arrows, magnetic, chemical and electric. Beasts on the other hand, advance by with harnessing magic and nature: claws, entropy, fire and strata. From these research areas, players are granted new weapons and the commander is granted new buildings that can be built and new areas that can be unlocked.

Graphically, the game is not outstanding, but it certainly holds its own and is certainly more than good enough, just isn't quite as pretty as some other games out there.

One of the few things that I can be critical of while reviewing the game is that it lacks depth. While the game was tremendous fun for the first couple hours that I played, my interest began to wane as I realized that despite the ability to mix and match opponents, the game was limited to one main play mode and no single player mode … not even bots. That being said however, you can spice things up by switching to commander if you get tired of being a foot soldier and vice-versa.

The developers however are working to compensate for this lack of depth by pledging to release new weapons, items, units and even potentially new game modes on a regular basis as part of their ongoing support of the game. Only time will tell what the impact of this will be, but it is refreshing. Continued support for a product after release is one of the reasons why I personally love independent developers.

Over all, the game is a lot of fun and pretty easy to jump into and start playing. However, as a single person playing on random servers it gets old rather fast. Savage is a great game if you have a bunch of buddies who want to play with you, or if your existing Quake / Unreal Tournament etc. clan is looking for a new title to explore. However, as a single player sitting at home playing over the internet, I felt the game was lacking something that it wasn't when battling it out at E3 on S2 Games' LAN.

My recommendation is that everyone should run out and download the demo. If you like playing the demo for more than a couple hours then you should buy the game.